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- From: wmporter@jetson.uh.edu (William M. Porter)
- Newsgroups: sci.classics
- Subject: Re: Habemus ad dominum
- Keywords: Ecclesiastical Latin
- Message-ID: <22AUG199205471394@jetson.uh.edu>
- Date: 22 Aug 92 10:47:00 GMT
- References: <19AUG199214061798@jetson.uh.edu> <aardvark-200892110652@146.154.24.90> <BtArJ9.Do7@unx.sas.com> <1992Aug20.204641.9103@beaver.cs.washington.edu>
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- Organization: University of Houston
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- In article <1992Aug20.204641.9103@beaver.cs.washington.edu>,
- louns@cs.washington.edu (Michael Lounsbery) writes...
-
- >Undoubtedly related to all this is the phrase from the Gloria: >
-
- > "Domine Fili unigenite, Iesu Christe, Domine Deus, Agnus Dei, Filius
- > Patris, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis" >
-
- >Here we have a string of vocatives (starting with Domine) followed by what
- >look like nominatives (Agnus and Filius). Since the passage uses Fili as
- >nominative, we can be certain that Filius is not a vocative. The Agnus,
- >falling uncertainly between a clear vocative and a clear nominative, could
- >go either way. >
-
- Aha! This is a useful offering. I had forgotten this source. (It's been twenty
- years since I listened to the Latin liturgy regularly.) I would only point out
- that your attempt to explain away "filius" and "agnus" later in the series is
- unnecessary: these too are clearly vocatives. The inconsistency between
- "filius" and "fili" is not surprising: This is a perfect example of the
- kind of thing one encounters in a lot of medieval/ecclesiastical texts. It
- probably does reflect a degree of carelessness about grammar, but let us
- remember that there are a number of lines in the "Aeneid" in which a noun is
- used twice with (say) a long medial vowel once and a short medial vowel the
- second time.
-
- William Porter * * * Classical Languages: University of Houston
- Internet: wmporter@jetson.uh.edu /or/ CompuServe: 75430,1351
-