Year: 1989
Type: article
Abstract: Illinois Classical Studies, III appearance in Latin, contain, within various lists of victuals, nine occur- rences of the suffixed variant Tovpriov {P.Ryl.IV, p. 202, s.v. ; with penultimate stress as in I. Kalleris, 'Eirerripls 'Eraipelas Bv^avrivcov UttovScov 23 [1953] 694).The provenience of these papyri and the additional testimony of the grammarian's remark that the rovpra is prepared with dates, indicate the area of the term's origin: Egypt.The Egyptian designation of the bread must have been borrowed by the Romans in Egypt, not later than the fourth century.The Egyptian bi- morphemic base, we suggest, was t-rth "baked bread," consisting of the constituents t "bread" and rth, a participle, "baked" (the vocalization is unknown).The Egypt, bread t-rth had been, for a long time, part of ritual offerings, and was recorded as such up to Roman times.In various rustic areas of Italy, above all Umbria and the Trentino, torta is still, as in its distant origins, a cake baked under hot ashes.2. Bernicarium "nitrum, glass, vessel" {Romance Philology 14 [1960][1961] 289-294) Nirpia, famed center of Egyptian nitrum production, was located near Naucratis.It was also known as BepevLKTj in Greek and as Pernoudj in Coptic.The product was called ^epevLKiovjpep(€)vLKdpiov. The latter derivative is used for Egyptian nitrum in Galen, and it recurs in an alchemistic third-century papyrus as vlrpov ^epviKccpLov [P.Leid.II, pap. 10, pag.13. 16-17 [= p. 239]).The derivative survives but changes its referent: from the chemical it shifts to glass, from glass to a medieval receptacle, widely used in the Catalan-Proven^al-North Italian area; it appears at times with the inherited suffix -ariu (Catal.berniguier), at times with the secondary suffixes -ale (Fr.vernigal) or -atu (Ital.vernicato).3. Gulf {Romance Philology 27 [1973][1974] 46-49)Gulf, the geographical term, is clearly related to synonymous Gr. koXttos, yet the phonological bridge, p -^f i.e.," stop -> spirant, long remained a puzzle.The papyri shed light on the problem: KoXcpo's is the Egyptian form of the lexeme.Thus, the papyri document KoXcpos "bay" in the third century, in Alexandria {P.Mich.VIII 514.30) and its semantic variant KoXcpos "bosom" since the third century (Pap.from Karanis 2.20, ap. A. E. R. Boak and H. C. Youtie, Aegyptus 31 [1951] 324), most strikingly in the characteristically Egyptian sepulchral formula et? Kopcpov Tov 'A^padfj."in Abraham's bosom," found in Upper Egypt in the sixth century {P.Oxy.XVI 1874.16).The change reflects a vagueness of boundaries between stops and aspirates, which is a typical feature of the Egyptian dialect within the Greek koine: either tt or 9 may appear.
Source: PubMed
Authors: Henry Kahane, Renée Kahane
Language: English
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2594267