[Smt-talk] Correction

[dec2101 at columbia.edu]

Dear List,

In my post last night I wrote that "bathysphere" is derived from  
_barys_. That's obviously wrong! (It was late!) That word comes from  
the similar _bathys_ ("deep," also "high," like Latin _altus_ which  
also means both depending on the speaker's position). My apologies!

-D.C.
------------------
David E. Cohen
Associate Professor of Music
Columbia University
New York, NY 10027

Quoting dec2101 at columbia.edu:

> Dear Ildar,
>
> In your last post (below) you wrote, "In ancient Greek barus and oxun
> do not mean low and high. Rather, dark and wet against squeaky and
> unpleasant."
>
> Actually, the literal and basic meanings of these words, which the
> ancient Greeks used to denote what we call "low" and "high" pitch, are
> "heavy" and "sharp" or "keen," respectively. (We get words like
> "barometer" and "bathysphere" from _barys_ or [alternative
> transliteration] _barus_; from _oxys_ [or _oksus_] we get "oxygen" and
> "oxymoron.") Hence the standard medieval Latin terms for low and high
> pitch, _gravis_ and _acutus_, which are literal translations of the
> Greek words. To this day we still say that a pitch that is higher than
> it should be is "sharp."
>
> Best,
>
> -David
> --------------
> David E. Cohen
> Associate Professor of Music
> Columbia University
> New York, NY 10027

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