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- From: wmporter@jetson.uh.edu (William M. Porter)
- Subject: Re: Habemus ad dominum
- Message-ID: <23AUG199203023596@jetson.uh.edu>
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- Keywords: Ecclesiastical Latin
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- Organization: University of Houston
- References: <19AUG199214061798@jetson.uh.edu> <aardvark-200892110652@146.154.24.90> <BtArJ9.Do7@unx.sas.com> <22AUG199205471394@jetson.uh.edu>
- Date: Sun, 23 Aug 1992 08:02:00 GMT
- Lines: 20
-
- Forgive me for responding thus to myself, but I want to clarify something I
- said before too many people scratch their heads over it:
-
- > 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.
-
- What I meant by that reference to a matter of quantity in the Aeneid is that
- consistency is not always achieved nor even always sought after by even the
- greatest Latin writers. As Richard Wallace put it earlier in this thread, very
- well: "The trouble with the Romans was that they never had a chance to read the
- Latin grammar books."
-
- William Porter * * * Classical Languages: University of Houston
- Internet: wmporter@jetson.uh.edu /or/ CompuServe: 75430,1351
-
-