Re: dhuga:ter ('LARYNGEALS')

----- Original Message -----
From: Piotr Gasiorowski
To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Tuesday, March 25, 2008 11:47 PM
Subject: [Courrier indésirable] Re: [tied] Re: dhuga:ter ('LARYNGEALS')


On 2008-03-25 23:01, fournet.arnaud wrote:

> Latin persona comes from Greek praisopeia (sp?) via
> Etruscan phersu, where it meant "mask"
>
> ============
>
> Are we sure of this ?
>
> Arnaud

If you want 100% certainty, do mathematics, but Gk. próso:pon and
proso:peîon do mean 'an actor's mask, character' among other things, so
the derivation is unimpeacheable semantically and plausible formally.
Already in late antiquity there was a folk-etymological explanation of
<perso:na> via <per-sona:re> 'sound through', but it can't be taken
seriously.

Piotr

===============
Dear Piotr

Thank you for your synthesis.

Now as for
Unimpeacheable semantically :

I cite Mai^tre Meillet :

"le rapport est difficile à déterminer"
"persona n'a jamais le sens de "figure, figure"

Meillet even wonders if there is not some influence
of persona upon proso:pon !!

Arnaud

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