mλatalad

The form occurs once in the text of a formal agreement that was found in the precinct of Artemis in Sardis and can be dated to late 6^th – early 5^th century BCE.

[I.Y.]

unclear

mλatalad

LW 22.3 (Sardis)

The same sequence can be alternatively analyzed as mλatal=ad, where =ad would be a pronominal clitic, but this does not yield any obvious gain.

[I.Y]

The form apparently belongs to the clause mλatalad mλimns aλidad wiswid kaττirs, which is translated as ‘(…) the mλimn(a)- group approved a just reform’ in Yakubovich 2017b:273 and ‘(…) die Mermnaden haben (für sich) einen guten Auswärtigenstatus/Sonderstatus gebilligt’ in Högemann & Oettinger 2018a. Both translations leave mλatalad without interpretation. Formally, it may represent a noun or adjective in agreement with aλidad wiswid, but its syntactic position would then be unusual. A noteworthy fact is the alliteration of mλatalad and mλimns but it is hard to say whether it reflects a genetic relationship between the two forms, a rhetorical device, or a mere coincidence.

The attempts to determine the meaning of mλatalad have been made on etymological grounds. The tentative connection with the town of Miletus, entertained in Brandenstein 1929a:31 is only based on the superficial sound similarity, as noted already in Gusmani 1964a:165. From the contextual viewpoint, more merit accrues to the attempt to link mλatalad with Hitt. mald- ‘to make a vow’ in HEG, L-M:109, since a solemn vow would be appropriate in the context of a formal agreement. Yet, as long as there is no explanation for the consonant-vowel metathesis in Lydian, this etymology cannot be regarded as satisfactory either.

[I.Y.]