λᾶας

Ancient Greek

Alternative forms

λᾶος (lâos)
λᾶς (lâs) — Attic
^? λεύς (leús) — Doric

Etymology

Unknown and likely a substrate word. The traditional etymology connecting Albanian lerë (“boulder; rockslide”), Old Irish lie (“stone”) (via Proto-Celtic *līwos; see there for more proposed cognates) and Old Armenian լեառն (leaṙn, “mountain”) for a Proto-Indo-European *law- or *leh₁w-, *l̥h₁w- (“stone”) is impossible if Mycenaean Greek 𐀨𐀁𐀊 (ra-e-ja /⁠lāhejā⁠/, “stone”) and Arcadocypriot Greek 𐠏𐠃𐠩 (la-o-se) are considered cognate, as the second syllable shows no trace of *-w- (e.g. expected *𐀨𐀸𐀊 (*ra-we-ja) and *𐠏𐠵𐠩 (*-la-wo-se) respectively).^[1] However, Doric Greek λεύς (leús, id.) and λεύω (leúō, “to stone”) complicate this. Alternative etymologies reconstruct *lḗh₂s-r̥ or *lḗh₂-wr̥ (the latter particularly as the preform for Celtic, though this is formally highly problematic^[2] and furthermore relies on a controversial sound law^[3]); Nikolaev supposes the root *leh₂- gave rise to an s-stem *leh₂-es-, whence a collective *leh₂-es-h₂ that was subsequently re-singularized to *leh₂-s-h₂-s, as the preform to λᾶας (lâas), and invokes the controversial Eichner's law to explain λεύς (leús) as from a parallel u-stem *lēh₂-u-s.^[4] For *lḗh₂-wr̥ he tentatively adds Hittite 𒆷𒄴𒄷𒊏𒀸 (la-aḫ-ḫu-ra-aš /⁠laḫḫuras⁠/, “offering table ~ stand”) and Milyan [script needed] (laκre-). Similarly, a reconstruction *leh₁- for the root may be possible with the addition of different suffixes,^[5] but such etymologies are increasingly ad hoc and still fail to explain all the variation within Celtic and Greek. Beekes suspects a Pre-Greek origin. Note also Ancient Greek λέπας (lépas, “bare rock, crag”) and λίθος (líthos, “stone”), similar words of unexplained origin.

Pronunciation

(5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /lâː.as/
(1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /ˈla.as/
(4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /ˈla.as/
(10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /ˈla.as/
(15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /ˈla.as/

Noun

λᾶᾰς • (lâăs) m or f (genitive λᾶος); third declension

stone
Synonym: λίθος (líthos)

Declension

Irregular declension of ὁ, ἡ λᾶᾰς; τοῦ, τῆς λᾶος (Attic)

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	ὁ, ἡ λᾶᾰς ho, hē lâăs	τὼ λᾶε tṑ lâe	οἱ, αἱ λᾶες hoi, hai lâes
Genitive	τοῦ, τῆς λᾶος toû, tês lâos	—	τῶν λᾱ́ων tôn lā́ōn
Dative	τῷ, τῇ λᾶϊ tōî, tēî lâï	—	τοῖς, ταῖς λᾱ́εσῐ / λᾱ́εσσῐ / λᾱ́εσῐν / λᾱ́εσσῐν toîs, taîs lā́es(s)ĭ / lā́es(s)ĭn
Accusative	τὸν, τὴν λᾶα / λᾶαν tòn, tḕn lâa(n)	τὼ λᾶε tṑ lâe	τοὺς, τᾱ̀ς λᾶας toùs, tā̀s lâas
Vocative	λᾶᾰς lâăs	λᾶε lâe	λᾶες lâes
Notes:	This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension.

Derived terms

λᾱ́ϊνος (lā́ïnos)
λᾱτομίᾱ (lātomíā)
λᾱτύπη (lātúpē)

Descendants

→⇒ Translingual: Laonastes

References

^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) “λᾶας”, in Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, pages 817-8
^ Zair, Nicholas (2012) The reflexes of the Proto-Indo-European laryngeals in Celtic, Leiden: Brill, →ISBN, pages 252–253
^ Pronk, Tijmen (2019) “Eichner’s law: a critical survey of the evidence”, in Münchener Studien zur Sprachwissenschaft, volume 73, number 1, Munich: J.H. Röll Verlag, →ISSN, page 134–135 of 121–155, example 13
^ Nikolaev, Alexander (2010) “Time to gather stones together: Greek λᾶας and its Indo-European background”, in Stephanie W. Jamison, H. Craig Melchert, Brent Vine, editors, Proceedings of the 21^st Annual UCLA Indo-European Conference: Los Angeles, October 30th and 31st, 2009, Bremen: Hempen Verlag, →ISBN, pages 189–206
^ Matasović, Ranko (2009) “*līwank-”, in Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Celtic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 9), Leiden: Brill, →ISBN, page 242