Βή
baa
Translated by Catharine Roth7 Aug 2000Vetting: high5 revisions
Translation
Greek original · Adler’s text
Βή τὸ μιμητικὸν τῆς τῶν προβάτων φωνῆς, οὐχὶ βαὶ λέγουσιν Ἀττικοί. Κρατῖνος Διονυσαλεξάνδρῳ· ὁ δὴ λοίσθιος ὥσπερ πρόβατον βὴ βὴ λέγων βαδίζει.
Betacode
*bh/ to\ mimhtiko\n th=s tw=n proba/twn fwnh=s, ou)xi\ bai\ le/gousin *)attikoi/. *krati=nos *dionusaleca/ndrw|: o( dh\ loi/sqios w(/sper pro/baton bh\ bh\ le/gwn badi/zei.
Notes (2)
- Olson B20: 'important evidence for ancient Greek pronunciation, since although the sound the letter beta represents may have changed, sheep still make the same noise they did two and [a] half thousand years ago.'
- 1Or rather, the Attic speakers did not spell it
bai/ . In classical Attic eta was pronounced roughly like the "a" in English "bat"; later it came to be pronounced more like the "e" in "bet." By the time of the Suda, as in modern Greek, eta would have been pronounced like iota, and the spellingbai/ would have better represented the voice of a sheep. ↩ - 2Cratinus fr. 43 Kock, now 45 K.-A.; cf. Aristophanes fr.642 Kock, now 648 K.-A; Varro, De re rustica 2.1. ↩
References
S.D. Olson, Broken Laughter (OUP 2007)
Linked from3 entries
- β336Βληχὴbleating[Bleating] and bleatings: sounds of sheep. Also [sc. attested is] "[they] bleating" in Aristophanes, in Wealth: that is, making such a sound. For 'bleating' is for sheep to make such a sound. And elsewhere: "bleating…
- ε3353Εὐάew-aaAn imitation of the sound [bleat] of a billy-goat. "The billy-goat leapt out of the well bleating the same, ewaa."
- η614Ἦταeta[Meaning] the phoneme [of that name], the letter [of that name].
Neighbouring entries
Revision history5 revisions · last 30 Dec 2014
- another note — David Whitehead
- coding — Catharine Roth
- updated 2 refs — David Whitehead
- tweaking — David Whitehead
- added keyword; cosmetics — David Whitehead
- Translated — Catharine Roth