=nak

This particle occurs in two different inscriptions found at the cemetery of Sardis and datable to 5^th / 4^th century BCE.    

[I.Y.]

indecl.	nak	LW 10.17 (Sardis)
		LW 13.12 (Sardis)

The distinctive feature of its morpheme, which separates it from the other occurrences of nak, is its use together with a relative pronoun or adverb as a part of the same phonetic complex. It is, strictly speaking, unclear whether we are dealing here with a clitic or an affix, the reconstruction of a clitic boundary, adopted in this lemma, is provisional.

[I.Y.]

The meaning ‘also’, adopted for all the occurrences of nak in Gusmani 1964a:169, passes best for LW 10.17, where it would be compatible with the approximate translation of LW 10.16-18: ‘Let one revere my own remains in the same place/way as also (those of) my(?) parents’. The additive meaning would also be compatible with the proposed etymology of this clitic/affix (cf. below). But the other context is utterly unclear, and further attestations would be necessary for confirming this hypothesis.  

[I.Y.]

If one assumes that the particle nãv ‘further, again’ can be preposed to the relative pronoun forming the indefinites, and the particle =k ‘and’ can be postposed to the relative pronouns yielding more or less the same meaning, it is also logical to assume that the combination of these two pronouns can likewise form a secondary combination with the relatives. Accordingly, one can propose that the particle nak, attested with the synchronic meaning ‘whether / or’, but probably additive in origin, could be secondarily cliticized to the syntactic heads of dependent clauses. This process probably postdated the fusion of the relatives with nãv and =k. because it apparently failed to yield the indefinite meaning.

[I.Y.]

For the lemma head see Lyd. nãν.