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When did the consonant U (i.e., V) begin to be pronounced as the fricative [v] instead of [w]?
It's well established that the consonantal u (or v) was pronounced as [w] in Classical Latin (i.e., w as in wine). Of course, Romance languages developed voiced fricatives out of this u-consonant, like the bilabial [β] (Spanish) or the labiodental…
Nathaniel is protesting
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Did ancient Romans raise the intonation of their voices when asking questions?
I understand that in Classical Latin, when someone asks a question, the -ne causes stress patterns for some words to be modified, so that both the -ne and the new stress pattern indicates that the sentence is a question.
However, are those the only…
Nathaniel is protesting
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When did scriptio continua and interpuncts give way to spaces between words in Latin?
From this overview of punctuation in Classical Latin, I understand that word spacing as we know it didn't really exist at that time: either an interpunct was used to separate words, or there was no word break at all.
What do we know about the…
Nathaniel is protesting
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How to write 13 in Roman Numerals (Unicode)?
I know the answer seems trivial but believe me, it is not! In Unicode There are different characters for Roman numerals. For example, one is not i but ⅰ which is a different character; or a better example, two is not ii (that is a string of two…
Mehdi Abbassi
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Why is the constellation Ursa Minor instead of Ursus Minor?
One of the mythological origins for the constellation Ursa Minor is that it was created by Zeus, who transformed Arcas into the constellation after preventing him from killing his mother, Callisto.
It makes sense that the female Callisto would…
Adam
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Are there feminine and neuter versions of "professor"?
From many verbs one can derive an agent noun for each gender:
computare > computator (m), computatrix (f), computatrum (n)
scribere > scriptor, scriptrix, scriptrum
Some of these derivatives are rarely found, but it is easy enough to derive…
Joonas Ilmavirta
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Historicity doubted by Romans
The Roman historians seem happy to mix history with myth with no discussion on the reliability of one's sources — or even a mention of the sources in the first place.
I would like to imagine that the Romans did not believe all myths told to them as…
Joonas Ilmavirta
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Was "oscŭlum" a cultured word in Latin?
The Spanish language has two words for kiss:
Beso, from Latin basium.
Ósculo, from Latin oscŭlum.
The second one is very seldom used, and only in literature as it is a cultured word. Nonetheless, it seems that in Latin the two words were used for…
Charlie
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What is the origin of the -a in words like "collega, advena"?
There are a couple of masculine (or common) nouns of the first declension. Some are from masculine Greek -ês, like poeta, nauta. But others, like collega, advena, parricida, scriba, incola, agricola, indigena, conviva, auriga, assecla/assecula are…
Cerberus
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What is the process for translating modern words like "tablet" or "smartphone" into Latin?
What is the process for translating modern words into Latin? For example, Latin Wikipedia has entries for tablet computatrum tabulare and smartphone sophophonum. Is there any particular process for coming up with these names, or do users of…
Earthliŋ
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Is there a Latin version of "Quick brown fox..."?
"The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" is an English pangram, i.e. a phrase or sentence that contains all the letters of the alphabet (Wiki). Pangrams are often used in font typography to show off all the letters used in that font, with the…
cmw
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Are there any complete Latin inscriptions written in boustrophedon?
The Wikipedia entry for Lapis Niger mentions that the inscription was written in boustrophedon, alternating reading direction between every line.
This inscription is far from complete.
Are there Latin inscriptions that were written in boustrophedon…
Joonas Ilmavirta
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Did the Romans ever combine Greek and Latin morphemes?
Recently I was thinking about words in English which were formed from a Greek and Latin morpheme pair. An example of this is 'television', where 'tele-' is a Greek-originating prefix while 'vision' is of Latin origin.
That then got me thinking; did…
Cataline
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Is there a way to make a sentence ironic in Latin?
Is there a way (spoken or written) to make a phrase sound ironic in Latin?
For example "good for you" would be "tibi bonum est"?
Could there be intonation or another word to make it sound ironic?
0rkan
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Why does "ῤάρος" have a smooth breathing?
I recently discovered that LSJ lists exactly two words beginning with ῤ (rho with a smooth breathing mark): ῤάρος and its diminutive ῤάριον.
Most beginning Greek students are taught, of course, that all words beginning with rho should have a rough…
brianpck
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