Re: Classic, Normal, and Vulgar Lingo

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)