Questions tagged [orthography]
Conventions of written Latin – including spelling, punctuation, and capitalization
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How can a computer tell the difference between I and J?
Most modern editions don't distinguish vocalic I from consonantal J. Most of the time, this doesn't create any real ambiguity.
However, for certain purposes it can be useful to know the difference: ...
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Are any phonemic distinctions not represented in Latin?
Latin orthography seems to have been relatively phonemic. In other words, if long vowels are marked somehow (macrons or apices), there seems to be a straightforward mapping between letters and ...
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1answer
105 views
Ancient Greek: how to distinct true and false diphthongs?
Ok, this is not about false diphthong /ou̯/(ου), 'cause it split with long /uː/ (but anybody know a certain time of this spliting? In Wiki this describes simple "at early times") and ...
5
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1answer
132 views
More details on the Appendix Probi
Does the Appendix Probi specifically talk about what correct "pronunciation" should be (of the day), or correct "spelling"? Does "Idem non ide" mean that you shouldn't say "ide" or write it? An ...
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1answer
115 views
How were vowels u and i discerned from consonants v and j?
If in original texts there were no means of distinguishing whether u and i were consonants or vowels, how then do we now know which ones were which?
The easy ruleset I learned in high school is that ...
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1answer
120 views
When/where was <FH> used for /f/?
It's generally accepted that the oldest Latin inscription is on the Praenestine Fibula:
MANIOS MED FHE FHAKED NUMASIOI
The verb here seems to be an old reduplicated perfect of faciō, equivalent to ...
8
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2answers
363 views
Why distinguish u/v but not i/j?
Latin Wikipedia and many other modern (Classical?) Latin texts use "u" for the vowel /u/ and "v" for the consonant /w/, but "i" for both the vowel /i/ and the consonant /j/. This practice is more ...
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434 views
Variation in the spelling of word-final M
I recently visited the museum of the main monastery of the Carthusian order near Grenoble.
I saw this in an open book on display in a former chamber of a monk:
What took me by surprise is the ...
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1answer
80 views
First use of capital letters
The first standard latin script which consisted of both majuscule and minuscule letters (lowercase and uppercase, or small and capital letters) in one word is Carolingian minuscule. It is a fact. But ...
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2answers
84 views
Is long vowel feature completely lost in deviated languages?
In Latin, some vowels are marked by a macron, they are long vowels. However, I found that in French and Spanish there's no macron in their writing.
Is the long vowel feature completely lost in the ...
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1answer
93 views
Using “R” to mark vowel length
When messaging a British colleague, I noticed something interesting in the orthography. Where I would write "she killed" as necāvit, she writes necarvit.
In a non-rhotic accent, this makes perfect ...
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1answer
506 views
When did the Romans start using Z?
Several of my recent questions have touched on the letter Z, which was introduced fairly late to the alphabet (it's disappeared from its Phoenician position and been added back in at the end, in its ...
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Why was Z used in digraphs?
According to this other question, Late Latin used various digraphs with the letter Z in them, for sounds which might have been /ts/, /dz/, and /z/. If the letter Z was used for /z/ at the time, the ...
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2answers
168 views
Which Latin word has the most spelling variants?
Not all words have had a single spelling across all eras and contexts.
For example, the past participle of the English word "cleave" can be written as "cleft", "cleaved", or "cloven".
Rare ...
4
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2answers
1k views
Why do many write Latin words with both letters v & u?
The letter V in Classical Latin was pronounced as /w/, unless another V came after it, in which case it'd be pronounced /wu/.
Considering this, what would be the need to use both v and u in the same ...
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1answer
106 views
When transliterating from Latin to Greek, what kind of rho is used?
In Latin there is only one type of R and as far as I know the combination RH does not appear in native Latin words.
The corresponding Greek letter rho can have two kinds of breathing (rough ῥ, ...
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1answer
885 views
How and when did we get two forms of sigma?
The Greek letter sigma (σ) has a different form (ς) when used at the end of a word.
This distinction seems unnecessary to me, and it's not clear why it would emerge.
Do we know why and ...
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1answer
187 views
Does “octopus” get a circumflex?
I just learned (from Pé de Leão here) that in Neo-Latin orthography, Latin words that come from Greek names that end in -οῦς get a circumflex in imitation of the Greek circumflex, e.g. Trapezûs, ...
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382 views
Did the Romans ever distinguish long vowels in writing?
In most modern writing of Latin, long vowels are distinguished from short vowels by using macrons (e.g, āēīōū). As far as I know, however, ancient authors rarely, if ever, distinguished long vowels ...
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421 views
Church Latin: when did the orthography change occur?
Sometime around the middle of the 20th century the Latin orthography of official Roman Catholic liturgical books of the Roman Rite switched from "juxta", "Jesus", "Judaei" etc. to "iuxta", "Iesus", "...
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1answer
114 views
Reading a snippet of 15th century handwriting in Latin
The Lilly library has a Gutenberg bible on display and the page that it is open to varies. This week the page had a marginal comment in it, which is unusual for this particular copy, and I was hoping ...
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4answers
374 views
Origins and point of boustrophedon
I'm a complete tiro in Latin and Greek, and very puzzled by the phenomenon of boustrophedon. Most languages are written left to right, or right to left, but to combine both in the same sentence seems ...
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Why is the Roman acronym SPQR and not SPR?
SPQR stands for "Senātus Populusque Rōmānus". It would be logical (at least in English or Spanish) to expect the initialism or acronym to be SPR. However, the first letter of the conjunction "-que" is ...
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Reviewing the evidence of the spirantization of β (betacism) in Greek
I originally submitted this question to the Linguistics beta site, and those users recommended that I ask anything related to Greek here.
Although I understand that it is impossible to assign a ...
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1answer
351 views
Why sequundus > secundus?
It seems quite clear that secundus comes from sequundus, a gerundive of sequi.
But why did -quu- become -cu-?
This change is not universal, since some Latin words do preserve -quu-, at least the end ...
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618 views
Use of circumflex in Latin: Is there a difference between “hora” and “horâ”?
For example, is there a semantic difference between the two following sentences?
Lapis descendit ab A ad B unâ horâ.
vs.
Lapis descendit ab A ad B una hora.
This site, e.g., says
The ...
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2answers
286 views
What would be the etymologically Greek spelling of 'misogynoir'?
I asked this at another language Stack Exchange but was directed to here instead. I wasn't too sure how best to phrase the title of this question, so hope I can better explain it in this body.
For ...
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1answer
160 views
Is it possible to have a single Latin ligature be majuscule and minuscule?
Context
The Latin grapheme: "Œ" is the majuscule ligature of the letters "O" and "E". Is it proper—or in-fact possible—to have part of the ligature be majuscule and the other part be minuscule?
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Is there such a thing as “word-[space-comma-space]-word” punctuation in Latin?
I'd like to typeset an excerpt of Metalogicus from Ioannis Saresberiensis. The Patrologia Latina version can be found here (MPL199 – the exact reference of the excerpt is Lib. III, Chap. 4, col. 900c.)...
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1answer
381 views
How can I ask the spelling of a word in Latin?
We've already had a question asking What are the classical names of the letters of the Latin alphabet?
I am curious to know if, and how, a Roman could ask the spelling of a word. Though Latin is ...
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1answer
84 views
Capitalization of adjectives with prefixes
When answering a recent question about the prefix per-, I gave an example of a national adjective (Finnus) with a prefix, to produce Perfinni.
If I attach a prefix to an adjective that always starts ...
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1answer
522 views
What's the deal with Ov. Met. V, 414
I'm writing this Latin verse parser/scanner, and all is fine and dandy until I load up Ov. Met. V. This book features the following verse in my source text, which is usually very good:
adgnovitque ...
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1answer
2k views
Did the Romans have a “question mark”?
Were questions in written classical Latin ever indicated by anything other than the meanings of the words1 and the context?
That is, was there a "question mark"?
Here a "question mark" can mean some ...
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2answers
216 views
On Macrons and Vowels
Reading LLPSI, I made a list of the proper nouns with macrons in the first lesson of the first chapter:
CAPITVLVM PRĪMVM
Rōma
Eurōpa
Germānia
Hispānia
Āfrica
Nīlus
Rhēnus
Dānuvius
We encounter with ...
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1answer
198 views
What are the decimal and grouping marks in modern Latin?
To write non-integer numbers in the decimal system (without fractions), one needs a decimal mark.
In English one uses the decimal point, but in many other languages one uses a comma instead.
Wikipedia ...
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1answer
272 views
Are θ/þ/th distinct in Etruscan transcription?
While trying to answer an etymological question, I was looking through several different online resources about Etruscan vocabulary. Annoyingly, although these resources use mostly the same ...
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252 views
-NL- and -LL- in Classical Latin
I just stumbled upon an old meta question about the name of our chat room, and a comment gave me the impression that the classical spelling would be conloquium rather than colloquium.
(Let me ignore ...
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3answers
804 views
The Latin word “Have” rather than “Ave” as a translation of the Greek word Χαῖρε?
According to BlueLetterBible, the Latin Vulgate translation of Matthew 26:49 states,
The Greek text from the Textus Receptus states,
ΜΘʹ καὶ εὐθέως προσελθὼν τῷ Ἰησοῦ εἶπεν Χαῖρε ῥαββί καὶ ...
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1answer
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On two types of S in a text from 1759
I ended up studying this poem last year:
This is a congratulatory poem in a dissertation at the Academy of Turku from 1759.
It is on page 4 of the full dissertation.
I also published an English ...
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2answers
283 views
Deciphering Latin words from a very old book (printed in 1544)
I'm trying to decipher the text in a paragraph from an old Latin book (De facultatibus partium animalium, Basileae, 1544) and it's very difficult.
This is my result of the first line and I would like ...
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1answer
399 views
A medieval scribal abbreviation missing from Unicode?
Placita de quo Warranto is the 1806 printed transcription of latin legal texts from around 1300 written on vellum. There are many abbreviations. The 1806 document in its preface gives an example ...
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1answer
275 views
Interpretation of circumflex in a poem from 1621
A poem from 1621 contains one ô and one â.
The ô is the interjection ô and the â is in the relative pronoun quâ.
No circumflexes are used elsewhere in the poem.
Does the circumflex (or caret or ...
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1answer
799 views
When were macrons first used to mark Latin text?
A macron is a diacritical mark, which, in modern Latin texts, is sometimes used to mark a long vowel: ā, ē, ī, ō, ū, ȳ. From Roman uses of diacritical marks, I understand that the ancient Romans did ...
asked Aug 29 '16 at 22:27
Nathaniel is protesting
10.2k3 gold badges29 silver badges91 bronze badges
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1answer
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Use of ß (“eszett”) in Latin text
I am translating a medical text from the late 16th century. The author is Swiss. The text uses the ß character (like the German eszett).
Example:
toti amplißimo conseßui
Is this character being ...
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1answer
2k views
Roman uses of diacritical marks
In what circumstances did Romans use diacritical marks, like macrons, in their writing? In particular how common was it to use diacritics in naming letters?
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When to use j and when to use i?
I know that in Medieval Latin i and j were interchangeable in sound.
Was the choice of the letter arbitrary, or were there rules dictating which letter to use depending on the situation?
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Technique to find first principal parts when later parts change spelling? E.g. find 'nanciscor' from 'nactus'
I am tutoring a friend who is preparing for a graduate school translation exam, of the "unseen passage, dictionary allowed, time limit imposed, be accurate" variety.
We came across nacti in ...
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1answer
751 views
“Eundem”/“eumdem” in medieval Latin
"Eundem" is the correct accusative of "idem". However, I saw "eumdem" in various texts of medieval and/or Church Latin. So I wonder:
when did "eumdem" start to be used, perhaps by non-native Latin ...
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Difference between “Lacrimosa” and “Lacrymosa”
This movement from Mozart's Requiem is known as either "Lacrimosa" or "Lacrymosa" (see for instance the Wikipedia article, which uses both spellings).
Why is there two different spellings and which ...
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4answers
873 views
When is an I not an I?
For whatever daft reason, the current trend in modern Latin orthography is to write consonantal 'i' (IPA /j/) as 'i' rather than as 'j'. How can we then tell whether a given 'i' is a vowel or a /j/, ...
