MYCÉNIEN PA-WE-A PE-NE-WE-TA /PHARWEHA PHERNEWWENTA/ : DES TEXTILES AVEC DES PIÈCES RAPPORTÉES

Abstract

The Mycenaean neuter plural pe-ne-we-ta qualifies articles of clothing (pa-we-a /pharweha/), or it is used near the logogram
TELA. There have been several proposals: /pnewent-/ ‘vaporosi’ (Gallavotti), /pneuwent/- ‘ariosi’ (Doria), /pen-went-/ or /penewent-/
(Chadwick : pen- from πίνος ‘natural grease in wool’), or even /sphēn-went-/ ‘featuring a weave with wedges’ (σφήν), but
none of these explanations is suitable (cf. DMic. II, 99). We try to show that pe-ne-we-ta can conceal /phernewwenta/ ‘provided
with /phernes-/’. This adjective in *-u̯ ent- is built on a neuter noun with the suffix *-nes-/-nos (cf. ἔρνος, τέμενος, etc.) from the
root *bhér- ‘bear’. The form with the suffix *neh2, φερνή ‘dowry’, indicates what the bride ‘brings’ to the new family; the form
with the suffix *-nes- is a technical term which indicates ‘what is borne’ on an article of clothing, probably a decoration sewn
on the fabric, vel sim. The neuter noun, which would have been *φέρνος, genitive *φέρνεhος, was not preserved in the first millennium,
but it has a correspondent in the second member of the Vedic compound sahásra-bharṇas- ‘with a thousand gifts’.