Questions tagged [loanwords]
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12
questions
8
votes
1answer
683 views
What can we say about the pronunciation of Z?
The letter Z was borrowed into the Latin alphabet in order to transcribe Greek loanwords, along with Y.
Presumably, educated Latin-speakers pronounced it like its source, Greek zeta. However, Greek ...
5
votes
1answer
155 views
βυκάνη < būcina: vowel reduction undone in borrowings from Latin?
So I've come across this word βῡκάνη, ostensibly borrowed from Latin būcina ('an ox-horn trumpet'), from bou- ('ox') + canere ('to sing'). The lack of vowel reduction is immediately striking; ...
8
votes
4answers
2k views
Are "μπ" and "ντ" indicators that the word didn't exist in Koine/Ancient Greek?
I am learning Modern Greek on Duolingo, in the hopes that it will help me learn Koine and Ancient Greek, eventually. I have also watched a few other videos, like this one:
https://www.youtube.com/...
10
votes
2answers
707 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
65 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
301 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
302 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
156 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 ...
4
votes
0answers
56 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
193 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
174 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 ...
7
votes
2answers
249 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 ...