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Re: Classic, Normal, and Vulgar Lingo

From:Raymond Brown <ray.brown@...>
Date:Sunday, January 23, 2000, 15:07
At 10:32 pm -0500 22/1/00, John Cowan wrote:
>Raymond Brown scripsit: > >> I have no doubt at all that Caesar had an excellent commond of Vulgar Latin >> - you don't get the sort of loyalty from your troops that Caesar commanded >> unless you can communicate with your troops! But he was also no mean >> writer of the Classical language. > > "Caesar?" the man laughed. "Why, everyone knows *he* > couldn't write! They use his works to teach Latin to > barbarians." > > -- L. Sprague DeCamp, _Lest Darkness Fall_ (6th century)
Yes, I remember in my late teens being told by a prescriptivist that Caesar did not write such good Latin as Cicero did, and thinking even then what a lot of twaddle it was even then. I guess DeCamp considered Cicero's "Golden Latin" too precious to be sullied by barbarians :) Ray ========================================= A mind which thinks at its own expense will always interfere with language. [J.G. Hamann 1760] =========================================