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u/gulisav

r/latin r/libreoffice r/learnpolish r/croatian r/Scholar r/asklinguistics
▲ 11 r/latin

Advice on using quantity marks

In Latin manuals (grammars and dictionaries) in my native Croatian, it is common not just to mark long vowels as ā, but also short vowels as ă. I find this practice to be very useful since it minimises ambiguity. This is rarely done in English and German manuals, as far as I see, Lewis-Short being the only major English dictionary I found using the breve (ă). Many vowels stay unmarked either way, since their quantity is predictable based on general rules (in inflectional endings, or by the rule vocalis ante vocalem brevis est), though not in 100% of cases, such as in the case of "hidden lengths". On the other hand, in G. Gaffiot's Latin-French dictionary these marks are used extensively, even when it's very evident what's the quantity, e.g. in pŭĕr. Yet even Gaffiot marks nothing in some cases, such as cantŭs. I believe that the marking should be căntŭs, since the basic verb has a short vowel (căno) and the rule in Allen-Greenough §10.e says vowels before -nt- are short. Would this be correct?

So, I have two questions:

  1. Why do so many dictionaries leave the quantity ambiguous? Or, conversely, why do a few, such as Gaffiot, go so far in marking the lengths/brevity (but are not 100% systematic either)? Are the quantites too uncertain in some cases?

  2. I'm working on a very rudimentary overview of Latin grammar, for myself to learn, and hopefully for others to make some use of it as well. Do you believe it would be OK, useful or desirable to mark each and every vowel length and brevity, and would carefully using the existing resources allow me to reliably mark the words even when dictionaries are ambiguous, as in the case of cantŭs?

u/gulisav — 14 days ago
▲ 10 r/libreoffice

Dark mode problem and solution: dark blue URLs not readable

I noticed that when you switch to dark mode, URLs stay with the same colour as on light mode, that being dark blue. Such URLs are then very difficult to read on an already dark blackground.

The solution is:

  1. press alt+F12

  2. LibreOffice > Appearence

  3. under "customisations" dropdown menu, select "unvisited links" and "visited links", changing the colour for each to something lighter and more easily readable - I picked the simple "blue" and it looks good

Since I didn't find a simple and direct solution online, I write this here, maybe someone else will find it useful.

Hopefully the LO team will fix this, the colour of URLs should be corrected as soon as you pick dark mode...

reddit.com
u/gulisav — 15 days ago
▲ 12 r/asklinguistics

How, where and when did "traditional" Latin pronunciation(s) arise?

In high school in Croatia I was taught the distinction between what we called classical and traditional pronunciation of Latin, which is conveniently shown in Caesar's name. Classical/reconstructed "kaisar" (apologies for not using IPA but just respelling), versus traditional "tsezar" (actually with Croatian phonemes, of course, we spell it as Cezar). While I'm aware that there are differences between these "traditional" pronunciations across different languages/traditions (e.g. English "seezar"), some common points seem to exist, such as the change of k before i/e/ae, monophthongisation ae>e, and so on.

The reconstructed classical Latin pronunciation seems to be a surprisingly recent discovery - I came across grammars even from the mid 20th century still prescribing monophthongal ae, and k>ts.

So, is it known when, where and how these different non-classical styles of pronunciation arose? Were they a result of natural development of late Latin pronunciation among the native speakers, or something else?

If you have any sources, articles on this topic, I'd be interested to know about them.

reddit.com
u/gulisav — 1 month ago
▲ 8 r/latin

How, where and when did "traditional" Latin pronunciation(s) arise?

In high school in Croatia I was taught the distinction between what we called classical and traditional pronunciation of Latin, which is conveniently shown in Caesar's name. Classical/reconstructed "kaisar" (apologies for not using IPA but just respelling), versus traditional "tsezar" (actually with Croatian phonemes, of course, we spell it as Cezar). While I'm aware that there are differences between these "traditional" pronunciations across different languages/traditions (e.g. English "seezar"), some common points seem to exist, such as the change of k before i/e/ae, monophthongisation ae>e, and so on.

The reconstructed classical Latin pronunciation seems to be a surprisingly recent discovery - I came across grammars even from the mid 20th century still prescribing monophthongal ae, and k>ts.

So, is it known when, where and how these different non-classical styles of pronunciation arose? Were they a result of natural development of late Latin pronunciation among the native speakers, or something else?

If you have any sources, articles on this topic, I'd be interested to know about them.

reddit.com
u/gulisav — 1 month ago
▲ 22 r/learnpolish

Pytanie etymologiczne. 'Czasownik' pochodzi ot słowa 'czas'. Ale jaka jest logika za tem? Czy znamy, kto i kak utworzył jest ten wyraz? W słownikach Borysia i Brücknera nie naszedłem zadowalającej informacji...

(Feel free to correct my grammar!)

reddit.com
u/gulisav — 2 months ago