Posted by Victor Mair

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[This is a guest post by Chau Wu]

The word 奴隷 Jpn dorei (ドレイ) / Tw lô·-lē ‘slave’ is of great interest to me. My study of West-to-East lexical loans suggests that the origin of this word is Ancient Greek δοȗλos (doȗlos, m.) and δοȗλα (doȗla, f.), which mean ‘slave’. The figure below is a funerary stele of Mnesarete, daughter of Socrates (not the philosopher), showing a female servant facing her deceased mistress. There are some other terms for slave in Ancient Greek, depending on the context, but doȗlos and doȗla are historically the most commonly used, from Mycenean, Homer, Classical, Koine, down to Modern Greek.

Figure. Funerary stele of Mnesarete, daughter of Socrates (not the philosopher*); a young servant (left) is facing her dead mistress. Attica, c. 380 BC.

(From Glyptothek, Munich, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons)

*"Grieve for Mnesarete", Ancient World Magazine (6/20/18).

The forms doȗlos (m.) and doȗla (f.) are the nominative case; the vocative case for both genders is δοȗλε (doȗle). I believe it is this form that slave owners would use to call their slaves if not by name. And this is most likely the form heard and taken to be the word for ‘slave’ by foreign borrowers. Hence, we have: Anc.Gk. doȗle > [Intermediate(s)] > Jpn dorei. Taiwanese lacks the voiced plosive /d/; therefore, foreign d is usually substituted with an l (or sometimes with a t).

Thus, an equation may be proposed for the loan transfer:

Anc. Gk. doȗle (voc.) > [Intermediate(s)] > Jpn dorei /Tw lô·-lē 奴隷

However, things may not be as simple and naïve as the above equation suggests. The current situation shows that an n- initial for 奴隷 distributes widely in the vast majority of Sinitic topolects (e.g., MSM núlì) as well as in Sino-Korean (noye 노예) and Sino-Vietnamese (nô lệ). This is also reflected chronologically as early as in the Buddhist transcription data of Eastern Han dynasty, showing 奴 being used to transcribe for the Indic [no] sound, e.g., Skt. anomiya / Pali anomā is transcribed as 阿奴摩 (*ˀa-no-ma >) ˀȃ-nwo-mwȃ (Coblin, W.S., 1983, A Handbook of Eastern Han Sound Glosses, p. 254).  [VHM:  Wisdom Library]   So, the n- initial is widely and deeply entrenched in Sinitic.

To account for the non-nasal initial in the Japanese and Taiwanese data, there are two possibilities. One is that they represent descendants of an early stage of borrowing before nasalization took place. It is known that the Min topolects are the most archaic group of Sinitic languages, having split off from the mainstream during the Qín 秦 and Hàn 漢 dynasties, around second or third centuries BC (Schuessler, A., 2007, ABC Etymological Dictionary of Old Chinese, p.1 & p.125). They are thereby unaffected by the later nasalization. I did not know how to explain the Japanese data, but now with John Whitman’s excellent explanation of d ~ n alternation (in the previous post on this subject), which is related to the second possibility (vide infra), my problems are resolved.

The other possibility is that both Japanese and Taiwanese are descendants of Middle Chinese which already has an n- initial. Pulleyblank reconstructs nɔ-lεj^h for 奴隷 in Early Middle Chinese (Pulleyblank, E.G. 1991, Lexicon of Reconstructed Pronunciation in Early Middle Chinese, Late Middle Chinese, and Early Mandarin, p. 227 & p.189). In Japanese and Taiwanese, 奴 has undergone a secondary de-nasalization, resulting in the present non-nasal forms. If the Anc. Gk. doȗle is taken as the source for 奴隷, this is in essence a round-about route from d- to n- and then back to d- again (and Tw l-).

A similar situation arises for the proposed derivation of the Sinitic word for ‘cow’ 牛 niú from PIE *g^wou- (nom. sg. *g^wōus) as discussed in a previous post in Language Log.

Understanding the interplay between nasalization and de-nasalization in loan processes may hold the key to unlock a treasure trove of secret relationships between European source words and their Asian descendants.

Selected readings

"Sino-Japanese n- / d- initial interchange" (101/25)

"Stay hyDRAEted" (9/29/25)

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Afterword on Mnesarete 

VHM

The Mnesarete (meaning 'remembering virtue'), mentioned above as the daughter of a certain Socrates, is not the same as the other famous Mnesarete, better known as Phryne, mentioned in Athenaeus' The Deipnosophists.

Phryne: The Ancient Greek Courtesan Who Disrobed For Her Freedom – GreekReporter.com

Theodoros Karasavvas (April 16, 2025)

Phryne Before the Areopagus
Artist	Jean-Léon Gérôme
Year	1861
Medium	Oil on canvas
Dimensions	80.5 cm × 128 cm (31.7 in × 50 in)
Location	Kunsthalle Hamburg, Hamburg

Wikipedia — and see this article for other artistic renditions of this celebrated scene

Click here for a large, high-resolution reproduction of this painting.  Note how stunned the judges are upon beholding her naked body.

A depiction of Phryne, a famous hetaera (courtesan) of Ancient Greece, being disrobed before the Areopagus. Phryne was on trial for profaning the Eleusinian Mysteries, and is said to have been disrobed by Hypereides, who was defending her, when it appeared the verdict would be unfavourable. The sight of her nude body apparently so moved the judges that they acquitted her. Some authorities claim that this story is a later invention.

Because of the intrinsic interest of this gripping story, and to clarify certain confusing aspects it bears with the illustration above, we quote the account as given in the Greek Reporter:

Phryne the Thespian was a notable ancient Greek hetaira, or courtesan, of Athens, who is remembered throughout the millennia for her dramatic trial which she won by baring her naked body.

Her real name name was Mnesarete, but people referred to her as Phryne (“toad”) because of the yellow undertone of her skin.

Her story has survived for thousands of years with the famous model and courtesan becoming a symbol of freedom against sexism, as well as repression disguised as piety.

Phryne was born around 371 BC in Thespiae (Boeotia) but spent most of her life in Athens. Because of her stunning looks, she became a model, posing for various painters and sculptors, including Praxiteles, who was also one of her most frequent clients.

Unlike most Athenian women, who rarely left their homes and had very little voice in society, courtesans like Phryne were granted much more freedom.

They could leave the home and were seen as educated and intelligent so that they could have engaging discussions with their clients.

One of the statues Praxiteles modeled after Phryne, the Aphrodite of Cnidus, was purchased by the city of Cnidus in Kos after the city that had originally commissioned it objected to its being a nude. The statue became such a notable tourist magnet that the city managed to pay off its entire debt.

Phryne’s beauty also became the subject of many ancient Greek writers, who praised her looks, with Athenaeus openly worshiping her in his work titled The Deipnosophists.  From this work we also know that Phryne was the wealthiest self-made woman in all Athens at the time.

She became so rich and powerful during her lifetime that she even proposed paying for the reconstruction of the walls of Thebes, which had been destroyed by Alexander the Great in 336 BC.

Intimidated by the idea that a female model and courtesan could restore what a great king like Alexander the Great had destroyed, Phryne’s offer was rejected by the local authorities of Thebes, and the walls remained in their ruined condition.

Regardless of her incredible wealth and beauty, and prominent clients, what keeps the memory of Phryne alive to this day is her famous trial.

According to Athenaeus, Phryne was prosecuted on a capital offense and was defended by the orator Hypereides, one of her lovers. Athenaeus does not specify the nature of the charge, though some other historical sources state that she was accused of profaning the Eleusinian Mysteries.

Although there is great debate among scholars about what really happened that day in court, Athenaeus wrote that Hypereides tore off Phryne’s dress in the middle of the courtroom to show the judges her beautiful body.

His reasoning was that only the gods could sculpt such a perfect body; thus, killing or imprisoning her would be seen as blasphemy and disrespect to the gods.

What appeared to be an unfavorable verdict for Phryne turned into a glorious victory for her after the inspired action of Hypereides.

Phryne walked out the court triumphant, and her story went on to inspire many works of art, including the iconic painting Phryne before the Areopagus by Jean-Léon Gérôme (1861) and the sculpture Phryne Before the Judges, by Albert Weine, from 1948.

Additionally, Baudelaire wrote two poems about her, the composer Saint-Saëns wrote an opera about her (Phryne, 1893), and several modern writers have penned novels about her controversial trial.

There's an embedded video near the end of the above account which has a lot to say about community forum deliberations in Athenian life and the role of slaves in an Athenian household.

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