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28
votes
4 answers
Rhotacism: why?
I know Ancient Latin was subjected to a phenomenon called "rhotacism", which changed some s into r. However, I can't help but ask myself why it happened.
Why did rhotacism happen? Did it influence all words containing s, or not? If not, which types…
Eithne
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27
votes
5 answers
Why not "Agne Dei"?
Here's a sentence from the Catholic Mass:
Agnus Dei,
qui tollis peccata mundi,
miserere nobis.
Why not agne? Shouldn't agnus be in the vocative? Note tollis and miserere in the second person.
Similarly:
Sanctus, sanctus, sanctus Dominus Deus…
Ben Kovitz
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27
votes
1 answer
Why did Roman authors never feel a need for word spacing?
I have read a few excellent threads from this forum on punctuation in classical Latin. The first concerns what punctuation they used, the second concerns ancient descriptions of punctuation, and the third concerns the progression from scriptio…
ktm5124
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26
votes
3 answers
"Oh no!" in Latin
Are there idiomatic Latin exclamations similar to the English "oh no!" used when one finds oneself in an unfortunate situation?
The only thing that I came up with is that I might want to use vae or o one way or another, but I couldn't find anything…
Joonas Ilmavirta
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26
votes
1 answer
Why do ablatives of the 3rd declension sometimes end on -e, at other times on -i?
Normally, substantive nouns of the 3rd declension get an -e in the ablative (patre), and adjectives of the 3rd get an -i (audaci). This is already odd: normally, substantives and adjectives, both being nouns, are declined in the exact same way, as…
Cerberus
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26
votes
2 answers
How different were high medieval Latin dialects from different parts of Europe?
There are some regional differences in contemporary Ecclesiastical Latin, mostly in pronunciation (for example, "c" before e/i can be pronounced as [ʧ] or [ts]). Also, I know that as non-natives, medieval Latin speakers sometimes introduced words…
Pavel V.
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26
votes
3 answers
Why are there no native Latin words with a Z?
I have always been told that all Latin words with a Z are ancient Greek loanwords.
Why doesn't Latin have any native words with a Z?
Yadeses
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26
votes
2 answers
How do you write dates in Latin?
I have read a little about the history of the Julian and Gregorian calendars. Julius Caesar introduced the twelve-month Julian calendar in 46 BC, and Pope Gregory XIII introduced the Gregorian calendar (a slight refinement of the Julian calendar) in…
ktm5124
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26
votes
2 answers
How do we know how gn was pronounced in Classical Latin?
As far as I am aware, the classical pronunciation of -gn- (as in magnus) is not [gn] but [ŋn]. How do we know that this is in fact how -gn- was pronounced?
Earthliŋ
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25
votes
5 answers
Is "history" a male-biased word ("his+story")?
In the last International Women's Day I saw some footage showing a poster with the phrase "women making herstory", as opposed to "history". The phrase was playing with the fact that the word "history" can be decomposed as "his+story", suggesting a…
luchonacho
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25
votes
1 answer
Are there any recorded classical Roman abbreviations of "et cetera"?
Today, there are many different abbreviations for the phrase "et cetera", including
etc.
&c.
&ct.
As far as I know, the phrase was used in the classical period - in other words, it's not simply a modern-day expression. Are there any records of how…
HDE 226868
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25
votes
5 answers
What did "actuālis" actually mean in Latin?
The word actual is a false friend between the Spanish and the English languages. When we say in Spanish "la hora actual" we really mean "the current time" and not "the actual time". So in Spanish we use the word actual to speak about things…
Charlie
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25
votes
3 answers
What did Romans call their language?
I was taught that Latinus is an adjective related to the area of Latium.
Latin would be called lingua Latina, "the language of Latium", never merely Latina.
There is a single-word expression referring to the language, Latinitas, but it has a…
Joonas Ilmavirta
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25
votes
3 answers
How did the Romans say "good night"?
There are a lot of different things in a lot of different languages that mean basically the same thing: Sleep well.
English: Sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs bite
Italiano: Buona notte, sogni d'oro
Español: Sueña con los angelitos
et…
anon
25
votes
2 answers
Why does the ablative case also include the locative?
In Latin we have the ablative case. Its common uses can be described as instrumental and locative (ablativus loci). But in Slavonic languages we have a distinct locative case.
Did the instrumental and locative merge into one case in Latin, or did…
marmistrz
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