abrala-

This lexeme is found once in the poetical inscription engraved on the lion sarcophagus of Antiphellos dated on stylistic grounds to the beginning of the 4th century BCE. (Zahle 1979a:318, Mühlbauer 2007a:91).

[D.S.]

nom. sg.

ạbrala

TL 55.7 (Antiphellos)

For the grammatical assignment see under Meaning.

[D.S.]

Kalinka 1901a:54 reads ubreñ..abrala. Differently, Schürr 2005a:122 reads the segment as ubreñ:zabrala and emends it to ubreñ{:}za (u)brala (ibid. 154) (partly followed by DLL:137, which accepts zabrala as is). The reading abrala is confirmed by the “Wiener Abklatsch” (Neumann 2007a:2) and by our own picture, where we can see that the initial letter ạ is partly damaged at the top (Sasseville 2014-2015a:111).

[D.S.]

The word abrala has been interpreted as a nominative/accusative plural neuter of an adjectival stem in -ele/i- (DLL:137). Sasseville 2014-2015a:111 argues for an interpretation as an agent noun in -ala-, since it is modified by an adjective in the nominative singular common gender, i.e. ubreñni abrala. Further evidence could be adduced, if the adjective ubreñni were a Lycian A ethnicon in -ñne/i- referring to the origin of a person, i.e. ‘of the town ubra’, but this analysis remains tentative until a place name ubra or ubre is found. If the morphological approach is correct, the abrala-person would be the subject of the verb m̃qriti ‘?’. The function of the title remains obscure as long as the meaning of the verb is not understood.Korolev & Shevoroshkin 1969a:529 compare the base abr- with various Carian and Lydian proper nouns. Shevoroshkin 2014a:244 speculates that it is some kind of offering, which cannot be proven on the basis of the context.

[D.S.]

No etymology possible.

[D.S.]