Latin -io(n) > Greek ιων/-εων
Posted: September 19th, 2021, 6:12 am
I wondered why two latin words, legio and regio, became Greek loanwords λεγιων/λεγεων and ρεγιων/ρεγεων: why the two different forms of the words -ιων and -εων? They probably had a different pronunciation in Greek. One would expect Latin -ion > Greek -ιων, but the most common form seems to have been Greek -εων.
Some background, why this is important to me:
The Gothic bible transcribes λεγεων (RP2005)/λεγιων (NA28) with laigaion (-ai- in this case is not a Diphthongue but an open short vowel -e- like in English "end"). A similar Gothic transcription of the Greek name συμεων > swmaion, shows, that the Gothic -aion ist the rendering of a Greek -εων. Greek -ιων would have become a Gothic -ion (like in Σιων > Sion).
The Gothic people had contact with Roman Forces before the translation of the Bible-Texts, so probably they already knew the Latin words legion/region. But in that case I would have expected the transcription with -ion instead of -aion, unless the Latin-speaking Roman soldiers pronounced the -ion as -eon (with a short open vowel -e-).
Some statistics:
TLG gives 21 Instances of λεγιων and 54 of λεγεων; ρεγιων/ρεγεων: 0 ;
my Migne-PG-Corpus has λεγεων: 104, λεγιων: 7; ρεγεων: 11, ρεγιων: 0.
Pape, Passow and Bailly just have λεγεων, no λεγιων and neither ρεγεων, nor ρεγιων.
LSJ has λεγεων/λεγιων and ρεγεων/ρεγιων
Probably -εων was the most common form in Greek.
Some background, why this is important to me:
The Gothic bible transcribes λεγεων (RP2005)/λεγιων (NA28) with laigaion (-ai- in this case is not a Diphthongue but an open short vowel -e- like in English "end"). A similar Gothic transcription of the Greek name συμεων > swmaion, shows, that the Gothic -aion ist the rendering of a Greek -εων. Greek -ιων would have become a Gothic -ion (like in Σιων > Sion).
The Gothic people had contact with Roman Forces before the translation of the Bible-Texts, so probably they already knew the Latin words legion/region. But in that case I would have expected the transcription with -ion instead of -aion, unless the Latin-speaking Roman soldiers pronounced the -ion as -eon (with a short open vowel -e-).
Some statistics:
TLG gives 21 Instances of λεγιων and 54 of λεγεων; ρεγιων/ρεγεων: 0 ;
my Migne-PG-Corpus has λεγεων: 104, λεγιων: 7; ρεγεων: 11, ρεγιων: 0.
Pape, Passow and Bailly just have λεγεων, no λεγιων and neither ρεγεων, nor ρεγιων.
LSJ has λεγεων/λεγιων and ρεγεων/ρεγιων
Probably -εων was the most common form in Greek.