tawa-^(d)

The only attestation of this lexeme comes from a fragmentary inscription found in Sardis and datable to the 4^th century BC.    

[I.Y.]

3sg. pres. act.

fašitawad

LW 80.16 (Sardis)

Pace Gusmani 1980a:89, there are no sufficient grounds to assume that ši-lawa- ‘to maintain’ (LW 3.3) is cognate with the verb under discussion. The only assured instance of a synchronic alternation t ~ l in Lydian is anlola- vs. antola- (see sub anlola-), but even in this case one cannot be fully sure whether it reflects phonetic reality or is a mere scribal error. Under such conditions, prudence requires postulating separate verbal stems lawa- and tawa- until compelling evidence to the contrary emerges. Gusmani’s optimism about the connection between ši-lawa- and ši-tawa- was possibly grounded in the fact that he treated ši- as a part of the root rather than a prefix.    

[I.Y.]

Given the fragmentary preservation state of the relevant line of LW 80, nothing positive can be said about the meaning of tawa-. A translation ‘to weaken’ is proposed for fa-ši-tawa- in (Schürr 2001a:65) on the assumption that the relevant line belongs to a curse formula and the stem tawa- is cognate with tawsa- ‘strong’. This suggestion, while not impossible, ultimately remains a guess, at least until the privative meaning of the prefix ši- is established on independent grounds.

[I.Y.]

The stem tawa-^(d) triggers the lenition of the verbal ending in 3sg. pres., which would be compatible with its factitive interpretation and the derivation of the suffix -a-^(d) in this verb (cf. the discussion under lawa-^(d)).  In its only available attestation, the stem tawa-^(d) is combined with the prefix chain fa-ši-.

[I.Y.]