Indo-European warriors in the Hindu Kush

'It is commonly admitted that the parent language possessed an adjectival suffix *-es- which served to create compound adjectives from neuter s-stem nouns. The type is usually illustrated by pointing to equations like δυσμενής = Skt. (not RV) durmanas-, Gatha-Av. dužmanah-, Late Av. dušmanah 'having an evil mind' from which a nom. sg. *dus-menēs is reconstructable.'

T. Meissner. S-stem nouns and adjectives in Greek and Proto-Indo-European: a diachronic study in word formation. (Oxford University Press: Oxford, 2006): 161.

An Internet forum featured a discussion of the origins, spread, and modern use of this word in Hindi, Urdu, and beyond, especially on as spoken by a correspondent's grand-mother (!). More at Wiktionary, s.v.

The adjective is familiar from Greek poetry, but also appears in non-literary inscriptions (late 6th c. BC Arcadian; mid 5th c. Cretan  (a) (b)).

In this video, the eponymous faction of the Hezb-e-Islami is seen with its leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar somewhere in Pakistan or Afghanistan, at some time probably in the 1980s.

Listen to the word they sing over and over.

There's more from or about Hekmatyar elsewhere on Youtube.

The adjective δυσμενής appears in some Argive inscriptions (Colvin 2007, no. 38 = Buck, no. 85 = Schwyzer, no. 83a) and, according to Colvin (2007: 142), is 'found also in Crete, Gortyn Law Code'.

Colvin's reference must be VI 46 (near the end of that column: see above), where Schwyzer, DGE 179 has αἰ κ’ ἐδδυσμενίανς πε|ρα[θε͂ι κ]ἐˉκς ἀλλοπολίας (cf. SEG XXIII 567): 'if one is sold into hostile hands,... (Buck 1955: 327).

This section is damaged, particularly at this point in this line, as the close-up below shows:

Line 46 is the middle of the three lines in the close-up.

More recent editions have (ll. 46-50): vac. αἰ κ’ ἐδδυσ̣[άμενον] πέ|ραν[νδε] ἐκς ἀλλοπολίας ὐπ’ ἀν|άνκας ἐκόμενος κελομένοˉ τι|ς λύσεται, ἐπὶ το͂ι ἀλλυσαμέν|οˉι ἔˉμεˉν πρίν κ’ ἀποδο͂ι τὸ ἐπιβά|λλον.
'If someone liberates another on account of an obligation towards him from some city because he was found out of the boarder ...' (the translation from a locally-obtained guidebook). Better, Willetts (1967: 44): 'If anyone, bound by necessity (ὑπ’ ἀνάγκης ἐχόμενος), should get a man gone away to a strange place set free from a foreign city at his own request,...'.

We should not conclude too much about the attestation and distribution of a compound adjective from a gap on the stone (and on its casts).

Homerica: a conspectus of key forms

Ι) Data on the forms of the dative plural of ἔπος is not presented by LSJ s.v. (but some etymological comment is at the head of the entry, not at the foot, with the dialect forms: older Ϝέπος SIG9 (v. infr.), etc., εος, τό (Skt. vácas 'word', 'hymn', cf. εἶπον): ):

a) ἔπεσσι Od.19.214 (-ν); ἔπ- τε μειλίχοισι# Il.9.113, Od.9.258 (-ν), 363, and 376, and 19.415; cf. Hes.Op.186 χαλεποῖς βάζοντες ἔπ-#; also Pi.O.13.25.

b) ἔπεσιν Il.1.77.

c) ἐπέεσσιν# Il.1.223 (ἀταρτητοῖς ἐπ-), 304 (ἀντιβίοισι μαχεσσαμένω ἐπ-); cf. 6.325 and 337 (αἰσχροῖς ἐπ-#), without and then with -ν.

ΙΙ) The endings ᾱο and εω:
Il.21.84-86: μινυνθάδιον δέ με μήτηρ | γείνατο Λαοθόη, θυγάτηρ Ἄλτᾱο γέροντος, | Ἄλτεω, ὅς Λελέγεσσι φιλοπτολεμοισι ἀνάσσει, |

The original 'Aeolic' Ἄλτᾱο and the latest Ionic Ἄλτεω (a spondee by synizesis) a:-stem masculine genitive singular forms are found in adjacent lines. Sappho and Alcaeus would use Ἄλτᾱ. In this instance, line 86 could be omitted without damage to syntax or to sense.

III) Diectasis:
ὁράω (of which there are no uncontracted forms in Hom., e.g. *ὁράεις, cf. Il.21.108. cited below) - ὁρῶ Il.3.324 (also ὁρᾷς, ὁρᾷ, ὅρα, ὁρᾶν, ὁρῶν, ὁρῶμαι, ὁρᾶται, ὁρᾶσθαι, ὁρώμενος), ὁρόω Il.5.224 (ὁράᾳς Il.21.108, ὁράασθαι Od.20.317, ὁρόωνὁρόων Il.1.350, 3.325, Od.8.314, ὁρόωντες Il.24.633, Od.7.145, 9. 295, and 20.373, ὁρόωσα Od.19.514, 2pl. opt. ὁρόῳτε Il.4.347). Contrast Ionic ὁρέω Hdt.1.80 and the dialectal 3rd person plural ὁρεῦντι in Theocritus 9.36.

IV) The second person singular of 'be':   
ἐσσί Il.1.176, 280, 3.164, 172, etc.: Od.1.175, 297, etc.
εἶς (εἴς) Il.16.515, 24.407; of the 9 instances of this form, only 1 cannot be altered to ἐσσ(ί) because it is not pre-vocalic, namely Od.17.388: ἀλλ’ αἰεὶ χαλεπὸς περὶ πάντων εἰς μνηστήρων.
εἰς Il.16.538, 19.217, etc.: Od.1.170, 207, 4.371, 611, etc.
εἶ is, it seems, not found, nor ἐσί (citable from Cretan GDI 4959a).

Notes on inscriptions: poinikastas

Inscribed bronze armour (boustrophedon). See: Colvin, no. 52, and LSAG's materials.

LSJ and the Greek dialects

LSJ's entry for πλῆθος is instructive, in that it repeats the lemma as a dialect form:

πλῆθος, εος, τό, Dor. and Arc. πλῆθος Schwyzer 84.8, al. (Argive, found in Crete, v B.C.), IG5(2).6.20 (Tegea, iv B.C.), etc.; Boeot. πλεῖθος ib.7.3171.46 (Orchom. Boeot.); pseudo-Dor. and pseudo-Aeol. πλᾶθος GDI5176.21 (Crete), IGRom.4.1302.18 (Cyme, i B.C./ i A.D.), Hippod. ap. Stob.4.1.93: (πλήθω, v. πίμπλημι):

That is to say that πλῆθος is common Greek, that it came to be written with <ει> in Boeotian (in the Hellenistic period), and that, between the end of the third century BCE and the the turn of the eras, hyperdoric and hyperaeolic forms were used with <ᾱ> for what was always a long e vowel.

It would be simpler and more accurate to give:
'πλῆθος, εος, τό, Boeot. πλεῖθος (3rd c. BCE), hyperdial. πλᾶθος (>3rd c. BCE) [πίμπλημι] ...'.

This neatly illustrates that LSJ simply reports which dialects have which form rather than organising them in accordance with the innovations or divergencies that they showfrom the standard.

Schwyzer 84 provides a neat illustration of a point of which LSJ shows awareness here: the findspot of an inscription does not indicate its dialect. That is determined by certain diagnostic features of the Greek thereon. Although this was found on Crete, its dialect is Argolic. The text is a treat that was brokered between the Tylisi and the people of Knossos, but Argivis mediantibus (cf. no. 83 per Argivos factum, which is Colvin, no, 38 and Buck, no. 85; Anne Jeffery's notes).  

The image in Anne Jeffery's notes for 170.39b seems in fact to be of Schwyzer 84 (B, the central column, beginning δυσμενέας τιθείμεθα καὶ τ|ο̑ν), not DGE 83. It confirms that the script is certainly not green (Cretan), and is in fact blue (B 5 ψάφο̄ν and B 6 μάχᾱ).

LSJ's entry for πῆμα is a similar case:
'πῆμα, ατος, τό (same form in Dor.), ... '.

In other words πῆμα is simply common Greek.

LSJ gives no dialect label s.v. ἔξαστις.
The genitive cited is ιος (Galen uses an acc.pl. ἐξάστιας): its citations (from medical authors) and an inscription from Samos (iv c. BC) are compatible with labeling this as Ionic.

ἐπημοιβός has no dialect label, nor does ἐπαμοιβός. Likewise ἐξημοιβός. However, s.v. ἀντημοιβός we read 'Ep. for ἀνταμοιβός, corresponding, Call.Del.52.'. s.v. ἀντᾰμοιβός, we find only 'v. ἀντημοιβός'.

Notes on Inscriptions: SEG XXVI 1050

An owner's mark on a Cretan pithos (dated 8th-6th c. BCE). The owner is Ἑρπετίδᾱμος (psilosis ?) the son of Παιδοπιλᾱ (or -φιλᾱ). Anne Jeffery's notes are available online.

The 'owner's' name might be Ἑρπετίδᾱς in the nominative and might be followed by the definite article, if, as in another transcription, san is read at the crack instead of mu.

This is the only instance of any name in Ἑρπετι- (there are none in *Ἑρπεσι-).

Epigraphic round-up

The Medes appear in the Idalion Bronze (Buck 1955: 211, no. 23, line 1) as ma-to-i, that is, Μᾶδοι. Two words in the same line (ka-te-vo-ro-ko-ne / κατε̄́ϝοργον and ke-ti-e-ve-se / Κετιε̑ϝες) show the treatment of the inherited long e (eta in Attic and Ionic) in contrast to the treatment of the long a (eta in Attic and Ionic) in this ethnic.

The Gortyn Lawcode is IC 72 (Anne Jeffery's notes thereon).

Buck (1955: 146, § 195) on Arcadian refers to a decree of Megalopolis of about 200 BC that 'is mainly in the native dialect' that was found in Caria at Magnesia on the Maeander.

The digamma in Arcadian δερά̄: now you see it (Orchomenos, 369-361 BCE), now you don't (Olympia, 189-167 or 182/181 BCE: Elean ?).

Chian (East Ionic) πρήξοισιν (2x) shows Ionic <η> and moveable nu, but the Aeolic/Lesbian -οισι for -ουσι (from -onsi). For a translation and some commentary, see S. Colvin (2007: 112-115, no. 20).

The first of the Etruscan abecedaria (IG XIV 2420) introduces the series of PHI entries. See also LSJ on the letter Ϻ.

Καρόφι SEG XX 756. ϝοίκω Schwyzer 323 C, line 23 (= Buck 1955: no 52, p. 241), which is functionally equivalent to οἰκόθεν (Buck 1955: 103). 

SEG XLIII 212 (A)
ὅπω]ς δὲ κὴ φανερὴ ἴωνθι τὴ ἐπανγελμένη κὴ δεδωῶση
[γουνῆκες, καταλο]γίττασθη τὸ ὄνουμα κὴ ἐπιπατρόφιον κὴ ὁπόττον κα ἑ-
[κάστα ἴη δεδωῶ]σα·

Boeotian τοῖ (face c, line 76) / τῦ (line 34) / τεῖ (line 4) / (locative in origin) ταμίη (< *αι, an old locative, functionally equivalent to τῷ ταμίᾳ: cf. κή for καί in Boeotian and Il.21.180-181 ἐκ δ’ ἄρα πᾶσαι | χύντο χαμαὶ χολάδες·; -ίᾱι gives -ίᾱι/ίᾳ in Boeotian).

A fun film about the longest (?) inscription of Antiquity, which is non-official to boot: "A Gigantic Jigsaw Puzzle: The Epicurean Inscription of Diogenes of Oinoanda".

The Thessalian dative plural participle εἴντεσσι is in SEG XXXVI 548.1: εἴντεσσι τοῦν πετταροῦν γενίουν ...

The numeral ἴα outside Homer: Boeotia (SEG III 359).

The adjective ἀταλόφρων is found on Thasos and as a personal name in Attica (col. II, line 63).

The adjective ἀταλός as a superlative adverb in the mid-eighth century: the Dipylon jug (Anna Jeffery's notes thereon).

δεκάω is a ghost word that originated from the first edition of this inscription.

Leumann knew the Dipylon Oinochoe and dated it to the eighth century (1950: 141), but also thought that its wording depended on Il.18.567, which is considered (by Bolling) to be an interpolation: παρθενικαὶ δὲ καὶ ἠΐθεοι ἀταλὰ φρονέοντες.

G. M. Bolling explains the chain of developments that must be assumed for the traditional analysis in Language 27.1 (1951) 68-80, at 73-74: αταλοφρων (sic) > αταλοφρονεων > ἀταλὰ φρονέων > ἀταλάφρων.

Chadwick (1996: 218-221, at 220) compresses this: 'Ἀταλός, probably an artificial back-formation from ταλάφρων, has very much the semantic range of Latin delicatus.'

Chadwick took ΠΑΙΖΕΙ as an indicative in the absence of ἄν. He interpreted the second line as τοῦ τόδε κἄν μιν [.

On the Dipylon Oinochoe's letter forms, esp. the reclining alpha and its iota and lambda (similar to those of early Cretan inscriptions), see C.D. Buck, The Greek Dialects (1955: 348-349): a (partial) photograph (and line drawing) illustrates the alpha, lambda, and pi clearly. Wikipedia has photographs from two angles so as to give the full (legible) text.