From: Mr. Gary S. Dykes (yhwh3in1@lightspeed.net)
Date: Tue Apr 11 2000 - 14:40:45 EDT
>Dr. Winbery wrote in part:
> I have been working with Byzantine minuscules a few years also. We can
> multiply samples but always the spelling TG comes in a word that can be
> spelled with TT, never anywhere else to my knowledge. I think therefore
> that it introduces extraneous information into the evidence that has no
> useful purpose. I tend to agree with Metzger here that it should be
> recorded as evidence to TT not TG. It is dificult to think that a scribe
> who has had morning coffee and is alert would think that the word should be
> pronounced KRA-BAT-GON instead of KRA-BAT-TON.
>
> Let me make it clear that this is minor, even picky and that I appreciate
> very much what Swanson has done and am anxious to get the next volume.
>
>
> Dr. Carlton L. Winbery
> Foggleman Professor of Religion
Dykes replies:
Yes, agreed, each oocrrence of this rather odd "-TG" is where orthodox
spelling would have a "TT" or a "SS". I cannot second guess precisely why
the scribe pronounced these -TT- words as such, but he/she did!! But
showing this evidence has a very useful purpose:
(1) In evaluating manuscript families one needs to look for similarities,
and orthography is certainly an area which can assist. Does the "TG"
combination signal a local scriptorium? the same scriptorium? does it
signal a dialectical abberration, hence suggesting the scribe's origin or
location??
(2) Such spellings can assist with dating a minuscule hand, do these
spellings occur in the same period? This information also is very useful
for the palaeographer.
(3) If this were some pervereted ligature, then it can certainly add unique
data to each of the above, if a ligature is it Italian (Grotto Ferrata?)
in
origin, or??
I asked an old friend of mine about this "TG", (the late Professor John
Chadwick of Cambridge), as I suspected an "older" form surfacing. He
suggested this:
"...it may have been an attempt to represent some kind of affricate sound,
possibly "C" (= English ch). The letter G at this date [10th century] would
certainly stand for a voiced velar spirant, as it is in modern Greek. The
sound (CH) is absent from the phonmeic inventory of standard Greek today,
but it is used in some dialects, such as Cretan or Cypriot, where it
represents the result of a palatalised K (e.g. CHe = kai). This
palatalisation occurs only before a front vowel (E or I).....the diminutive
KRABBATION (Modern KRABATI)...would support the idea that it [the -TG-] is
a palatalisation before I, though why they should have preferred this to
the normal KREISSON, I cannot suggest." Dr. Chadwick
(I also inquired about the -TG- in KREITYON.)
Sihler (NEW COMPARATIVE GRAMMAR OF GREEK AND LATIN, page 191) refers to
this spelling as a palatalization reflecting an early sound form, he also
refers to Latin cognates, and early Mycenaean forms, a good article to
read!!
So, in my palaeographically oriented mind, such little abberrations are
important, they add fine data for assisting in determining the age of a
manuscript, and also in understanding some of the dialectical/phonetics of
the scribe and his/her locale. It can also clarify other forms in the same
scribe's hand!!
I suspect other data can be gained as well, but not if we ignore these
important "minor" abberrations. Swanson is to be credited with showing some
of these. Thus his work appeals to palaeographers and historical linguists
as well as just text-critics.
Mr. Gary S. Dykes
Swanson's Errata List -- http://userzweb.lightspeed.net/yhwh3in1/
download a free public domain True Type Greek FONT!! 200 kerned pairs!!
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