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Re: Classic, Normal, and Vulgar Lingo

From:John Cowan <jcowan@...>
Date:Thursday, January 20, 2000, 16:49
Nik Taylor wrote:

> I wonder if there were any examples of hypercorrection among the Romans, > like, say, "hamare" for "amare"?
Yes. There's a poem (Ray will know which one) which is about a vulgar fellow who pronounces "commodus" as "chommodus". Greek aspirated stops "ch ph th" were normally pronounced simply "c p t" in Latin, but some educated people took pains to get the aspiration right. Others, not so educated, hypercorrected some ordinary Latin stops into aspirated ones. The Appendix Probi that Padraic mentions is a list of common misspellings, and is a useful clue to VL. It does not AFAIK have any hypercorrect forms, though; it simply contrasts correct spellings with VL-influenced ones. -- Schlingt dreifach einen Kreis vom dies! || John Cowan <jcowan@...> Schliesst euer Aug vor heiliger Schau, || http://www.reutershealth.com Denn er genoss vom Honig-Tau, || http://www.ccil.org/~cowan Und trank die Milch vom Paradies. -- Coleridge (tr. Politzer)