Questions tagged [loanwords]
The loanwords tag has no usage guidance.
5
votes
1answer
62 views
From which Greek dialect did Hebrew borrow *awēr* “air”?
The Hebrew for "air" is אוויר avir, earlier awīr or awēr. This is obviously a borrowing of the Greek word that appears in Attic as ἀήρ, and would be ἀϝήρ in other dialects. The Hebrew word must have ...
3
votes
0answers
41 views
How were Greek patronymics stressed in Latin?
According to Wikipedia, the Scipios (as in Africanus) were known collectively as the Scīpiadae rather than the Scīpionēs. This was a rather poetic Greek way to say "sons of Scipio", as in the Atreïdae ...
7
votes
2answers
144 views
Do barbarians have nomina?
The word nomen means, literally, "name". But it also refers to the most important part of a Roman citizen's name, the part indicating which gens they belong to.
Barbarian names were frequently ...
5
votes
1answer
82 views
Why choose σ versus σσ in Hebrew loans?
The LXX provides a wide variety of Hebrew, Aramaic, and other Semitic words transcribed into Greek. Most of the transcriptions are straightforward: the letter lamedh ל, for example, is always ...
5
votes
0answers
63 views
Are there well-assimilated Latin words from Semitic languages?
I've generally assumed that Latin words coming from Semitic are usually transformed by Greek: even Elissa is a Greek transcription of the original.
But this answer indicates that the well-attested ...
