Re: On the old amber road?

W dniu 2011-06-11 20:09, george knysh pisze:

> ****GK: And there is Ptolemy's "Rougicleioi" cf.
> http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Periods/Roman/_Texts/Ptolemy/2/10.html
>
> (scroll down) why the "k"? Like in the later "S-k-laboi"? Or something
> else? *****

The interpretation of names that ancient authors learnt second-hand and
mangled while writing them down is always risky. The substitution of Gk.
/skl-/ for foreign /sl-/ results from the absence of the latter cluster
in native Greek vocabulary (/skl-/ was the best pronounceable
approximation a Greek speaker could manage). /-ikl-/ for /-il-/ could
not be explained in this way.

Piotr