Psychi

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Psychi grece anima psiche latini proferunt.


Apparatus:

Psychi AC | Psichi B ej | Psichy f | Piͅsichi p
{anima} ms. p adds an attempt to write ψυχή /psykhḗ/ in Greek script
psiche ABC jp | pische ms. e | pysche f
latini | latiny f


Translation:

Psychi is Greek for Latin anima {"soul"}. Latin speakers pronounce it psiche.


Commentary:

Greek ψυχή /psykhḗ/ means "life, departed spirit; soul; conscious self". By Simon's time the itacist pronunciation of Greek was fully established and Greeks would have pronounced this word /psikhí/, the spelling with "y" being purely historical. Although Latin speakers, just like the Greek speakers, would also no longer pronounce "y" like French "u" or German "ü", but like French, Italian "i" or English "ea" in "eat", they would however have preserved some /e/ sound as in English "red" for Greek η "eta", i.e. /ē/, which is in fact the pronunciation Simon portrays.


WilfGunther (talk) 16/01/2014


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