σίλβη

Ancient Greek

Etymology

Neumann cautiously compared the word with Hittite [script needed] (šiluḫa, “kind of cake”), which is not possible phonologically; thus he later identified the immediate source in Luwian [script needed] (šiluwa, “kind of cake”). If cognate, it could be a loanword from Anatolian or from Pre-Greek. Yet the -β- is difficult to reconcile with the Hittite form. Since it is a gloss from Hesychius, we cannot be sure whether we are dealing with a loanword or with a transcription of a local word.

Pronunciation

 

• IPA^(key): /síl.bɛː/ → /ˈsil.βi/ → /ˈsil.vi/

• (5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /síl.bɛː/
• (1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /ˈsil.be̝/
• (4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /ˈsil.βi/
• (10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /ˈsil.vi/
• (15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /ˈsil.vi/

Noun

σίλβη • (sílbē)

1. Hesychius' gives the definition as: cake made of barley, sesame and poppyseeds.

Further reading

• “σίλβαι”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN
• Hesychius' Lexicon: σ