This might seem a little far afield, but it adds a different twist to reading “anchiton” on folio 116v of the VMS. Think about the fact that the “s” is silent at the ends of words in some of the Romance dialects (which means it wasn’t always explicitly written in medieval text). Note also that “qui” was sometimes written “chi” (as in Greek) or “ki” (as in some of the old French dialects).

Here’s a clip of the famous phrase for reference:

On folio 116v, consider for a moment that the first letter might be pronounced like French “e” (which is nasal), which might be written as “a” by foreigners (substitutions of “a” for “e” were very common in southern Germany and parts of southwest Germany/Alsace). Thus, medieval variations might include

anchiton o la dabas   or   enkiton o la dabas   or   enquiton o la dabas.

Now, following this idea…this phrase is found in the 12th/13th century Crusade Charters :

“nous saltando enquitons tous les clains et tous http://mccallsnurseries.com/staffcontact les debas,,…”

We can pare this down to, “nous enquitons les debas,…” or simply, “enquitons les debas”.

The “s” letters at the end of enquitons and les are not pronounced. You could write it enquiton le debas* and it would be understood. In fact, in medieval text, the “s” on “les” was sometimes omitted, with singular and plural written the same. Translated, it means, “ask about the debates”.

*The word “debas” is a medieval spelling of debats (debates), so the “t” was sometimes dropped, as well.

In the region where French and Spanish dialects blended, we could interpret “enquitons o la debas” as “inquiries or the debates”. Or, alternately, since the word “and” was sometimes written “e” instead of “et”, it might become “enquiries and the debates” (this is definitely stretching it since the “o” doesn’t look like “e” and these two letters are not swapped as often as “a” and “e”).

There is also the possibility of “en quiton” and “enqui ton” and, in Tsakonian (a western Greek dialect), εγκι (enki), which is the neuter form of “this”.

So, exploring a nasalized “e” written as “a” opens up quite a few possibilities if “a” turns out to be a dead end.

J.K. Petersen

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