𐱁𐰑𐰯𐰃𐱃
şadapıt
Meaning:
a group of high-ranking dignitaries
The segmentation of şadapıt remains disputed. The principal proposals are:
- a plural of the unattested compound *şad-apa, with the exceptional plural -t used for titles, interpreted as “senior şads”;
- two titles, şad apıt, with apıt interpreted as a plural of apa, although an independent title apıt is not securely attested;
- a compound şad + *-pit.
The runiform inscriptions write the sequence as one graphic group; a sixth-century Sogdian-script inscription also has šʾδpyt. Neither its internal structure nor the officeholders’ exact duties are securely established.
Examples
Translations
German:
Gruppe hochrangiger Würdenträger
Russian:
группа высокопоставленных сановников
Turkish (Azerbaijan):
yüksək rütbəli əyanlar
Turkish (Türkiye):
yüksek rütbeli beyler
Bibliography 3
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Marcel Erdal (1991) Old Turkic Word Formationp. 78, §2.42, opening passagep. 78, §2.42, opening passage
Old Turkic has a plural suffix +t in common with Mongolian and Sogdian. Prof. Doerfer (personal communication) thinks that the Turks borrowed it from the Mongols. I would assume the ultimate source to be Sogdian, if the Iranian origin of the suffix could be proven conclusively. The Bugut inscr., by far the earliest text which the Turks produced, is, after all, in Sogdian, and contains several +t plurals. N. Sims Williams (BT XII p. 159 n. 54) states that “the pl. in -t lies on the border between inflexional and derivational morphology”. This is true also of the earliest Turkic exs. of +(X)t, in the runic inscrs. -
Gerard Clauson (1972) An etimological dictionary of pre-thirteenth-century Turkishp. 867a, entry šadapı:tp. 867a, entry šadapı:t
VUF şadapı:t n.o.a.b.; prob. a title of some kind compounded of şad and (VU) apı:t, perhaps meaning ‘the entourage of the şad’ or the like. Türkü viii (listen to me all of you, my younger brothers, sons, united clan and people) berye: şadapı:t begler yırya: tarxat buyruk begler ‘the şadapı:ts and begs on the right (or to the south), the tarxans ministers and begs on the left (or to the north)’ I S 1; Türkü amti: begler kesre: Tarduş begler Kül Çor başlayu: ulayu: şadapı:t begler, öŋre Tölis begler Apa: Tarxan başlayu: ulayu: şada[pı:t] begler ‘now the Türkü begs, to the west the Tarduş begs, all the şadapı:ts and begs with Kül Çor at their head, to the east the Tölis begs, all the şadapı:ts and begs with Apa: Tarxan at their head’ II N 13–14. -
M Räsänen, I Kecskeméti (1969) Versuch eines etymologischen Wörterbuchs der Türksprachenp. 439b, paragraph beginning uig. (Gab.) šadp. 439b, paragraph beginning uig. (Gab.) šad
uig. (Gab.) šad ’Titel des Oberhaupts der West-Hälfte des Türk-Reichs’; šadapit ’eine Klasse des Hochadels’
< ? sgd. γšyδ (+ pit < ir. pati)
