Re: Athena(i) Re: Transcription exercise

Henrik Theiling wrote:
> Hi!
>
> Philip Newton writes:
>
>>...
>>(And I vaguely recall an iota hypogegrammenon... but I'm less sure of
>>that. Ray?
Only in the dative singular  :)

The Attic contraction of Ἀθηναία to Ἀθηνᾶ did not occur till the 4th
cent BCE. By that time it is probably nothing to do with loss of
intermediate iota, but rather to do with the shifting of [ai] to [E:],
thus [E:A:] --> [A:]. Certainly there should be no iota hypogegrammenon
(or 'iota subscript) in the nominative form (or indeed any other except
the dative).

>>...
>
>
> In Unicode, it's called '(h)ypogegrammeni' instead of '-on'.
> Which one is correct?
'iota', like all the other letter names, is an indeclinable _neuter_
noun, so clearly 'iota hypogegrammenon' is correct.

Unicode says 'ALPHA WITH YPOGEGRAMMENI' instead of 'alpha with iota
hypogegrammenon' (or, as we used to say at school "alpha with iota
subscript"). In other words, Unicode uses 'ypogegrammeni' to mean 'iota
subscript'. The spelling without initial |h| suggests the Unicode people
are using a modern Greek form; the ending -i also indicates either a
Latinized form (but that would require an initial h-) or a transcribed
modern form. Indeed, on doing a Google search I came across:
ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΟ ΜΙΚΡΟ ΓΡΑΜΜΑ ΑΛΦΑ ΜΕ ΨΙΛΗ KAI ΒΑΡΕΙΑ KAI
ΥΠΟΓΕΓΡΑΜΜΕΝΗ
Greek   small letter  alpha with soft-breathing and grave and
iota-subscript.

It would seem that in modern Greek there is a feminine noun
υπογεγραμμένη meaning "iota hypogegrammenon/subscript"; and Googling on
υπογεγραμμένη clearly confirms this.

So, to answer Henrik's question: both are correct   :)

But don't put an |h| before ypogegrammeni, the modern Greeks don't
pronounce or write the aspirate   :)

--
Ray
==================================
ray@carolandray.plus.com
http://www.carolandray.plus.com
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Nid rhy hen neb i ddysgu.
There's none too old to learn.
[WELSH PROVERB}

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