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
Date of inscription:	5th–mid-2nd c. BC
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 part of an inscription between frame lines. The letters are damaged, but reasonably well legible; the letter to the right of the separator in the photo above 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. According to Piana Agostinetti 2004: 162, the frame lines widen at the end of upsilon; interpreting this section as the stylised feet, she considers this the lower end and beginning of the inscription. It seems to us, however, that the widening could as well represent the beginning of the head, in which case this would be the inscription's end. In terms of letter forms, both options are feasible, as the writing direction is ambiguous. Morandi's reading assumes dextroverse writing: ]uisou:ṣo?[ (or indeed uisou:ṣo?[, if this is the inscription's beginning), which yields a linguistically unattractive ending °ou (cf. uerkou, prikou, anatikou). In a sinistroverse reading ]?os:uosiu (the end of the inscription), °os makes for a more plausible ending, but °iu is, if anything, even worse.

If the fragment shows the frame's head, the frame can be classified as type B, if it shows the feet, as type C according to the system of De Marinis & Motta 1991: 206; hence the non-committal dating above.

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.