Lexicon for Byzantine Greek

The second volume of the "Lexikon zur byzantinischen Gräzität (LBG) is continued by the release of the sixth fascicle. It includes the major part of words beginning with II. The large extent claimed by this letter is due to the numerous verbal composita beginning with the most productive prepositions "para, peri, pro, pros" (the latter two often reflecting an uncertainty in the manuscript tradition or outdated editions). Competing with these are new words beginning with "pan" or "poly". In addition, one encounters a not inconsiderable number of Latin borrowings, especially from papyri, documents and specialist literature (law, military science etc.), but also words of Slavic or oriental origin. Since the release of the fifth fascicle, there has been an increasing number of new editions which had to be exploited for excerption of quotation. The most important of these (because not quoted suo loco in extenso) are to be found in the supplementary list of abbreviations, along with those of the fifth fascicle. Again, it has been the electronic media that brought about further extension, especially the "Thesaurus Linguage Graecae" (TLG), of which only the most recent internet version is now used for comparisation, and in addition, the supplementary list of papyri by Hagedorn and (for secondary literature) the supplement to the "Repertorio bibliografico de la lexicografia griega. Moreover, early Byzantine papyri have continuously been taken into account by the use of appropriate dictionaries and the CD-Rom released by the Packard Humanities Institute (PHI). On the whole, in comparison to the fascicles of the first volume (A-K, there has been an increase of about 10% i.e. to the same extent as with the fifth fascicle. An additional problem which arose by the temporary discontinuation of Kriaras lexicon after the word "paratheke" has been solved to some extent by the creation of an index of vernacular (even post-Byzantine) texts compiled from already existing word registers, of which the LBG names the respectively most important works along with other lexica at the end of each entry. As a rule, they are dropped in case that reference provided by the other lexica is sufficient. Thus is to be expected that the presently inadequate documentation of the development of posterior Byzantine Greek will be less perceptible.