sfato-
‘owner’
- Language
- Lydian
- Grammar
- subst, c.
- ID
- 2578
1. Individual Anatolian Languages
1.1 Lydian
sfato-
‘owner’1.1.1Transmission
This lexeme is found in two metrical inscriptions that have not yet been dated accurately.
[D.S.]
1.1.2Forms
| nom. sg. | sfatos | LW 11.5 (Sardis) | |
| LW 12.7 (Sardis) |
1.1.3Meaning
Gusmani 1964a:204 interprets sfatos as an agent noun related to the verb sfẽni-(t) ‘to possess’ and assigns tentatively the meaning ‘possessor, owner (?)’ (followed by Szemerényi 1979a:628, Gérard 2005a:129). Later, Gusmani 1980a:96 also considers the meaning ‘parent’. However, the context of LW 11.5-6, in which the sfatos makes an allotment in the context of the rock-carved graves of the necropolis rather speaks for the general meaning ‘owner (of a plot)’. Nonetheless, more research on these contexts is needed.
[D.S.]
1.1.4Stem
For Lydian agent nouns in -to- c., see recently Sasseville 2021a:182.
[D.S.]
For the derivational base, see Lyd. *sfa-.