On Sun, 28 Jan 2001 16:00:53 -0000, "petegray"
<
petegray@...> wrote:
>> BTW, does that site happen to mention that there is not a single Greek
>> word (except u-psilon) that starts with spiritus lenis + upsilon?
>
>That depends on the dialect! Your statement is true of Attic, of course,
>but untrue of psilotic dialects.
As I'm sure you're aware, the psilotic dialects were never written
with either pneuma psilon or dasu, because the earliest breathing
marks appear in the first centuries AD, when most dialects had already
been replaced by Attic-based Koine. I'm guessing Herodotus must've
spoken psilotic Ionian, yet his History is printed nowadays with rough
breathings, as if it were Attic.
This means that upon seeing the Greek (not otherwise marked, so Attic
or Koine) word <Ytthnia> preceded by a spiritus lenis, the expected
reaction would be to shrug and read on, as it's obviously a typo (the
word is transcribed Huttenia or Hyttenia everywhere else I've seen it)
and not significant in any case (Attic has only hu-, the psilotic
dialects, of course, only u-), rather trying to lecture somebody else
on how to read Greek. The fact that Attic, and as far as I know,
non-psilotic Greek in general, have this soundlaw *u- > hu- is
interesting in itself (and, as far as I'm aware, typologically
unique), which was the other of two reasons for bringing it up here.
=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv@...