Nephili

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Nephili grece nubis nephele nubes et cetera.


Apparatus:

Nefili efjp | Nefeli B | Neplili AC | Nephili scripsi WilfGunther
nubis | nubes ms. e
{nubis} ms. p adds an attempt to write νεφέλη /nephélē/ in Greek script
nephele AC | nefele B efp | nefile j
nubes | nubis ms. e
et cetera add. AC


Translation:

Nephili is Greek for Latin nubis {"cloud"}, {the plural} nephele is in Latin nubes {"clouds"}, etc.


Commentary:

Greek νεφέλη, Classic pronunciation: /nephélē/, means "cloud, mass of clouds", in the itacist pronunciation this becomes /neféli/; its plural νεφέλαι Classic /nephélai/ is pronounced /neféle/ in late Greek. It is these late Greek pronunciations that Simon is aiming to transcribe.

Witness B, the early Zarotus print (1473), shows a phonetic Nefeli and nefele, but in the editions that followed it a misreading crept in that was thoughtlessly adopted by most consequent prints: Nepheli/Nephili was misread as Neplili.


WilfGunther (talk) 29/12/2013


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