šawẽni-(t)
‘to see, experience’
- Language
- Lydian
- Class
- Derivative
- Grammar
- verb
- ID
- 262
1. Individual Anatolian Languages
1.1 Lydian
šawẽni-(t)
‘to see, experience’1.1.1Transmission
This lexeme is attested only in inscriptions of Sardis.
[D.S.]
1.1.2Forms
| 3sg. pres. act. | šawẽnt | 23.13 (Sardis), 24.15 (Sardis) |
1.1.3Meaning ‘to see, experience’
Carruba 1969a:51f. provides a persuasive contextual analysis of the two curse formulas containing the verbal form šawẽnt and assigns the meaning ‘to see, to experience’. The subject is the potential offender and the direct object is the help and the protection of the gods, which are to be taken away from the offender. Yakubovich 2005b:84 translates the verb as ‘to enjoy’, which is not contradictory. Melchert 1992a:40f. brings further evidence from the etymological perspective by connecting the Lydian root šaw- with the one of Hitt. šākuwa ‘eyes’ and Luw. /taw(i)-/ ‘eye’. His suggestion is followed by Gérard 2005a:89. For an overview of outdated interpretations, see Gusmani 1964a:192 and Gusmani 1980a:88.
[D.S.]
2. Reconstruction
2.1Reconstruction
For the identification of a verbal formation in -ẽni-(t) for Lyd. šawẽnt derived from unattested *šaw-, see Melchert 1992a:40f. The palatalization of the initial *s in šawẽnt points to an original e-grade, which is in contradiction with the suggested reconstruction of a stem in *sh3ógu̯-/*sh3gu̯-´. However, it is possible that there was a root verb of the mi-conjugation in CéC-/CC-´ beside the one of the ḫi-conjugation. Thus, the e-grade of the strong stem would have been retained by analogical pressure in spite of the third laryngeal. The change of *e > a in Lydian can only occur, if the vowel *e is unaccented (Melchert 1994a:345), which would have occured in the derived stem šawẽni-(t) < Pre-Lydian *šeu̯-ánni-.
[D.S.]