śjas > śas

Attested in a Greek-Carian bilingual funerary inscription from Athens, ca. 525/520 (Adiego 2007a) and on a tomb inscription from Euromos of unknown date.

[Zs.S.]

nom. sg. c.	śjas	G1
	śas	C.Eu 1

The attestations follow Adiego 2007a:414f., checked against the photographs in Robert 1950a:Pl.VI.4 and O. Masson 1977a:Pl. I (Melchert 2010f:181 adds šas° from C.Hy 1, but this is not possible phonologically). The identity of these forms has already been recognized by Meier-Brügger 1979a:88, but an explanation of the different spellings was rarely given. According to Adiego 2007a:414, śas is “a variant form” of śjas. Schürr 2010c:192 formulated two explanations: first, a change śj > ś (cf. already Schürr 2001d:117). Second, ‹śj› as “pleonastische Schreibung” für ś, since it goes back to *sy. However, a pleonastic spelling is completely unnecessary in the case of ‹ś› and in general, there is as yet no evidence for pleonastic spelling in Carian. Thus, even though there is no independent evidence for a śj > ś change (Schürr’s other example from an unpublished and otherwise unknown alleged Abydos inscription does not seem to exist), it provides a fitting explanation (unfortunately, the question cannot be chronologically assessed due to the unknown date of C.Eu 1 – note that there is no reason to assume a secondary intrusion of -j-).

As for the grammatical form, contextually speaking the fragmentary G 1 is ambiguous, but C.Eu 1 requires nominative and this is fully in agreement with the grammatical analysis of the phrase śjas san ‘this tomb’ of G 1 as nom. sg. c., see the discussion s.v. san (and not nom.-acc. sg. n., contra Melchert 2010f:181).

[Zs.S.]

There is a general and justified agreement that this word means ‘funerary monument’ (or similar) based on σεμα (= σῆμα) of the Greek version of G1 (to be found on the base of a statue, see the discussion in Duhoux 2008a:81f.) as established already by Meier-Brügger 1979a:85, 88 (followed by Adiego 1992a:33, Adiego 1993b:169f., Adiego 2007a:414f., Adiego 2010b:154 [adding ‘tomb’]; Duhoux 2008a:81–83; Melchert 2010f:180f., 183 [‘memorial’]). The translation ‘der Verstorbene’ proposed by Schürr 2010c:192 with question mark is not supported by this bilingual text.

[Zs.S.]