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Βλίτυρι, σχινδαψός, κνάξ : άσημοι φωναί?

• Κοτζιά-Παντελή, Π.

The words βλίτυρι and σχινδαφός are standard examples of άσημοι φωναί (meaningless words), in texts of Late Antiquity, especially those dealing with logic and/or fundamental concepts in the theory of language. Occasionally, a third άσημος φωνή, the word χνάξ, is used along with the other two. In the present study, the use of these words as both άσημοι and σημαντικά ι φωναί (meaningful words) in the texts of Greek literature is examined. Comprehensive investigation of the relevant sources shows that, when not used as standard examples of άσημοι φωναί, these three words do have meaning — as a matter of fact, they have more than one. In addition to this polysemy, they have another characteristic in common, their association with magic formulae. However, there seems to be a basic difference between the words σκινδαφός and βλίτυρι: while the former is encountered as having a meaning (= stringed musical instrument of oriental origin) from as early as the 4th century B.C., that is, long before its employment as an instance of άσημος φωνή, the polysemy of the latter — a t least as far as it can be established from the extant texts— is a result of its collocation with the word σχινδαφός, with which it belongs to the same semantic area (βλίτυρι = the sound made by the string of a σχινδαφός?). The association of these two words may well have happened in some literary work (comedy?) or some magic formula. In any case, this collocation lent itself readily for the discussion on the nature of άσημοι φωναί, because βλίτυρι and σχινδαφός fall under two distinct categories: 1. words standing for sounds, especially those of musical instruments [βλίτυρι; cf. φλαττόθρατ, θρεττανελό in Aristophanes, and τήνελλα in Archilochus); these words did indeed have the characteristics of λέξεις, but not the fundamental property of λέξεις σημαντιχαί, which is «to signify the concept of a thing», and 2. words with more than one meaning, whose main characteristic is ασάφεια (σκινδαψός; cf. the discussions on the nature of homonyms, which went on until as late as the 2nd century A.D., as one can see in passages in Galen and in texts of the ancient commentators on Aristotle. On the other hand, the seldom used κνάξ, probably connected with the Alexandrian scholarly tradition, is typical of another category of meaningless words, viz. the άγνωστοι and «βάρβαροι» words, which were used, as being more effective, in the language of prayers and magic.

• Languages and Literature

• Γλωσσολογία

Μια πρώτη μορφή της μελίτης αυτής παρουσιάστηκε στο Dano-Hellenic Symposium on Greek and Latin Philosophy in the Middle Ages, που έγινε στο Ινστιτούτο της Δανίας στην Αθήνα από τις 11 ως τις 14 Νοεμβρίου 1993