tssel[ẽ]m̃

This word is attested in the inscription of the inscribed pillar of Xanthos, dated contextually to shortly after the ascension of Artaxerxes II in 405-404 BCE and stylistically to around 400 BCE (Borchhardt & Eichner 1997-1999a:19f.).

[D.S.]

The word has often been read as kitssel[.]m̃ (thus DLL:118, Neumann 2007a:168) instead of tssel[ẽ]m, although it is correctly interpreted as the proclitic relative pronoun ki= followed by an apocopated participial form tssel[.]m͂ by Schürr 2018b:82. The most likely restoration for the missing letter is [ẽ], which is paralleled by other similar forms, e.g. lẽm͂; see Lyc. B la-. A separation of tsse and l[.]m͂ as suggested by Shevoroshkin 2014a:257 and Schürr 2018b:82 is not possible, since the relative pronoun is proclitic to the finite verb of the sentence or, if a nominal sentence, to the predicate noun.

[D.S.]

The sequence ki=tssel[ẽ]m͂ obviously builds a nominal clause on its own, viz. ‘who/which is tssel-ed’. The relative pronoun ki= could be either nom. sg. c. or nom./acc. sg. n., depending on what it refers to. A good option would be the word treixali occurring immediately before the relative clause, but this cannot be proven as long as the meanings of all these words remain obscure.

[D.S.]

The word most likely reflects a denominative verb in -a-^(ti), whose stem vowel is obscured by the vowel harmony, i.e. *tssala- → *tssala-^(ti) → *tssalãme/i- → tssel[ẽ]m͂. The root tss- could be compared to the one of the Lycian A words beginning with θ- (< *Th- < *TVh- < *TVs-), e.g. θr(e)i-^(di), θurtta-.

[D.S.]