tetere/i-
‘town, city’
- Language
- Lycian A
- Grammar
- subst, c.
- ID
- 622
1. Individual Anatolian Languages
1.1 Lycian A
tetere/i-
‘town, city’1.1.1Transmission
This lexeme is attested in various funerary and dedicatory inscriptions of Lycia.
[D.S.]
1.1.2Forms
| nom. sg. | teteri | TL 65.21 (Isinda) |
| TL 149.12 (Rhodiapolis) | ||
| N 320.13 (Xanthos) | ||
| N 320.31 (Xanthos) | ||
| tteri | TL 149.4 (Rhodiapolis) | |
| nom. number unknown | teteri | TL 65.18 (Isinda) |
| acc. pl. | τeτeris | TL 44b.4 (Xanthos) |
| case unknown | teteri | TL 65.12 (Isinda) |
| TL 65.15 (Isinda) | ||
| N 324.21 (Xanthos) | ||
| N 337.9 (Limyra) | ||
| [te]terị | N 337.1 (Limyra) | |
| gen. adj. nom./acc. pl. n. | ttaraha | N 320.14 (Xanthos) |
1.1.3Meaning ‘town, city’
The Lycian noun tetere/i- corresponds to Greek πόλις in the bilingual inscription of the Letoon (Laroche 1979c:66f., DLL:64, Neumann 2007a:352 with further literature). Christiansen 2012a:10 points out rightly that we do not know whether Lyc. teteri corresponds in respect to its size and function exactly to the Greek “polis”. Therefore, both the translations ‘town’ and ‘city’ can be used lightly. Contra Heubeck 1981a:164f., the plural agreement of the verb agreeing with teteri, e.g. kumezeiti teteri isñt[a] (TL 65.21) ‘the town Isinda sacrifices (pl.)’, cannot be used as counter-evidence for the translation ‘town, city’; it is simply a constructio ad sensum. Thus, his suggestion of translating tetere/i- as ‘citizen’ based on such constructions is not persuasive.
[D.S.]
2. Reconstruction
2.1Reconstruction
Carruba 1978b:166 suggests an equation between Lyc. A tetere/i- and Hieroglyphic Luwian /taskwar(i)-/ ‘land’, which must be rejected on phonological grounds, because a Lycian pre-form *testero(/i)- would have yielded **tesere/i- (Melchert 1994a:304). Heubeck 1985a:38f. argues rightly for a reduplicated noun, i.e. te-tere/i- < Pre-Lycian *ku̯e-ku̯er-o/i-.
[D.S.]
For the lemma head see PAnat. *ku̯ér-/*ku̯r-´.