Faonia

Faonia arabice peonia .f. pro .p. ponentes et cetera.

Apparatus:

Faonia ACD ef | Faoma B {'ni' misread as 'm'}

peonia ACD ef | peoma B {'ni' misread as 'm'}

et cetera om. B ef

Translation:

Faonia is Arabic for Latin peonia {"peony"}. The Arabs use the sound /f/ instead of /p/, etc.

Commentary:

Cf. Siggel p. 55: ﻓﺎﻭﺍﻧﻳﺎ /fāwāniyā/ Paeonia officinalis (Ranunculac.), Pfingstrose, παιονία {sic!} {i.e. "peony"}.

Obviously the Arabic word is loaned from Greek παιωνία /paiōnía/. Simon explains that since Arabic has no /p/ sound it uses its nearest equivalent in its sound system, which is /f/. However, it should also be mentioned that quite often Arabic /b/ replaces foreign /p/.

See also: Peonia

WilfGunther 12/11/13

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