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votes
3 answers
What is bullshit in Latin?
If a statement is blatantly wrong or shows lack of interest in the truth, one can call it bullshit in English.
But how about Latin?
Is there something more strong and colorful than falsus?
I am not convinced that a direct translation would be…
Joonas Ilmavirta
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24
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How do I say "Brexit" in Latin?
Londinium, Britannia, 284 AD. The military commander Carausius is leading a movement to take Britannia out of the Imperium Romanum. He thinks there is a conspiracy between locals and foreigners to take control of power in Roma, orchestrated mainly…
luchonacho
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24
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Meaning of "S. P. D." in letters
I have been reading Cicero's letters in translation on the Perseus.uchicago.edu site, but check the Latin to improve my limited ability. Most of the letters include S. P. D. in the salutation, and I am wondering — is this formulaic and what does it…
TheHonRose
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24
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Which scientific journals still accept papers written in Latin?
Many scientific journals still have their title in Latin (e.g., Acta Mathematica, Ars Disputandi, Euleriana etc.)
I was wondering if some of them (or maybe other ones) were accepting papers written in this language.
idunno
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24
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Why is 'r' often rolled in modern classical Latin?
During my Latin education (using classical pronunciation), I was taught that 'r' should be 'rolled', making a sort of growling sound.
For example, the r's (more the second than the first set) in errāre would be rolled.
What is the historical…
user11
23
votes
1 answer
When did the word "ly" enter the Latin language and where did it come from?
In an answer to this question, I gave examples of the word "ly" in Medieval Latin. This leads me to wonder when the term entered the language and where it came from?
Because it resembles the article in present romance languages, my best guess is…
SAG
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23
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Are there examples of passive imperative forms of non-deponent verbs in ancient literature?
Imperative forms and deponent verbs are quite common ancient Latin literature, and imperative forms of deponent verbs also occur.
But are there examples of passive imperative forms of non-deponent verbs in ancient literature?
If there are no ancient…
Joonas Ilmavirta
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23
votes
2 answers
Was the final "-m" a "full-featured" consonant?
Is there any solid evidence supporting or denying the hypothesis that in Classical Latin the syllable-final vowel -m (especially at the end of the word) was only an orthographic convention, but in spoken language it was used to make preceding…
Be Brave Be Like Ukraine
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Why "ex nihilo" instead of "e nihilo"?
I was helping a friend earlier with an English-to-Latin translation and we started talking about the prepositions "a(b)" and "e(x)", which lose their consonant if the following word begins with one [or so I thought!].
So this got me thinking about…
sixty4bit
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23
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Why did scientists abandon Latin in their publications?
Whereas the Latin language was used by almost every scientist until the 18th century, this is a fact that since then the use of Latin in scientific publication has fastly decreased: the best example of it is Newton, who wrote in Latin at the…
Luc
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22
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Why do some Latin adverbs have accent on the last syllable?
In the opening chapter of De Musica (written 387-391), St. Augustine gives an example of a Latin oxytone, i.e. a word with accentual stress on the ultimate syllable:
MASTER: Now when we pronounce the verb ‘pōne’ and the adverb ‘pōne’, except for…
Coemgenus
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22
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A story of a king who wanted to simplify Latin grammar
I vaguely remember reading a story years ago, and it was something like this:
A king in medieval Europe knew some Latin but made mistakes.
I think there was something like him writing plurals like lemmae instead of lemmata; he treated Greek…
Joonas Ilmavirta
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21
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What is the logic behind the order of the cases
Most English books of Latin use the order used by Charles E. Bennett:
Nominative, Genitive, Dative, Accusative, Vocative, Ablative.
But most French books use the following order:
Nominative, Vocative, Accusative, Genitive, Dative,…
user16115
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21
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When did 'ph' start to be pronounced like 'f'?
I learned from Nathaniel's answer to my previous question that 'ch', 'th' and 'ph' were aspirated voiceless stops in classical Latin.
In my experience many contemporary speakers of Latin pronounce 'ph' as /f/.
When did 'ph' turn into a…
Joonas Ilmavirta
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21
votes
1 answer
Which Roman Numerals were used to express extremely large numbers in Classical Latin?
According to Wikipedia, there are two notable ways to render large numbers, reaching up to hundreds of thousands and higher: apostrophus and vinculum. The first uses a system of expanding rings, so that 100,000 looks something like CCC|ƆƆƆ. The…
Nathaniel is protesting
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