φωνή

Pronunciation

• IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /pʰɔː.nɛ̌ː/^[1]
• IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /ɸoˈni/^[1]
• IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /foˈni/^[1]

Forms

φωνή (phōnḗ) f (genitive φωνῆς); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *pʰōnā́, generally taken as inherited from Proto-Indo-European *bʰoh₂-néh₂, from *bʰeh₂- (“to speak”), with the /o/ grade of the root of φημί (phēmí, “to say”).^[1][2][3] Frisk doubted this: no other certain word shows that vowel grade, and the meanings “sound, voice” and “say” do not quite match.^[2] He preferred a link with Old Church Slavonic звонъ (zvonŭ, “sound”) and Albanian zë (“voice”), from *ǵʰwonos-;^[2] the Πάπυρος dictionary considers that view unlikely.^[3]

Ancient grammarians offered other explanations: one derived it from φάος (pháos, “light”) and νόος (nóos, “mind”), “the light of the mind”, another from φαίνω (phaínō, “to bring to light”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Homer it is the voice and speech of gods and men, and also a shout or cry, as in the Iliad (2.490).^[5][6] In Iliad 17.696 a man's voice “was checked”.^[7]

Semantic evolution

Classical Greek used it for the voice of animals (the Odyssey, Herodotus), for any sound produced by the voice, for battle cries and shouts of praise, and for speech and language;^[5] Aeschylus, Herodotus and Thucydides use it for the dialect of a people.^[5] It also meant any articulate sound, especially a vowel.^[1]

Its derivatives include φωνέω (phōnéō) “to speak, call”.^[1] In Modern Greek φωνή is the voice and a cry; its senses “voice (in music)” and “(grammatical) voice” are learned, partly semantic loans from French voix.^[8] English -phone comes from it.^[9]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad uses it for the voice and for a cry.^[5][6]
• Homer – The Odyssey uses it for the voice of an animal.^[5]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus and Thucydides use it for a people's dialect.^[5][10]
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato uses it for language.^[5][10]
• Modern Greek – φωνή still means voice.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. The faculty of speech.^[5]
2. A voice, of gods, people or animals.^[5][1]
3. A sound uttered, an utterance; a cry, shout.^[5]
4. Speech, language; a dialect.^[5]
5. An articulate sound, especially a vowel.^[1]

Word family

• φωνέω (phōnéō)
• φωνομαχία (phōnomakhíā)

Related words

• English -phone

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
3. ^ a b Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
4. ^ Etygram: ancient etymologies of Greek words, CEPAM, Université Côte d'Azur, http://appsweb-cepam.unice.fr/etygram
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
6. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
7. ^ Rix, Helmut, et al. (2001), Lexikon der indogermanischen Verben, 2nd ed., Wiesbaden: Reichert
8. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
9. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge