Ignida

From Simon Online
Revision as of 18:34, 10 December 2015 by WilfGunther (Talk | contribs)

(diff) ← Older revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)
Jump to: navigation, search

Ignida acalifex urtica idem sed gnidion dicunt greci.


Apparatus:

Ignida | Ing'da p
acalife AC | acalifex B efjp {the ending –ife is confused with the more common ending -ifex as in artifex}
urtica | urtiga A
gnidion ABC | guidion efjp {'n' misread as 'u'}
etc. add. j

Translation:

Ignida is the same a Greek acalife or Latin urtica {"stinging nettle"}, but the Greeks call it gnidion.


Commentary:

Ignida:
is a Vulgar Latin form of Greek κνíδη /knídē/ "nettle, urtica" and "sea-nettle". The initial consonant cluster /kn-/ does not occur in Latin words - except for Greek loans - and is therefore changed into /gn-/, although even this combination is rare in Latin. Initial /gn-/ even in classical times had in most cases alternative pronunciations, e.g. gnatus or natus, gnosco or nosco, whereas word-internally the combination /-gn-/ was quite common: agnus, cognomen, etc. The addition of a prosthetic vowel makes the cluster word-internal and therefore more familiar: ignida.

Acalife:
two variant forms exist of this word in classical Greek: ἀκαλήφη /akalḗphē/ and ἀκαλύφη /akalýphē/ "stinging-nettle" but also "sea-anemone". Both variants are affected in Simon's times by late Greek sound changes, η > ι {/ē/ > /i/} and υ > ι {/y/ > /i/} resulting in the same pronunciation /akalífi/. Simon's pronunciation is that of a medieval Latin speaker where 'y' is pronounced /i/ and long vowels are largely ignored, leading to /akalífe/.

gnidion:
is corrupted from κνíδιον /knídion/ the diminutive form of κνíδη /knídē/ "nettle, urtica" and "sea-nettle". LSJ also mention a form κνήδιον /knḗdion/ meaning "nettle".

urtiga:
As for urtiga in witness A, it reflects North Italian influenced forms, e.g. Ligurian ortiga, Emilia Romagna urtiga, in contrast to the more southern Italian dialect forms like ortica; cf. also other Romance languages, e.g. Iberian: Catalan, Spanish, Gallego: ortiga, Portuguese: urtiga.

WilfGunther 12:33, 4 December 2014 (UTC)

See also: Urtica, Acalife, Knidi


Next entry