hñti

This preverb is attested at least twice in Lycian, once on TL 44, the pillar of Xanthos, dated stylistically to around 400 BCE and contextually to shortly after the ascension of the Persian emperor Artaxerxes II in 405-404 BCE (Borchhardt & Eichner 1997-1999a:19f.) and once on N 320, the Letoon trilingual inscription, most commonly dated to 337 BCE, the first year of the Achaemenid king Arses, during the reign of the Carian satrap Pixodaros (Badian 1977a:49f, Bryce 1986a:48f, Keen 1998a:10, Wagner 2011a:156).

[O.B.]

indecl.	hñti	TL 44b.23 (Xanthos)
		N 320.5 (Xanthos)

Schürr 2013c:27 restores another instance on TL 44b.5, with hñ[ti] at the end of the line (see also Meaning).

[O.B.]

The attestation on TL 44b.23 does not offer many clues as to the meaning of Lyc. A hñti, appearing at the end of a broken off line. Therefore, the main semantic evidence presents itself in N 320. Per Laroche 1979c:62, hñti is a preverb to tube-^(di) in the phrase me hñti tubedẽ arus (…) ‘the citizenry agreed (vel sim.)’ (followed in DLL:24, Hajnal 1995a:168 n. 206, Serangeli 2016a:62). A preverb to tube-^(di) is supported by the verb in its only other attestation taking the Lyc. A preverb hri ‘up, on (top)’. Moreover, with the etymological connection to *som ‘together, etc.’ proposed by Melchert (DLL:24, thus also Hajnal 1995a:168 n. 206 and Serangeli 2016a:62), the choice of hñti as a preverb to tube-^(di) ‘to agree (vel sim.)’ is understandable. For these reasons, this analysis is tentatively preferred here.

Conversely, Schürr 2014b:16-19 argues that hñti is an adjective, further specifying arus on N 320. Under Schürr’s analysis, hñti is a form of hñti(je)-, related to hãta, which he translates as ‘Inhaber’ (Schürr 2013c:27). In order to demonstrate another instance of the collocation hñti(je)- arus-, Schürr 2013c:27 restores the end of the broken off TLb.6 as hñ[ti] with arusñ appearing on the following line separated by half a line, likewise mostly broken off. This restoration cannot be reliably verified, however.

Different from the proposals presented in the paragraphs above, Neumann 2007a:96 rather tentatively suggests that hñti is a participle to the verb ‘to be’ (see Lyc. A es-^(ti)), lexicalized to mean ‘seiend, wirklich, wahr’. While not impossible, this analysis is difficult to verify.

[O.B.]

Provided that the analysis preferred under Meaning is correct, Lyc. A hñti is a preverb consisting of hñ- (from PIE *som; see under Hitt. & Pal. =(š)šan) and a final element -ti, which is either reflexive (thus in DLL:24) or a derivational suffix originally in the dative.

[O.B.]

1. Hñtihãma- (PN) (Neumann 2007a:96)