ἄλα
‘horse’
- Language
- Carian
- Class
- Derivative
- Grammar
- subst
- ID
- 3244
1. Individual Anatolian Languages
1.1 Carian
ἄλα
‘horse’1.1.1Transmission
The word is known from Stephan of Byzantium etymologizing the Carian toponyms Ἀλάβανδα and Ὑλλούαλα (s.vv., cf. Jablonski 1809:95; de Lagarde 1866a:269; Dorsi 1979a:29; Zgusta 1984a:56, 652; Adiego 1993b:28, Adiego 2007a:455). Note that his probably unsuccessful (folk-)etymologizing of the toponyms does not imply that the Carian words he used are non-existent (Brandenstein 1936a: 33, 35; Dorsi 1979a:34; Zgusta 1984a:652; Adiego 2007a:11f.).
[Zs.S.]
1.1.2Forms
| nom. sg. | ἄλα |
For the attestations see under Transmission (for further toponyms that might include this word see the remarks in Sayce 1893a:116f., Ševoroškin 1965a:252, and Zgusta 1984a:56).
[Zs.S.]
1.1.3Meaning ‘horse’
The meaning given by Stephan of Byzantium is generally accepted, as there is no reason to doubt it (Jablonski 1809:95; de Lagarde 1866a:269; Sayce 1893a:116; Hirt 1907a:575; Brandenstein 1935a:col. 142; Dorsi 1979a; Zgusta 1984a:56, 652; Adiego 1993b:40–44, Adiego 2007a:8, 11f.; but see the scepticism of O. Masson 1973a:190).
[Zs.S.]
1.1.4Origin
de Lagarde 1866a:269 compared it with Sanskrit árvan- ‘courser, horse’ (rejected by Pauli 1886a:58 without arguments). Instead, Kretschmer 1896a:377 would rather compare it with Avar (a Northeast Caucasian language) ala ‘mare’. Needless to say, there is no reason to see any Caucasian word in Carian (which originated in Kretschmer’s views that Carian is a non-Indo-European language). A comparison with the Sanskrit word is both semantically and phonologically problematic: the meaning ‘horse’ is a secondary development within Sanskrit and the word’s /r/ is original (EWAia I:121f.), which should have been preserved in Carian.
Rieken & Yakubovich 2022a:269 (cf. also Rieken 2019c:222) proposed that Cuneiform Luwian aliya- means ‘außenstehendes, nicht-domestiziertes wildes Tier’ (see s.v.) and reconstructs *ali̯-eh2- as a cognate of Hittite aliyaš, aliyanaš ‘roebuck’ (<*ali̯o-(h1)on-). Assuming that *-li̯- leads to /l/ in Carian (for which we have currently no evidence or counter-evidence), *ali̯-eh2- could provide a precursor fitting both formally and semantically to ἄλα (‘*wild animal’ > ‘*wild horse’ > ‘horse’, for the semantic narrowing cf. Old English deor ‘wild animal’ > PDE deer).
[Zs.S.]