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nient’ appears to be a derivative of the stative verb *dhabh- ‘to be appropriate’,
formed according to a productive model. The base verb, however, is
not attested in the Aryan/Greek/Armenian dialectal area of the Indo-
European, which makes one wonder whether it might represent an innovation
of the Central European dialects, or even a borrowing from the Central
European substrate. In both cases, Arm. darbin ‘blacksmith’ emerges as an
isolated formation.
An attempt has been made to show that a cognate of Arm. darbin is attested
in Anatolian, a sister language family of the classical Indo-European.
H. Eichner (1975: 81, fn. 5) compared the discussed form with the Hittite
royal title tabarna- / labarna- that is also attested as a Hittite personal name.
If one accepts this proposal, then the form *dhabhro- (vel sim.) is to be
reconstructed for the common ancestor language of Indo-European and
Anatolian, referred to as Indo-Hittite or Early Indo-European. Consequently,
the absence of the base-form *dhabh- in the Aryan/Greek/Armenian
dialectal area must be deemed accidental, and the Indo-European antiquity
of Arm. darbin would appear to be vindicated.
Yet, subsequent research has shown that Eichner’s suggestion stumbles
upon very serious morphological difficulties. The Hittite royal title tabarna-
/ labarna- can be unprobrematically derived from the well-attested Luwian
stem tabar- ‘to rule’, and therefore –r- does not appear to represent an adjectival
suffix in this case. There are no indications whatsoever that the stem
tabar- meant anything like ‘to be good’, or ‘to be appropriate’ in Anatolian.
As a matter of fact, some forms, like LABRANIOS, an epithet of Zeus attested
in Cyprus, or λαβύρινθος , the name of the royal palace in Crete (the
Labyrinth), which is so prominent in Greek mythology, indicate that the
root *δabar- (vel sim.) is likely to represent the Mediterranean (non-Indo-
European) substrate term pertaining to the sphere of kingship. I have defended
this thesis at length in Yakubovich 2002: 93-116. While many details
of my conclusions cannot be regarded as generally accepted at the
present time, the formal incompatibility of Hitt. tabarna- / labarna- and
Arm. darbin is now acknowledged by C. Melchert, the leading American
authority in Anatolian studies (Melchert, 2003: 19, fn. 18).
Since the genetic comparison does not provide a satisfactory solution,
one can explore a theory that the Armenian word for ‘blacksmith’
represents a lexical borrowing. I suggest that Arm. darbin must be connected
with Hurrian tabrinni- ‘blacksmith’, the meaning of which is now
secured by its attestation in a passage from the Hurrian and Hittite bilingual
literary text known as "The Song of Release". This curious passage contains
a fable about a metallic vessel that rebelled against the craftsman who produced
it, and who was subsequently punished (see Wegner 2000: 192 ff. for
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