Indo-European linguistics and classical philology
L. V. Lukhovitskiy. Say ‘arpha’: St. Ioannikios the Great as a Speech Therapist (pp. 581–590)
Author
L. V. Lukhovitskiy (The Institute of Slavic Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences)
Keywords\n hagiography, Byzantium, miracles, Greek language, speech impediments, pronunciation
Pages\n 581–590
Summary\n
Miraculous cure of dumbness or speechlessness by a saint is a topos of Byzantine hagiography, whereas instances of miraculous healing of particular speech defects (stammering or inability to utter certain sounds) are relatively rare. The paper discusses a mid-9th century context, namely the Life of St. Ioannikios the Great. According to its author Sabas the Monk, Ioannikios cured his devotee’s son of a speech impediment consisting of an inability to pronounce proper r and substituting this sound with l. His manner of speech is described by ψελλίζων ἐτραύλιζεν. This episode, absent in an earlier version of St. Ioannikios’ Life composed by Peter the Monk, remains unknown either to linguists, or historians of Byzantine medicine. It may shed light on a problem of transmission of ancient terminology of speech disorders (Aristotle, Galen) into the Middle Ages and also (if compared with data provided by Byzantine historians and literati, Michael the Grammarian, Michael Psellos, Anna Komnene, Nikephoros Bryennios and Eustathios of Thessalonica) allows to speculate on the Byzantine attitude towards defective vs. normative pronunciation.
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