γrds ?

Hapax in an official inscription from Kaunos of unknown date (cf. Adiego 2007a:301)

[Zs.S.]

nom. sg. ?

γrds?

C.Ka 2, 1

The attestation follows Adiego 2007a:365, checked against the photograph in Frei & Marek 2000a:86. Its segmentation is not entirely assured, partly due to the fragmentary nature of the inscription: γrdsọ[-]i[ may contain γrds, γrdso (an o-stem derivative or a dat. sg. in -o, depending on the interpretation of the not entirely clear dative forms ending in -o), and even γrdso[-], e.g., γrdso[λ], an -oλ-derivative from *γrds. Latter restoration was suggested by Bossert apud Steinherr 1950-1951a:331 based on qrdsoλ of line 8 and claimed by Frei & Marek 2000a:92, 108, although the remaining traces are by far not that clear and this reading was not even included either in their final transcription (Frei & Marek 2000a:87, 113, cf. also Marek 2006a:122) or in Adiego 2007a:153 365, 453. Based its parallelism with the preceding word, qrds, the form γrds is chosen here with due caution.

[Zs.S.]

Adiego 2007a:252, 407 and Kloekhorst 2008a:139 argue that γrds presents a figura etymologica with the preceding word, qrds, a cognate of Hittite gurta- ‘city, town’. The key question is the phonetic value and origin of ‹γ›. The initial sign of γrds is almost identical to the sign ‹γ› of other, non-Kaunian inscriptions and thus, their identity is generally assumed (cf., e.g., Adiego 2007a:251f. and Kloekhorst 2008a:139). The only certain hint for the phonetic value of ‹γ› is that it appears in the word śuγλi (Adiego 2007a:251 and Kloekhorst 2008a:139), which is generally supposed to be an ethnic adjective from the city name Σουαγγελα (e.g., Adiego 2007a:415 and Kloekhorst 2008a:139). If this is correct, then its phonetic value is [ⁿg] (and not /ⁿk^w/, contra Kloekhorst 2008a:139), the missing counterpart of ‹β› [^mb] and ‹δ› [ⁿd] (on the prenasalized stops of Carian see Kloekhorst 2008a:138f.). Just as ‹β› and ‹δ› continue *mb / *mp and *nd / *nt, ‹γ› would continue *ng / *nk and thus, γrds would continue *(V)n-k(V)r(V)d-, which indeed fits the proposed qrds <*kurd- (see s.v.; the remaining option, the cluster of a nasal and a laryngeal seems to have been continued in ‹ŋ›, see Adiego 2019a:37f. and s.v. prŋida), as a regular -s-derivative with the Carian cognate of the Luwian genitival adjective -ašša/i-. There are even meaningful possibilities to identify *(V)n-: e.g., PIE *en ‘in’, which was lexicalized in many nominal compounds (see, e.g. LIPP II:230) or the PIE privative prefix *n̥ (LIPP II:534f.). The latter would give a meaning ‘belonging to the city and not-belonging to the city’ or ‘urban and non-urban’ for the sequence qrds γrds, which would be a fitting adjective for institutional bodies of a city appearing exactly where they are expected, i.e., in the head of a decree, after the very first word. Needless to say, this is obviously speculative at the current level of knowledge, but provides a formally and semantically meaningful solution.

[Zs.S.]