Bubon

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Bubon grece inguen liber de doctrina greca vuvon.


Apparatus:

vuuon C | uuuon p | vunon A | unuon B | vnuon f | vrtion ms. e


Translation:

Bubon is Greek for Latin inguen {"groin; privy member; swelling in groin" (Lewis & Short)} and according to the Liber de doctrina greca it is {pronounced} vuvon.


Commentary:

Greek βουβών /bubṓn/ means "groin; swollen gland" (LSJ). The late Greek and medieval pronunciation shows these sound changes: /b/ > /v/ and /ō/ > /o/ resulting in /vuvón/.

This pronunciation proves particularly difficult to represent in medieval writing since the letters 'V, v' and 'U, u' were then usually not distinguished, although 'V,v' was sometimes - but by no means always - used in preference word-initially. In this situation /vuvón/ can be written vuuon as in C or uuuon as in p. Scribes with little or no knowledge of Greek were bound to be confused, especially since the word also ends in /-n/, and the letter 'n' is often confused with 'u' as happened in AB and f. Ms. e shows a very aberrant rendering.

The Liber de doctrina greca has so far not been identified.

WilfGunther 18:07, 14 January 2015 (UTC)


See also: Bubonocilli, Bubonocelon

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