Faonia

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


Apparatus:

Faonia | Faoma B {'ni' misread as 'm'}
peonia ACD efp | peoma B {'ni' misread as 'm'} | pronia or proma j {'e' misread as 'r'}
et cetera om. B efj


Translation:

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


Commentary:

Cf. Siggel (1950: 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/.

WilfGunther 12/11/13

See also Peonia


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