Luwian word for ‘place, plot of land’ and Lycian alaha-, aladehal(i), *aladehxxa- and miñti-

Résumé En

The first part of the paper (§§1-3) discusses phonetic reading of Hieroglyphic Luwian word for ‘place/plot of land’ found in the form LOCUS- la/i-t- (vel sim.). It is argued that the spellings of the word are incompatible with the reading *pidant- traditionally assumed on the basis of Hittite evidence (peda- < PIE *pédo-). Instead, it is suggested that the Luwian word has to be read as alad-, representing probably a suffixal extension of root ala- (āla-), of which HLuw. alawa- may represent a further derivative. This suggestion allows one to re-address the thorny problem of precise meaning of Lycian terms alaha- and aladehali (§4), which can now be interpreted as ‘to let somebody (into) a place’ > ‘concede’ (= Greek συγχωρῆσαι) and ‘concession/transferral’ respectively. §5 addresses the problem of formal interpretation of aladehxxãne and argues for identification of a Lycian nominal suffix -(a)xa- likely connected with PIE *-eh2. The last part of the paper (§6) revisits the interpretation of term miñti- suggesting that it refers to ‘all adult (male) population of a polis’ and thus closely corresponds to Greek δῆμος