> Benct Philip Jonsson wrote:
> > 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?
>
> Yes, in as much as their speech was similar to Vulgar Latin. I imagine
> that among the educated literati one found in the same person a whole
> range of speech from the (near) Vulgar Latin with which they
> communicated with their slaves through to something approaching the
> 'Classic Norm' when speaking with their peers - something like the
> diglossia that existed in Greece in the days when Katharevousa was the
> official language.
>
> > I guess they could mostly recover the old quantity from
> > quality distinctions in the everyday pronunciation,
>
> No, no - they knew the Classical quality distinctions from their
> education. In many case it would've been literally beaten into them!
>
> > 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.
>
> Quantitative was artificial, but their fellow peers were trained in it
> and would judge them by how successfully their verse conformed to
> Classical norms.
>
> > Possibly length was lost earlier in unstressed syllables.
>
> I have no doubt that length in final unstressed syllables was lost in
> the popular speech.
>
> --
> Ray
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>
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> Entia non sunt multiplicanda
> praeter necessitudinem.
>