Re: [tied] BAN in DAI

At 1:34:42 PM on Saturday, June 14, 2003, S & L wrote:

> In DAI /ie "De Administrando Imperio" by Constantine
> Porphyrogenitus [Greek text edited by Gyula Moravcsik;
> English translation by R.J.H. Jenkins; New, Revised
> Edition, Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, 1967]:

> Chapter 30, pg. 144/145 exists: ?????V = voanos/boanos
> [translated as BAN]

> Chapter 31, pg. 150/151: ??????? = voeanou/boeanou
> [translated as BAN/at gen.(itive)].

> As far as I know, b_beta is pronounced as V in Modern
> Greek and as B in Classical Greek.

According to Horrocks, the weakening of the voiced plosives
to fricatives was complete for most literate speakers by the
4th century CE.

> Now, my question is in which kind/style of language wrote
> Constantine Porphyrogenitus; in Attic or Vernacular Greek
> or a mixed style?

> Does anybody has access to "Greek: A History of the
> Language and Its Speakers" by Geoffrey C. Horrocks [416
> pages, June 1997, Longman Linguistics Library,
> Addison-Wesley Pub Co; ISBN: 0582307090]

> where probably exists, in SECTION II. Byzantium: from
> Constantine I to Mehmet the Conqueror/10. Middle styles in
> Byzantium/10.4.1 Konstantinos VII Porphyrogennetos
> (905-'59), a commentary on Porphyrogenitus's language.

According to Horrocks, the prefatory address to his son is
composed in the 'literary' style that he says he is going to
avoid in the rest of the work. Horrocks goes on to say:

We must not, however, imagine that the emperor wrote the
remainder in a version of the contemporary educated
vernacular. Rather, he uses a range of middle styles that
reflect both his privileged educational background and the
heterogeneity of his source material. In his own original
contributions, therefore, we have something approaching
the contemporary language of scholarship, while excerpted
and/or epitomized passages drawn from the imperial
archives and from earlier chronicles reflect the relevant
administrative and chronographic conventions.

The rest of the section consists of a pair of excerpts, one
higher in style than the other, and a discussion of their
specific stylistic differences.

Brian