Search

Zusammenfassung Based on the contextual analysis of the Carian inscription from Hyllarima (C.Hy 1) this paper argues that the Carian nominal ending -τis neither genitive plural nor dative plural as previously proposed but ablative. This is supported both by its phonological history and its other attestions.

This article argues that the traditional etymology of Latin sāpō as a loanword from the Germanic words for ‘soap’ is phonologically not possible. Instead, it proposes a phonologically regular explanation: a loanword in both Germanic and Latin from the common Celtic-Germanic substrate (with Gaulish transmission in the case of Latin).

Based on the chronology and geography of inscriptions not taken into account until now this paper argues that the word brutes of the Latin inscriptions is not a borrowing from Gothic from the Lower Danube region, as it is generally assumed, but a loanword from Northwest-Germanic in the neighbourhood of Pannonia.

SummaryAccording to the communis opinio, Lat. leuga was a Gaulish loanword, survived in the Romance languages and was borrowed into Old English. However, this scenario faces three unsolved problems: the non–Celtic diphthong –eu–, the Proto–Romance form *legua and the fact that the Old English word cannot continue the Latin form on phonological grounds. This paper argues that all these problems can regularly be solved by the reconstructed West Germanic and Gothic cognates of the Old English word borrowed into Gaulish and early Romance dialects, respectively.

Hieroglyphic Luwian: An Introduction with Original Texts, 3rd Revised Edition. By Annick Payne. Subsidia et Instrumenta Linguarum Orientis, vol. 2. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2014. Pp. xiv + 217. €29.80 (paper).

This paper argues that the Greek words κῶας ‘soft, hairy skin; fleece’ and μνῴα ‘name of the serf population of Crete’ are loanwords from Carian, that the Hesychian gloss γυγαί ‘grandfathers’ is either a Carian loanword in Greek or the transcription of a Carian word, and that the Carian word ork ‘phiale, a type of vessel’ is a loanword from Greek

This paper provides a linguistic re-analysis of the toponyms ending in °šna in Anatolian cuneiform texts. It argues that due to phonological reasons not all of them can be explained with a Hittite suffix as it is usually done and a similar Hattian suffix fits better. The toponyms with the Hattian suffix provide the first evidence that Hattian was once spoken south of the Kızılırmak river. As a by-product, new etymologies for some Hittite words and toponyms as well as an extended Palaic speaking territory are suggested.

This paper argues that the standard etymology of Vedic bravi ‘to say, to speak, to tell’ from Proto-Indo-European *mleu̯h2- ‘to speak’ (and its connection with Avestan mrao- ‘to say, to speak’) cannot be upheld, since it is based on an irregular consonant change that cannot be independently motivated and explained. As an alternative, two different PIE verbal roots will be proposed, *melH-u- → mleu̯H- ‘to say, to speak’ and *bleu̯h2/3-‘to speak or to call’, that provide phonologically and semantically regular bases for the words involved.

This paper argues that the Neo-Assyrian spelling Sapalulme of a Neo-Hittite ruler does not represent a distortion of the name Suppiluliuma (as it is generally assumed), but a relatively close transcription of another Luwian name, the first member of which may be attested in the name of Sapa-ziti, Great King of Karkamiš. Since the name PURUS.FONS.MI of the statue of Suppiluliuma from Tall Taʿyīnāt cannot be read as Sapalulme, Suppiluliuma of the statue and Sapalulme cannot be identical rulers, contrary to the widespread view.