ebttehe/i- (epttehe/i-)
‘their’
- Language
- Lycian A
- Grammar
- pron
- ID
- 3660
1. Individual Anatolian Languages
1.1 Lycian A
ebttehe/i- (epttehe/i-)
‘their’1.1.1Transmission
This possessive pronoun is attested in various grave inscriptions.
[D.S.]
1.1.2Forms
| nom. sg. c. | ebttehi | TL 83.14 (Arneai) |
| TL 83.15 (Arneai) | ||
| acc. sg. c. | ebttehi | TL 83.9 (Arneai) |
| dat. sg. | epttehi | TL 121 (Limyra) |
| TL 39.6 (Xanthos) | ||
| nom. pl. c. | ebttehi | TL 107.1 (Limyra) |
| acc. pl. c. | [eb]tte[his] | TL 83.9 (Arneai) |
| dat. pl. | epttehe | TL 6.2 (Karmylessos) |
| eptte |
TL 121 (Limyra) | |
| unclear case | ebettehi | N 324.2 (Xanthos) |
1.1.3Graphic Features
It is questionable whether the form eptte is linguistically genuine, i.e. with loss of -h- between vowels and contractions (thus Melchert in DLL:15), or whether an emendation should be considered. For a similar example, see miñta
[D.S.]
1.1.4Meaning
The Lycian word epttehe/i- was properly recognized as a possessive pronoun of the 3rd plural based on the Lycian-Greek bilingual inscription TL 6, in which lada epttehe stands for Greek ταῖς γυναιξὶν ταῖς ἑαοτῶν (Deecke 1887a:141f.; contra Schmidt 1868a:289 “for himself”). Therefore, it was subsequently adopted by scholars and applied to every other attestation, which brought further confirmation (Pedersen 1904a:191, Pedersen 1945a:35f., 38, Houwink ten Cate 1961a:67, Gusmani 1962a:165, Laroche 1979c:65, 85, Neumann 2007a:50).
[D.S.]
1.1.5Stem
The possessive pronoun ebttehe/i- is, morphologically speaking, a genitival adjective in -ehe/i- built on the dat. pl. form of the demonstrative pronoun, i.e. ebette, which was subsequently syncopated, i.e. ebttehe/i-, and then assimilated, i.e. epttehe/i- (Laroche 1979c:85, van den Hout 1995b:129, Neumann 2007a:50). However, one should not exclude the possibility that the forms ebttehe/i- only occurred later and have restored the -b- in analogy to the root of the demonstrative pronoun eb-.
[D.S.]
For the lemma head see Lyc. ebẽ(ñne)-.