[B-Greek] OWLS Re: Josephus Ant. 18.6.7

George F Somsel gfsomsel at yahoo.com
Tue Aug 21 10:59:35 EDT 2007


Or perhaps both the Latins and the Greeks derived it from a common source which is also not unknown.  Josephus, however, though writing in Greek refers to the Romans as the ones using the word.
 
george
gfsomsel
 
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----- Original Message ----
From: "frjsilver at optonline.net" <frjsilver at optonline.net>
To: Carl W. Conrad <cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu>
Cc: B-Greek <B-Greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Tuesday, August 21, 2007 9:46:14 AM
Subject: [B-Greek] OWLS Re: Josephus Ant. 18.6.7


Dear Friends --

Is it even remotely possible that the word came from Greek into Latin?  That happens a lot, too, and sometimes gets passed back or into other languages.

I can't remember where I got this, but a LONG time ago I heard that BOUBO was what AQHNH called her pet owl.  

Perhaps, in preclassical Greek, owls said 'bOOOOoooooooo' instead of 'hOOOOOoooooo'.

Of course, MG owls say 'vOOOOoooooo'.  Just like ARISTOFANES quotes sheep as saying BH BH, but those sheep who speak with a Modern Greek accent apparently say 'veeeee veeeee'.

(This is one of the arguments against MG pronunciation of ANCIENT texts;  MG works just fine for hellenistic, scriptural, patristic, and liturgical Greek.)

Anyway, we don't hold their accent against them -- they're just as tasty either way, and some of the recipes are VERY ancient.

Peace and blessings to all.

Father James Silver
(who cut some grape leaves just yesterday to make a few hundred DOLMADES or NTOLMADES, if you prefer:  like lamb, they're just as good either way, and they might make you big and strong, too if you don't stuff yourSELF -- just one of the many good things, like the coffee,) we got from Anatolia (we're not supposed to say 'Turkey' SSSHHHHH!)  [[;-D3 

----- Original Message -----
From: "Carl W. Conrad" 
Date: Tuesday, August 21, 2007 6:13 am
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Josephus Ant. 18.6.7
To: "Thomas J.Kraus" 
Cc: B-Greek 

> 
> On Aug 21, 2007, at 4:21 AM, Thomas J. Kraus wrote:
> 
> > Dear Colleagues,
> >
> > In his Antiquitates judaicae 18.6.7 Flavius Josephus writes:
> > BOUBWNA DE hOI RWMAIOI TON ORNIN TOUTON KALOUSIN.
> >
> > My major interest is on BOUBWNA: recently I found in an essay 
> that 
> > BOUBWN
> > should have been integrated into Greek from Latin bubo. 
> Another form
> > mentioned that should correspond with Latin bubo should be 
> BUAS 
> > (but I do
> > not see any morphological link with this).
> >
> > Questions:
> > (1) Does anybody know anything about such a link (is it plausible)?
> > (2) Does anybody know other instances in which BOUBWN (or 
> BUAS) are 
> > used?
> >
> > Thanks in advance for reflecting about this
> > semantic/etymological/morphological issue.
> 
> I'm not sure that I fully understand the question. The sentence 
> cited 
> pretty clearly indicates that BOUBWN (gen. BOUBWNOS) is a 
> Hellenized 
> form of the Latin word BUBO (gen. BUBONIS); this is very much 
> like 
> other "loan-words" taken into Greek from Latin, such as proper 
> names, 
> KIKERWN (gen. KIKERWNOS) from Latin CICERO/CICERONIS or 
> AUGOUSTOUS/OU 
> from Latin AUGUSTUS/I.
> 
> LSJ does have an entry for BUAS:
> βύας, ου, ὁ, [BUAS, OU, hO] eagle-owl, Strix bubo, 
> Arist.HA592b9 (v.l. βρύας [BRUAS]) βύας ἔβυξε [BUAS 
> EBUXE] an owl hooted, D.C.56.29, 72.24. (Onomatop.)
> 
> It's interesting that BUAS is a first-declension masculine (it 
> has to 
> be with a genitive in -OU). It could very well be that it is 
> etymologiclly derived from the same IE root as the Latin BUBO, 
> but 
> the Josephus entry simply gives a Latin name for the bird in his 
> 
> narrative account.
> 
> Carl W. Conrad
> Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
> 
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