Linear A du-pu2-re, Hittite tabarna and their alleged relatives revisited

Miguel Valerio (University of Barcelona, mfg_valerio@yahoo.com)

Journal of Language Relationship, № 13/3-4, 2015 - p.329-354

Abstract: This article intends to be a comprehensive reassessment of a previous hypothesis connecting the Linear A sequence du-pu2-re and the Hittite royal title t/labarna, as well as a series of Anatolian words, toponyms and personal names allegedly related to the latter and belonging to the semantic sphere of power. In the course of this survey, several Anatolian onomastic elements, mostly dated to the 1st millennium BCE, are disconnected from the Minoan sequence and the Hittite title, and receive new explanations (with various levels of security) in the framework of the Luwic (IE) languages. Likewise, I separate Labranios (a Cypriot epithet of Zeus) from Hittite labarna and argue instead for the old theory that it is an adaptation of the Phoenician name of Mount Lebanon. The conclusion of this reassessment is that, while there may have been a Luwian noun *tapara- ‘rule’, there are no independent grounds for linking any Anatolian material to Minoan du-pu2-re and no basis for assuming the latter meant ‘master’ (or similar).

Keywords: Linear A, Tabarna, Labarna, Luwic languages, Anatolian onomastics, Cilician names

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