xurzide

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.]

3sg. pret. act. or dat./loc. pl.(?)

xurzide

TL 44b.43 (Xanthos)

Formally, there are two grammatical possibilities for analyzing xurzide, i.e. as 3sg. pret. act. of a verbal stem in -(e)i-^(di) (thus DLL:86) or as dat./loc. pl. of a stem in -id- (thus Neumann 2007a:142). The first one would force us to assume two verbs in asyndetic relation, i.e. ade xurzide ‘he made (and) xurzi-ed.’ Not likely is the suggestion by Torp 1901a:29 and Meriggi 1978c:256 to analyze xurzide as xurzi=de, since the word occurs in the middle of a sentence and the particle =de is restricted to Wackernagel’s position.

[D.S.]

The word xurzide is found in a context containing the description of dedicatory monuments built (or at least financed) by the Lycian king. Melchert’s (DLL:86) semantic assignment ‘to carve (?)’ based on an etymological connection with Hitt. kuršā- is phonologically outdated, since Lyc. x reflects a laryngeal. Schürr 2012a:122 claims xurzide to be a toponym, which is unprovable. From a phonological perspective, Neumann 2007a:141 suggests a connection with Hitt. ḫuwart-/ḫurt-^(ḫi) ‘to curse’, which is highly tempting, but difficult to account for contextually (cf. Gehrisch 2018a:69). Nonetheless, if this were correct, the sound -z- in Lyc. xurz- would have to be explained as a generalization of the stem with s-epenthesis occurring before certain endings (cf. Neumann 2007a:141 “s-extension” and Shevoroshkin 2002c:412 “extracted from the imperfective in *-sk̑e/o-”). For a similar case in Lycian, see maza(i)-^(di). For a Lycian cognate occurring in the same context, see Lyc. xurzaza-.

[D.S.]