Re: NATLANG: Latin prefixes with er/ra

My Latin dictionary gives both 'super' and 'supra',
both as adverbs and prepositions, with very closely
the same meaning. 'Super' (prep.) is said to be used
with Acc or Abl, while 'supra' (prep) with Acc only.

Super as a prefix seems to be far more used than
supra, in Latin already (dozens of words beginning
with super- , while only 5 mentioned to begin with
supra- : supracaelestis, supradictus, suprajacio,
suprascando, suprascribo). The same dissymetry can be
found for French, see for ex:

http://www.listes.ortograf.com/index7.html

(words beginning with super- or supra- and admitted at
Scrabble. 187 words beginning with super- , only 15
with supra-)

I guess using a supra- prefix just makes you look very
erudite, while super- is common. On the other hand,
ulter- and infer- are not prefixes in French, while
ultra- and infra- are. Inter- and intra- are both used
as prefixes (international, but intraveineuse).

--- Paul Bennett <paul-bennett@...> wrote:

> There are a few that I can think of (knowing no
> Latin):
>
> super-/supra-
> ulter-/ultra-
> infer-/infra-
> inter-/intra-
>
> Is there some kind of pattern, other than that the
> first of each pair can
> prefix "-ior" in English? Or, indeed, is that itself
> a pattern that I'm
> too dense to work out? It's not[*] equitive vs
> comparative, it's not
> comparative vs superlative, it's not location vs
> direction, it's not
> proximal vs distal, and it's not any of a half dozen
> other things that
> have passed through my brain.
>
> Whatever the pattern is, I suspect that knowing it
> would shed light for me
> onto some greater issue with Latin, or possibly PIE.
>
> Thanks in advance for any concrete solutions, or
> crackpot theories,
>
> [*] Note throughout this sentence, the arrogantoid
> voice applied to the
> essive: I can't understand how it is, therefore it
> is not.
>
Is this a voice ? I would have said a modality (the
IMHOive one).


=====
Philippe Caquant


Barbarus hic ego sum, quia non intellegor illis (Ovidius).

Populus me sibilat, at mihi plaudo (Horatius).

Interdum stultus opportune loquitur (Henry Fielding).

Scire leges non hoc est verba earum tenere, sed vim ac potestatem (Somebody).

Melius est ut scandalum oriatur, quam ut veritas relinquatur (Somebody else).

Ceterum censeo *vi* esse oblitterandum (Me).


		
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