Lainasanatutkimus Virittäjässä ja muualla

Artikkelissa käsitellään suomen kielen lainasanakerrostumien tutkimushistoriaa Suomessa, erityisesti Virittäjän sivuilla, vuodesta 1869 (jolloin Vilhelm Thomse­nin Den gotiske sprogklasses indflydelse på den finske julkaistiin) nykypäivään. Kir­joituksessa keskitytään suomen vanhimpien (esihistoriallisten) lainasanojen käsit­telyyn. Lainasanatutkimus voidaan jakaa kolmeen aikakauteen: nuorgrammaattiseen klassiseen kauteen, pimeään keskiaikaan (äännelaittomuuksien aikaan) sekä strukturalistiseen renessanssiin (uuteen aikaan). Nuorgrammatiikan aika alkoi Thomsenin myötä, ja se oli Virittä­jässä produktiivisen ja korkeatasoisen lainasanatutkimuksen aikaa. Tämä päättyi vä­hitellen 1920- ja 1930-luvulle tultaessa, kun suomalaiset tutkijat ryhtyivät vieroksu­maan lainaetymologioita, joita pidettiin epäisänmaallisina osassa tutkijayhteisöä. Tänä ”omaperäisiä” etymologioita suosineena aikana julkaistiin kuitenkin yksittäisiä laadukkaita lainasanatutkimuksia myös Virittäjän sivuilla. Vuodesta 1970 alkaen Jorma Koivulehto ja seuraajansa veivät lainasanatutkimuksen uuteen aikaan, ja myös Virittäjässä esitettiin useita uusia germaanisia ja balttilaisia sekä joitakin arjalaisia ja muita indoeurooppalaisia lainaetymologioita. Tästä lähtien lainasanatutkimukselle on ollut ominaista strukturalistinen lähestymistapa ja jo Thomsenin painottamien äännesubstituutioiden merkityksen korostaminen. Kuitenkin 2000- ja erityisesti 2010-luvulla lainasanatutkimus on jäänyt Virittäjässä varsin vähäiseen asemaan, vaikka yksittäisiä hyviä lainaetymologioita lehden sivuilla on viime vuosikymmeninäkin julkaistu. Loanword research in Virittäjä and elsewhere The article discusses the history of Finnish loanword research in Finland, especially in the journal Virittäjä, from 1869 (the year when Vilhelm Thomsen’s Den gotiske sprogklasses indflydelse på den finske was published) to the present day, concentrating on the earliest (prehistoric) loanwords in Finnish. The history of loanword research can be split to three distinct periods: the neogrammarian classical age, the dark middle ages (the age of ‘sound lawlessness’) and the structuralist renaissance (the modern age). The classical age started with Thomsen, and in Virittäjä this was a fruitful period featuring many high-quality loan etymologies. This period gradually came to an end during the 1920s and 1930s, when Finnish researchers became more wary of loan etymologies, which were considered by some to be unpatriotic. However, during this period when ‘native’ etymologies were preferred, a number of accomplished loanword studies were published in Virittäjä. From 1970 onwards, Jorma Koivulehto and his colleagues began a revival of loanword research, and Virittäjä too saw the publication of many new Germanic and Baltic etymologies, in addition to several Indo-Iranian and other Indo-European studies. The structuralist approach and the emphasis on sound substitution (already explored by Thomsen) became characteristic of loanword research during this period. However, throughout the 2000s and notably the 2010s, loanword research has become a more peripheral part of Virittäjä’s content, though some good etymologies have been published in the journal during the last two decades.

Semantica ed etimologia dell’armeno hnjan ‘vasca in cui si preme l’uva’

The article deals with the Armenian substantive hnjan, which in the modern language denotes the ‘wine-press’ or a ‘rural hut located on the fields’. An exam of its use in the texts of classical age where it is attested (the translation of the Bible and the History of Armenians of Agathangelos) allows to recognize an original meaning of ‘hole dug for the squeezing and the fermentation of the grapes’. The etymology proposed connects the word with Sanskrit paṅka- ‘mud, mire, dirt, clay; ointment; moral impurity’, and a German cognate represented by Old High German fūhti, fūht, Anglo-Saxon fūht ‘damp, moist’, the German source of the Romance loanwords Italian, fango, French fange, Catalan fanc ‘mud, mire’.

Les aveugles dans l’œuvre de Descartes Contestation ou perpétuation des représentations sociales de la cécité ?

This paper examines Descartes's conception of the blind and blindness in the light of the social representations that the philosopher both distanced and requalified. It first shows that Descartes rationalises the representation of the 'blind seer': the philosopher attributes to people who cannot see a form of vision which, unlike the power of divination that the ancient Greeks attributed to certain people, but also the 'inner gaze' typical of the mysticism of the Classical Age, is not in any way supernatural. Descartes thus helps to undo some of the main prejudices that plague blind people. The article goes on to establish that this rationalisation excludes these people from the knowledge that Descartes places in them: the paradoxical knowledge of the process of vision. Finally, it points out that by valuing the sense of sight in a way that perhaps no philosopher had done before him, Descartes also rationalises the predominantly medieval representation of the 'blind ignorant'. The conclusion of the paper is as follows: this double rationalisation produces the ambivalent idea that many people still have of blindness, namely a deficiency that is very poorly compensated for by an ability to see other than with the eyes. By rehabilitating touch, the Enlightenment produced a conception of it that was both rational and in no way deprived.

Islamic Sexual Perversions and Apostasy Representations: Eastern and Western Classical Law Modern Reformist Mutations

The status of apostasy seems unclear in Islamic jurisprudence of the classical age; it is an act considered traditionally to be a legal vacuum, calling for no corporal punishment (mubah). When a sentence was applied in this case, it would seem that it was due to partisan political reasons, rather than on the basis of real spiritual proper needs. Yet today some conservative ulemas apply this status of excommunication, patterned on the modern Catholic model, to practices considered to be “abnormal,” such as homosexuality. What about the Islamic jurisprudence development, as it is conceived and applied today? What is the position of the so-called majority Islamic authorities in regard to apostasy or the perversion of some Muslim minorities? Moreover, what is the position of these ulemas vis-à-vis the so-called alternative progressive movement, which reject the majority Islamic dogma, in France, Morocco, Egypt and elsewhere in the so-called Arab-Muslim world?

III. Nota in materia di deontologia professionale e onorari nella pratica giuridica romana: giuristi, oratori, avvocati

Note on professional ethics and fees in the Roman legal practice: jurists, orators, advocates. At first sight, there seems to be an accurate terminology for actors of legal assistance in Ancient Rome. Their understanding, however, must be occasionally reassessed in light of the particular context of Roman society in its respective time (such as the relevance of clientela, amicitia, and bureaucracy). Moreover, the legal practice must be analysed to further clarify their understanding. At the end of the Republic and in the Classical Age, the central topics are the links and contradictions between gratuitousness, gratia and remuneration (Cic. off. 2,65,66; D. 50,13). However, there are some actors that are difficult to grasp, such as iuris studiosi. Furthermore, no ideology can be identified concerning an advocate’s duties and countering an unscrupulous practice (Cic. off. 2,51). In Late Antiquity, the notion of key legal professionals grounds on advocati and iuris periti, as can be derived from the Colloquia scholica and in Edictum de pretiis 7,72. This development led to the creeping introduction of a remuneration for the legal profession until its realisation, manifested in Aug. Epist. 153,23.

The Portrait of the King in the Purananuru

There is no disputing the fact that the Purananuru firmly places the king or the chieftain as the central and dominant figure of the classical age. Almost every poem is a paean to his nobility, bravery or generosity. Whether it is fighting a battle or rewarding an indigent poet or defending his capital from an aggressor, the king occupies the centre stage. The rise and fall of his state is in direct proportion to his own rise and fall thereby binding his fortunes with the wellbeing of the society he rules. He is expected to be righteous and just not only for his own sake but for the sake of the kingdom. There is so much riding on the king that a false step will not only ruin him personally but also plunge the whole nation into chaos. It is this synonymy between the king and the state that the Purananuru captures and constructs and by doing so, it constructs the whole of the society and its power structure.

Piissimus and pientissimus: two nonexistent superlatives of pius?

The combined analysis of epigraphic, literary and grammatical sources allows light to be shed on linguistic problems concerning the two superlatives of pius, piissimus and pientissimus, which have been mostly overlooked by scholars to date. Regarding the first superlative, Cicero says that it does not exist in Latin (CIC. Phil. 13.43.9), whereas the second form is exclusively attested in epigraphy, with no occurrences in ancient literary or scholarly texts. Moreover, the morphology of pientissimus cannot be explained according to Classical Latin rules, since the only verb which is semantically related to pius, piare, belongs to the first conjugation (it also does not fit semantically). In the present paper, we will try to demonstrate that piissimus was generally avoided in the literature of the Classical age based on linguistic purism, though it was probably used in colloquial Latin, and definitely normalized as a standard form in the Post-Classical age, as can be seen in both the literary and epigraphic instances of this word. In the case of pientissimus, this may have initially spread in the epigraphic domain, and subsequently entered so-called Vulgar Latin.