Questions tagged [loanwords]
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9
questions
9
votes
2answers
331 views
Present participles of the verb esse
Inspired by the answers to this question, I want to ask about the different present participles of esse over time and their fate. I am aware that esse is a defective verb that classically does not ...
2
votes
1answer
45 views
What are the conventions for transcribing Semitic languages into Latin?
(Inspired by this question)
Latin definitely had contact with Semitic languages over the course of its existence, most notably Punic. When words and names from these languages were transcribed into ...
7
votes
1answer
242 views
What are the conventions for transcribing Semitic languages into Greek?
The surviving Koine Greek corpus contains quite a lot of transcribed Semitic words, borrowed from Hebrew, Aramaic, and maybe others. (For example, the LXX is full of Hebrew names.)
Were there ...
5
votes
2answers
270 views
Does any Greek word have a geminate consonant after a long vowel?
I recently noticed a pattern in loans from Hebrew into Greek: the letter šin (or sin, or łin if you're really archaic) is transcribed σσ after a short vowel, σ elsewhere.
My knowledge of Classical ...
5
votes
1answer
70 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
42 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
156 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 ...
8
votes
2answers
138 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
68 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 ...
