Re: res nata

--- Ray Brown <ray.brown@...> wrote:

> > Ens doesn't show up in Classical Latin,
> > but does in later writing.
>
> It does show up in the 1st cent CE. Quintilian
> has the
> it; and according to Priscan it was first by
> Caesar -
> which would put it as early as the 1st cent.
> BCE.
Cool. Didn't know that! Grandgent's "VL" reveals
"nec ente" or "ne ente" as an equivalent for
nihil; so there's niente. For that Italian one,
nessuno, I think nepsunus (ne ipse unus) looks
like a good ancestor.

> It could have entered colloquial speech.  But
> the 'ne'
> is unexplained.  The Classical _ne_ (with long
> 'e') is
> 'lest' or negative with certain subjunctive
> constructions.
> In any case, if 'ens' is being used as a noun,
> then we
> ought to have _nullum ens_.
Could be weakened from non? A la French (and
later English) "ne"? It looks very much, from
Grandgent, that VL made good use of "ne" as a
regular negative particle. It's use with the
subjunctive is Classical and was taken over by si
and non.

> The two problems with deriving Romanian _nimic_
> from _ne mica_
> are:
> - Romanian doesn't drop the ending -a (it
> remains as [@], written
> a-breve)
As I said, Romanian does have nimica as well.

> - where does the supposed Vulgar Latin *ne come
> from?
See above.

> > Noi n-am v„zut nimic! = Ne couidem nus mick!
> > (We didn't see a thing!)
> >
> > I understand that Romanian is fond of such
> > negative constructions,
>
> All the Romance langs are AFAIK.
But they tend to lose them, if ever they all had
the construction... Certainly Spanish and
Catalunyan lack this kind of negation; I don't
know Portuguese well enough to say, but would be
surprised if it had it.

No ens vol adudar? No vais a ayudarnos? N' rhen
ar aidar-nus?

No m'agrada ni l'un ni l'altre. No me gusta ni el
uno ni el otro. N' plaz-me speck la yan nal
alteor.

Padraic.


=====
la cieurgeourea provoer mal trasfu ast meiyoer ke 'l andrext ben trasfu.


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