Yle

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Yle grece materia silva inde ylikos silvestris.


Apparatus:

inde B efp | vide j | vnde AC
{silva} ms. p adds an attempt at writing ὕλη /hýlē/ in Greek script
ylikos AC efj | ilicos B | ylibros p {'k' misread as 'br'}


Translation:

Yle is Greek for Latin materia {"matter"} or silva {"wood, forest"}, and ylikos means silvestris {"concerning woodland"}.


Commentary:

Yle:
Greek ὕλη /hýlē/ is of course well-known because it occurs in the title of Dioscorides' pharmacopoeia and herbal: Περὶ ὕλης ιατρικής /Perì hýlēs iatrikḗs/, which was translated into Latin as De materia medica.

The basic meaning of ὕλη /hýlē/ is "forest, woodland; brushwood", then "thing made of wood" and in a wider sense "of other materials", then "material" and ὕλη ιατρική /hýlē iatrikḗ/ loosely translates as "material needed by a physician", which was at the time mainly of herbal origin.

ὑλικός /hylikós/ is the adjective derived from ὕλη /hýlē/.

Simon's transcription shows a medieval pronunciation with loss of /h/, where the sound /y/ had changed to /i/ irrespective of the spelling with "y", and Greek native speakers would by now pronounce η {=/ ē/} as ι {= /i/} resulting in /íli/. But Italian Latin speakers retained an /e/ sound, but without vowel lengthening, pronouncing the word /íle/. It is possible that Simon had the plural of ὕλη /hýlē/ in mind, i.e. ὗλαι /hŷlai/, which would be pronounced /íle/ by medieval Latin speakers and Greek native speakers alike, but Simon's translation silva "wood, forest" in the singular makes this less likely.

ylikos:
The adjective ὑλικός /hylikós/ is pronounced /ilikós/ by itacist speakers.


WilfGunther (talk) 18:39, 27 March 2016 (BST)


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