medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Thank you John for your excellent enlightening aperçu.
Mata
----- Original Message -----
From: John Dillon
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Thursday, April 12, 2007 8:21 PM
Subject: Re: [M-R] CIMITARIUM = ??? Ceme ter y [oi > ê]
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Dear Mata,
On Thursday, April 12, 2007, at 12:28 pm, you wrote, quoting Diana Wright:
> >> the -oi- is frequently replaced by H <<
>
> Maybe a pull based upon koimêstêrion < kOImaô < kEImai ?
Actually, no. Eta for omicron+iota is a widespread late antique and early
medieval pronunciation spelling, reflecting one stage in the process that's
called the simplification of the Greek vowel system. The end result, the
five-vowel system of modern Greek, is certainly a simplification of what had
preceded it. But the process itself was rather complicated, perhaps more so
(because we are dealing with a multiplicity of sounds over time) even than
the vicissitudes of final nu.
For a general introduction to the changes involved, see Robert Browning,
_Medieval and Modern Greek_, 2d ed. (Cambridge U. P., 1983), pp. 25-26 and
56-57. Essentially (and with all sorts of exceptions by locale and probably
by social class), [oi] became [ü] in the Hellenistic period and [ü] became
[i] in late antiquity. [e] and [i] also came together in the Hellenistic
period, leading to spellings in which eta (now pronounced [i]) substituted
for other graphemes of the same pronunciation. When omicron+iota came to be
pronounced [i], it too could be -- and, as Diana has observed, often was --
replaced by eta.
Because Latin _coemeterium_ is a loan word, attested from the late second
century onward, it gets a variety of medieval pronunciation spellings. By
far the most common is _cimi- (or _cime-) terium_, with such modern progeny
as French _cimitière_ and the Italian toponym _Cimitile_. But one also
finds _cymi- (or _cyme-) terium_, reflecting (at least sometimes) the period
when the vowel in question was [ü], and _ceme- (_cemi-) terium_ reflecting
the transition in Latin from [oe] to [e].
Best,
John Dillon
**********************************************************************
To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME
to: [log in to unmask]
To send a message to the list, address it to:
[log in to unmask]
To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion
to: [log in to unmask]
In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to:
[log in to unmask]
For further information, visit our web site:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html
|