Ypos

Ypos grece equus sed melius per .i. iota.

Apparatus:

melius om. e

Translation:

Ypos is Greek for Latin equus {"horse"}, but it is better written with the Greek letter iota, "i" {i.e. ipos}.

Commentary:

Cf. Greek ἵππος /híppos/ "horse; mare". Simon is aware of the unetymological spelling with "y", but "Y,y" and "I,i" had become virtually interchangeable in late and medieval Latin.

Psilosis, i.e. the dropping of /h/, and the reduction of double consonants like /pp/ to a single consonant /p/ occurred in Greek as early as the Koine period (300 BC – 300 AD).

Simon's pronunciation and that of his contemporary Greek speakers would have been /ípos/.

WilfGunther 08/01/2013

See also: Ippos

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