TI·38

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Inscription
Reading in transliteration:	]uisou : sọ?[
Reading in original script:	]?[
Object:	TI·38 Pregassona (stela)
Position:	front
Frame:	??  (left: unknown, middle: top and bottom, right: unknown)
Direction of writing:	ambiguous
Script:	North Italic script (Lepontic alphabet)
Number of letters:	8
Number of words:	2
Number of lines:	1
Workmanship:	carved
Condition:	fragmentary
Archaeological culture:	Golasecca III A, La Tène B, La Tène C [from object]
Date of inscription:	5th–mid-2nd c. BC [from object]
Type:	prob. funerary
Language:	prob. Celtic
Meaning:	unknown
Alternative sigla:	Morandi 2004: 279
Sources:	Morandi 2004: 706-707

Images

Inscription TI·38 from Morandi

Stela TI·38 Pregassona with inscription TI·38 from Morandi

Stela TI·38 Pregassona with inscription TI·38

Commentary

First published in Morandi 2004: 706 f., no. 279.

Images in Morandi 2004: 707, fig. 33 (photo and drawing).

The fragment preserves the middle part of an inscription between frame lines; both ends of the frame are lost, making the document undateable according to the system of De Marinis & Motta 1991: 206). The letters are damaged, but reasonably well legible; the letter to the right of the separator is a slightly wiggly line which could be iota, but is more likely to be intended as four-bar sigma, considering that the other sigma, also with four bars, is also quite flat. In terms of letter forms, the writing direction is ambiguous. Morandi's reading assumes dextroverse writing: ]uisou:ṣo?[. We are inclined toward a sinistroverse reading ]?os:uosiu[, since °os makes for a more plausible ending than °ou.

Already mentioned (without readings) in Tatarinoff 1924: 125, PID Add.: 629, Lejeune 1971: 5, no. 10.

Corinna Salomon

Bibliography

Dell’Era 2020	Romeo Dell'Era, "uisou o uosiu[i]? Cambiando senso, il senso cambia. Nuova lettura di un'iscrizione celtica da Pregassona (Lugano)", in: Michel Aberson, Francesca Dell'Oro, Michiel de Vaan, Antoine Viredaz (eds), [vøːrtər]. Mélanges de linguistique, de philologie et d'histoire ancienne offerts à Rudolf Wachter [= Cahiers de l'ILSL 60], Lausanne: 2020, 215–220.
De Marinis & Motta 1991	Raffaele C. De Marinis, Filippo Motta, "Una nuova iscrizione lepontica su pietra da Mezzovico (Lugano)", Sibrium 21 (1990–1991), 201–225.