Sui valori semantici di mprs. ‘ginocchio’ fra linguistica e filologia

Abstract

This paper reviews all the known attestations of the lexical forms for ‘knee’ in the Middle Persian (both Pahlavi and Manichean) documentation, also including some unpublished texts. The aim is to establish, from a thorough examination of the relevant passages, and also in the light of documentation on modern Iranian languages, any different senses of these Middle Persian forms and the conceptual implications connected to them. The several readings proposed by scholars for these forms have been discussed; the result is that the Middle Persian word for ‘knee’ is šnūg (with prothetic vowel ušnūg in the Bundahišn and išnūg in Manichaean texts) and that the reading zānūg is in fact a very rare variant. New interpretations for a few debated passages (such as Vendidad 13.48 and 18.11) have been suggested.