esbẽt(i)-
‘horseman (?)’
- Language
- Lycian A
- Class
- Derivative
- Grammar
- subst, c.
- Certainty
- high
- ID
- 205
1. Individual Anatolian Languages
1.1 Lycian A
esbẽt(i)-
‘horseman (?)’1.1.1Transmission
This lexeme is attested once on the Xanthos stele, which was inscribed shortly after the ascension of Artaxerxes II in 404 BCE.
[D.S.]
1.1.2Forms
| dat. pl. | esbẽte | TL 44c.10 (Xanthos) |
1.1.3Graphic Features
Savelsberg 1878a:210 assumes a derivative of esbe/i- and keeps the sequence esbẽte together. Meriggi 1937a:511 separates it into esbẽ te and the enclitic particle =te. However, this particle is bound to the clitic chain in the second position within a sentence, which makes the separation unconvincing. Pace Neumann 2007a:75, the indeclinable particle mẽ cannot be taken to agree with the putative form esbẽ and is thus no argument in favor of the separation.
[D.S.]
1.1.4Meaning ‘horseman, knight, rider (?)’
Hajnal 1995a:145 analyses morphologically the word esbẽte as a derivation in -nt- from the base esbe/i- ‘horse’ (likewise DLL:17, Schürr 2008b:161). According to him, the semantics behind this derivation in -nt- would be “individualizing” and thus, esbẽt(i)- would mean ´horseman, knight´. He takes it rightly as a dative plural, which is modified by the adjective unabãm̃me, likewise Shevoroshkin apud Neumann 2007a:75. Melchert (DLL:17) accepts the grammatical and the morphological analysis, but posits a possessive derivation in -nt- instead, thus ‘having horses’ → ‘horseman, knight’. It is striking that Savelsberg 1878a:210 in the 19th century had already presumed a derivative of esbe/i- ‘horse’ with the meaning ‘rider’.
[D.S.]
For the base of the derivative see esbe/i-.