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How do we know the quantity of vowels followed by several consonants?
Judging by dictionaries and grammars, we seem to know the length of almost every vowel in classical Latin.
For word-final vowels and those followed by a single consonant, the length can be figured out from metric poetry.
Not all words can be found…
Joonas Ilmavirta
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On the basis of "Veni, vidi, vici" is "Veni, bibi, oblidi" remotely correct?
When using Google Translate or eprevodilac from Latin to English, both tools translate the following phrases as shown:
Veni, vidi, vici → I came, I saw, I conquered (Google Translate)
Veni, vidi, vici → I came, I saw, I won (eprevodilac)
The other…
pdeli
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In scholastic Latin, what do the terms "appellare" and "supponere personaliter" mean?
I am researching a humanist text, Johannes Matthaeus Phrissemius' preface to his edition of Rudolf Agricola's De inventione dialectica. In it, he contrasts the (in his opinion) useful topics contained in Agricola's work with the (again, in his…
Kingshorsey
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Why is the comparative of "sacer" not attested?
The comparative of sacer (sacra, sacrum) should be *sacrior (-ius), but it is not attested (1, 2), even though its superlative sacerrimus (-a, -um) is attested 7 times (3). Is there a reason why the comparative could not exist, or was it simply a…
Leaky Nun
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Hac hic huc meanings/difference
Could somebody please explain the difference between the adverbs hac/hic/huc (or illac/illic/illuc etc.), the dictionaries don't seem to differentiate.
My understanding is hic is 'positional' i.e. in this place, whereas the other two seem to be more…
grumio
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Passive verbal noun, oblique cases
As far as I know, present infinitive is used as verbal noun for the nominative and accusative, and gerund is used as verbal noun in other oblique cases (genitive, dative and ablative).
I would like to ask what is used as verbal noun in oblique cases…
MaPo
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4 answers
Material for learning new poetic meters
I like metric poetry, and sometimes I want to broaden my horizons by learning a new poetic meter.
This has proven quite difficult, because the descriptions in many guides are quite terse.
For example, the Wikipedia article on Latin prosody contains…
Joonas Ilmavirta
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"quae haec mihi dōna dedistī"
In the story "Atalanta" in Fābulae Syrae by Luigi Miraglia, Venus gives Hippomenes three golden apples to throw during a foot race with Atalanta, to distract her. As he throws the third apple, he says (p. 24, ll. 89–90):
Nunc adiuvā mē, ō Venus,…
Ben Kovitz
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Knowing the two quantities of 'est'
There are several forms of ĕsse and ēsse (= edere) that only differ by the quantity of the initial vowel, perhaps the most common one being ĕst/ēst.
How do we know this difference in quantities?
There is a question on knowing hidden quantities…
Joonas Ilmavirta
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In what way is Odysseus διογενής?
In the Odyssey, Odysseus is sometimes addressed as διογενής "Zeus-born". For example, 11.60:
διογενὲς Λαερτιάδη, πολυμήχαν' Ὀδυσσεῦ
O Zeus-born son of Laërtes, Odysseus of many tricks…
Clearly the meaning isn't that he's literally a son of Zeus,…
Draconis
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Nested prepositional phrases
I'm trying to learn me some Latin recently, using Euler's works as my training material, since some of them already have English translations, so I can compare my attempts with theirs, and use them as a learning aid.
One of them (E26) starts with…
SasQ
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In vitro, in vivo, in situ, in simulacris mathematicis? Any good alternatives to the latter?
There is a series of Latin and pseudo-Latin phrases used in a scientific context (mostly in the life sciences) describing how and where a study was carried out (sorted by frequency):
in vitro – in a glass,
in vivo/ex vivo – in a living organism /…
Wrzlprmft
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Are “magna” and “maxima” incorrectly translated in these examples? (Seneca Epistula I)
I am reading the Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium by Seneca, both in the original Latin and in various translations for comparison/understanding (English, French, Italian, German). For the following sentence, I have an issue with most of the…
polygokko
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Simplex sigillum veri
G. Polya in How to Solve It translates simplex sigillum veri as "simplicity is the seal of truth".* In this discussion on latindiscussion.com, most people seemed to agree that the Latin is wrong: the adjectives should in one way or another be nouns,…
Ben Kovitz
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Rough breathing on ἕρξῃς
Book 2 of the Iliad, line 364, reads:
εἰ δέ κεν ὣς ἕρξῃς καί τοι πείθωνται Ἀχαιοί,
Here ἕρξῃς is the second-person aorist subjunctive of ἔρδω. Some editions spell it with rough breathing (Rouse, wikisource), while others have smooth breathing…
user10749
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