Re: Some help with Latin

R A Brown skrev:
> Benct Philip Jonsson wrote:
>> On 2007-09-24 R A Brown wrote:
>>
>>> Also, Cattulus keeps the -o at the end of 'Nescio' short    ;)
>>
>>
>> Why?
>
> Basically, so that it would scan   :)
>
> Normally in Classical Latin final -o is long, except in the words _ego
> (I), duo (two), modo (only), cito_ (quickly) where it was short. But you
> will find that poets will treat the final -o of the 1st person singular
> of verbs and the nominative singular of the 3rd declension as short if
> it suits their purpose; this often the case with the poets Martial and
> Juvenal.
>
Might this have something to do with vowel length already
being lost in these poets' everyday pronunciation?
I guess they could mostly recover the old quantity from
quality distinctions in the everyday pronunciation, if
this was the case, although it is hard to believe
they'd be any good as poets if their meter was already
wholly artificial.  Possibly length was lost earlier in
unstressed syllables.


/BP 8^)>
--
Benct Philip Jonsson -- melroch atte melroch dotte se
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
No man forgets his original trade: the rights of
nations and of kings sink into questions of grammar,
if grammarians discuss them.
-Dr. Samuel Johnson (1707 - 1784)

Reply