Do ‘Ergatives’ Exist in Lycian?

Abstract

The Lycian word for ‘oath’, (tese/i-), being genus commune, should therefore not require an ‘ergative’ suffix of the kind attested in Hittite and Luwian, when a neuter is functioning as the subject of a sentence. On the contrary, the ‘collective’ (i.e. neuter) plural t[asa]: miñtaha (TL 75), ‘oaths of the Mindis’, is once attested as a punishing agency, as is marazija miñtaha (TL 118, 135 and 139), also neuter plural. The word tesẽti (TL 149) or teseti (TL 135), also a punishing agency, should signify ‘oath gods’, not ‘oaths’ personified, comparable with esbẽte, probably ‘horsemen’ (dative), and the theonym So(u)mendis. Trm͂milijẽti is also not an ‘ergative’, but probably a compound, ‘place of the Termilians’, in TL 44d, 57, used also as a place-name Trimilin[d]/a/. From this would have been derived an adjective, attested in TL 149, and probably TL 71, too.

Keywords

• lycian
• hittite
• luwian
• ergativ
• likçe
• hititçe
• luvice