n͂tepi

This word n͂tepi is well attested throughout the Lycian corpus.

[D.S.]

indecl.	n͂tepi	TL 29.5 (Tlos)
		TL 29.6 (Tlos)
		TL 29.9 (Tlos)
		TL 39.6 (Xanthos)
		TL 44a.24 (Xanthos)
		TL 44a.50 (Xanthos)
		TL 44c.15 (Xanthos)
		TL 44c.18 (Xanthos)
		TL 57.6 (Antiphellos)
		TL 80.2 (Antiphellos)
		TL 83.6 (Arneai)
		TL 88.3(x2) (Myra)
		TL 88.5 (Myra)
		TL 93.2(x2) (Myra)
		TL 93.3 (Myra)
		TL 94.1 (Myra)
		TL 101.2 (Limyra)
		TL 101.3 (Limyra)
		TL 102.1 (Limyra)
		TL 110.2 (Limyra)
		TL 111.5 (Limyra)
		TL 112.2 (Limyra)
		TL 118.4 (Limyra)
		TL 118.6 (Limyra)
		TL 131.1 (Limyra)
		TL 145.2 (Limyra)
		N 306.2 (Ҫağman)
		N 309b.2 (Myra)
		N 309d.17 (Myra)
	ñṭẹpi	TL 134.1 (Limyra)
	ñtep̣(i)	N 337.2 (Limyra)
	ñtep[i]	TL 90.3 (Myra)

The readings of many of the words listed in the table follow the new edition of the numerous funerary inscriptions published by Christiansen 2020a.

[D.S.]

Deecke 1888b:270 compares the formula of Lycian grave inscriptions with the ones of Greek inscriptions from Lycia with similar content and deduces that Lyc. n͂tepi corresponds to Greek ἐν ‘in’ or εἰς ‘to’, thus assigning the same meaning, i.e. ‘in, into, inside’ to the Lycian lexeme (followed by Carruba 1970c:82, Laroche 1979b:350, DLL:44, Gehrisch 2018a, Christiansen 2020a:248). The use of n͂tepi ‘in, into’ with the verb ta-^(di) ‘to put (horizontally)’ leads in funerary contexts to the meaning ‘to bury’ ← ‘to lay (someone) inside (a grave)’ (Pedersen 1945a:43, Neumann 2007a:250f.), although Laroche 1958b:177 translates it instead with ‘to add, introduce’.

Sometimes, n͂tepi seems to function as a preposition governing a noun in the locative, i.e. n͂tepi xn͂tawata ‘into (his) rule/kingdom’ (TL 29.9); see Gusmani 1963a:288 and Sasseville 2021a:281, although distinguishing reliably between a preverb and a preposition is not always possible not only in general but also in several instances in Lycian texts. In the passage mentioned above, it would be possible instead to take n͂tepi as a preverb with apptte ‘took, received’, yielding the meaning ‘to incorporate’.

On the function of n͂tepi in TL 44a.24, see Schürr & Dönmez 2015a:145f.

[D.S.]

The word n͂tepi is surely composed of n͂te ‘in, inside’ and epi ‘(preverb)’ (thus Laroche 1979b:350), although one cannot exclude a particle =pi as in hrppi ‘for, on’ (see Pal. =pi); Neumann 2007a:82 leaves it open. Houwink ten Cate 1961a:79 assumes that they are one and the same, i.e. (e)pi, which is not supported by the respective etymologies.

[D.S.]