*kbiom

Reconstructed from personal names attested in Memphite stelae (from the second half of the 6th c. BCE, Kammerzell 1993a:164, 169) and a false-door stele (from the Saitic period, Kammerzell 1993a:162, 163f.), a graffito from the tomb of Montuemhat in Thebes (during the rule of Psammetichus I, i.e. around the mid-7th c. BCE), an Egyptian bilingual from Sais (on a bronze reliquary of mummified reptiles from the Saito-Persian period, O. Masson & Yoyotte 1956a:49) as well as in a list of names from Mylasa (probably priests, Adiego 2005b:92f.) of unknown date (Blümel & Kızıl 2004a:138).

[Zs.S.]

In personal names:

gen. sg.	Kbjomś	E.Me 12, E.Me 32, E.Th 13
nom. sg.	Šarkbiom	E.Sa 1, C.My 1.7
unknown	Šark[bi/jom…]	E.Me 56

For the attestations see Adiego 2007a:371, 416. The transliterations were checked against the photos of the publications (except the inscription from Thebes, where no photos are available).

[Zs.S.]

Hajnal 1995b:24 suggested a participle k-bjom <*-piyemmo/ī- (cf. Hajnal 1995b:28 for the phonological problems involved), where, however, the first member remained opaque (as a proof for the existence of this participle he quotes (cautiously) only ai[-]iqom of unknown meaning and segmentation in AS 7, cf. Adiego 2007a:349f. and see s.v.). Since names with -jom- represent a well-attested category of Carian names, a segmentation kb-jom seems more probable.

Adiego 2007a:334, 371 connected the element *kb- of Kbjom and Šarkbiom (transcribed as Š3rkbym in the Egyptian part of the bilingual E.Sa 1, for its first member see s.v. šar) with the reconstructed Carian word for ‘river’ (see s.v.). While -jom/-iom is a well-known suffix in Carian names (see most recently Adiego in Adiego, Tiverios, Manakidou & Tsiafakis 2012a:200), thus a root kb- is assured, its connection with the words associated with *kbo- ‘river (?)’ is problematic both semantically (see already Simon 2011b:540) and formally. PA *Háb- (cf. CLuwian ḫāpa/i-) would have led to †Κ(ο/ω)β° in Greek transmission and not the attested Κεβιωμος due to the sound law PA *á > Carian o (cf. Adiego 2007a:258). Nevertheless, if it had i-mutation in Carian, it could have led to *kebo/i- (since this umlaut preceded the PA *á > Carian o change: Luwic *tádi- > CLuw. tādi- but Carian ted ‘father’, Adiego 2007a:259). Alternatively, one may connect it with Hittite ḫapa- ‘river’ with desinential accentuation (Kloekhorst 2014b:460 and Kloekhorst forthcoming) and argue that *kabo- vel sim. is reflected in the Greek spelling (of course, i-mutation could have led to *kebo/i- here too). Needless to say, our current knowledge of Carian vocalism is insufficient to settle this issue.

Finally, Melchert 2013c:35f. explained Kbjom as a participle /hwiyamma/i-/ ‘running, runner, attendant’ and Šarkbiom as ‘running above, super-attending’. Setting aside the semantic issues, this is improbable on phonological grounds: First, although postconsonantal [w] indeed becomes ‹b› in Carian, Κεβιωμος shows that it did stand in postconsonantal position. Second, the expected initial consonant from /hw-/ is ‹q› (Simon 2011b:542–545, cf. also Brosch 2016a). 

[Zs.S.]

Last updated: 25 June 2020