cuni-
‘to sponsor, errect (?)’
- Language
- Lydian
- Grammar
- verb
- ID
- 1978
1. Individual Anatolian Languages
1.1 Lydian
cuni-
‘to sponsor, erect (?)’1.1.1Transmission
This lexeme is found in three inscriptions, all coming from various areas. The inscriptions LW 22 and LW 43 are roughly dated to the 5th or 4th century BCE., while LW 40 can be dated more precisely to the late 4th century BCE.
[I.Y.]
1.1.2Forms
| 3sg. pret. act. | f̣?acνil | LW 40.1 (Pergamon) | |
| facunil | LW 43.5 (Manisa) | ||
| 3pl. pret. act. | facνiriš | LW 22.1 (Sardis) |
The attribution of facνil and facνiriš to the same stem followed the identification of acνil as a verbal form in Payne & Sasseville 2016a:76f. The form facunil is compared with facνiriš in Gusmani 1964a:115.
[I.Y.]
1.1.3Graphic Features
Payne & Sasseville 2016a read acνil and interpret traces of a circle in front of it as a possible word-divider, whereas Rostislav Oreshko (pers. comm.) prefers facνil. The photograph of LW 40 offered in Payne & Sasseville 2016a:70 features something that looks like traces of a letter in front of acνil, which are compatible with an original f. Morevoer, the reading fa-cνi-l is likely on etymological grounds, whereas the verbal stem acνi- would be structurally less satisfactory. This idea has now been followed by Sasseville 2021a:524f.
[I.Y.]
1.1.3.1Phonological Interpretation
The stem variant cuni- must be regarded as the most archaic one. For the syncope in facνi-, see Gérard 2005a:49. For the tendency of ν to appear in lieu of n next to i in Lydian texts, see Gérard 2005a:62 and cf. Lyd. ani-.
[I.Y.]
1.1.4Meaning
The verb cuni- has dedicatory installations mrud (LW 22) and tacν (LW 43) as direct objects. Hence the translation ‘to erect, dedicate’ proposed in Gusmani 1964a:114f. This general sense has found additional confirmation through the identification of the verbal form f̣acνil in LW 40. Although the Greek version of the Greek and Lydian bilingual LW 40 lacks an overt verbal form, its translation ‘Partaras – to Athena’ clearly speaks for the dedicatory character of the relevant inscription. The translation ‘to sponsor’ was proposed for f̣acνil in Payne & Sasseville 2016a:70 and is provisionally adopted here for the whole lemma, although the meaning ‘to erect’ remains a possibility.
[I.Y.]
1.1.5Stem
The stem cuni- is combinable with the prefix fa-. The comparison with Lyd. cuwe- suggests -ni- as the stem-forming suffix. The synchronic status of this morpheme is not immediately apparent. In historical terms, we are probably dealing with a variant of the Lydian imperfective suffix -e͂ni-(t), a cognate of Hitt. -anna-/-i(ya)-(ḫi) (see Sasseville 2021a:513, 520f.).
[I.Y.]
For the derivational base, see Lyd. cuwe-.