kupttle
‘(unknown)’
- Language
- Lycian B
- Grammar
- u
- ID
- 3223
1. Individual Anatolian Languages
1.1 Lycian B
kupttle
‘(unknown)’1.1.1Transmission
This lexeme is attested in the inscription of the inscribed pillar of Xanthos, dated contextually to shortly after the ascension of Artaxerxes II in 405-404 BCE and stylistically to around 400 BCE (Borchhardt & Eichner 1997-1999a:19f.).
[D.S.]
1.1.2Forms
| dat./loc. pl. (?) | kupttle | TL 44d.39 (Xanthos) |
The analysis as a dat./loc. pl. is the most popular one; cf. DLL:118, Shevoroshkin 2014a:256, Schürr 2018b:70. However, a nominative singular of a common gender stem in -e- should not be excluded either.
[D.S.]
1.1.3Meaning
It is not clear whether kupttle is a substantive or an adjective and, if the latter, with which noun it would agree. It occurs within a sacrificial context, and the division of the sentences is unclear. Shevoroshkin 1969a:265 suggests an etymological connection with Hitt./Luw. kupiyatalla- c. ‘conspirator’, which is not attractive either phonologically or contextually. Later, Shevoroshkin 2014a:256 suggests the meaning ‘smoke’ based on a Balto-Slavic etymology, which is not contextually cogent and thus highly tentative. No meaning is suggested here, although one should compare the probably root-related verb kupri-(ti).
[D.S.]
1.1.4Stem
Lycian B kupttle could reflect an adjectival formation in -ele/i- or an agent noun formation in -ala- (or -atala-; cf. Hitt./Luw. -at(t)alla-), in both cases with syncope of the first vowel of the suffix. A different approach would be an instrument noun comparable to the Hittite stems in -ttal- n. (for which see Melchert 2014d:210).
[D.S.]