šawν

The lexeme is attested two times in the Sardian texts dating back to the 5th-4th century BCE, a metrical burial inscription and an official agreement found at the sanctuary of Artemis.

[I.Y.]

undecl.

šawν

LW 11.3 (Sardis), LW 22.8 (Sardis)

Both occurrences of the lexeme are adjacent to dative case forms. In the first instance dat. sg wratuλ follows it, in the second case it is squeezed between gen.-dat. pl mλimnaν and gen.-dat. pl sfardẽtaν.

[I.Y.]

For the earlier attempts to define the meaning of the form under discussion, see Gusmani 1964a:191f., 193. The etymological connection with the root šaw- was seen already in Brandenstein 1931b:41, but the categorial assignment of the forms in question long remained unclear. In particular, the proposal of Brandenstein (loc. cit.:30) to interpret them as acc. sg. c. ‘good’ was based on the unlikely interpretation of šawẽn-. The prerequisite for the proper treatment of šawν was the plausible semantic and etymological analysis of šaw- undertaken in Carruba 1969a:52 and Melchert 1992a:40 respectively.

The analysis of šawν as postposition is offered in Boroday & Yakubovich 2018a on the basis of both distributional and etymological considerations. It is suggested there that Lyd. šawν represents an approximate functional equivalent of its Luwian and Lycian cognates, respectively /tawiyan(ni)/ and ñtewẽ. The meaning ‘toward’ appears to be appropriate for LW 22.8, where the Sardian mλimna- (Mermnads?) appear as counteragents of the Sardians in some sort of property transfer (Yakubovich 2017b). Unfortunately, the other context remains unclear, which makes the semantic analysis of the adposition šawν somewhat tentative.

[I.Y.]