Arabic ‘June’ (brutuyūn) and ‘July’ (istiriyūn) in Norman Sicily

Abstract

In Arabic documents issued by the dīwān of the Norman kings of Sicily during the twelfth century, brutuyūn and istiriyūn mean, respectively, ‘June’ and ‘July’. The geographer al-Idrīsī, who completed the Kitāb nuzhat al-mushtāq in Palermo in 1154, also uses istiriyūn for ‘July’. These month-names are derived from Greek *Πρωτοϊούνης, literally ‘first June’, i.e. June, and *Ύστεροϊούνης, literally ‘second June’, i.e. July. The linguistic circumstances in which the coining may have occurred are discussed.