translation of litterās

[arslongus]

I am somewhat confused by the translation of litterās as the singular 'letter'. For example, in the Practice and Review of Wheelock's ch. 11, sentence #4 is given as
vosne easdem litteras ad eum mittere cras audebitis?
which is translated in Benissimus' key as

Will you dare to send the same letter to him tomorrow?

litterās looks to me like a feminine accusative plural (first declension noun). Is this simply one of those nouns (like copia) that although plural, is translated as a singular?

[benissimus]

In the singular, it means a letter of the alphabet. In the plural, it means "letters", which is a Latin way of saying a letter like you would send to a friend (an epistle). In the plural it can also mean literature.

[poeta nequitiae meae]

re: "In the singular, it means a letter of the alphabet."

cf. tristis ad Hypsipyle ab Iasone littera uenit (Ov. Am. 2.18.33)

maybe Jason had only learned one letter of the alphabet at the time, and was so excited he just had to show off to her.

[benissimus]

re: "In the singular, it means a letter of the alphabet."

cf. tristis ad Hypsipyle ab Iasone littera uenit (Ov. Am. 2.18.33)

maybe Jason had only learned one letter of the alphabet at the time, and was so excited he just had to show off to her.

indeed

[Junius]

[i]Littera[/i] makes for a "nice" fifth foot.

[benissimus]

It seems littera in any plural form would be pretty hard to fit into a hexametre.

[whiteoctave]

certainly: 'pretty hard' in the sense of impossible. all plural forms have a cretic opening rhythm (-u-) and the only way to admit it would be to have elision of -ae in the nom.pl. preceding a short syllable, e.g. *litterae ademptae. although elision of -ae only occurs twice in Ovid it is common enough in the prosody of the dactylic hexameter (-er on both sides of the pond) master, Mr. P. V. Maro - cf. A.12.548: totae adeo conuersae acies omnesque Latini, never is such harsh elision allowed between the two shorts of the dactyl as above.
incidentally, the same problem exists with epistula in the pl., and it is for this reason that curiously twisted syntax, as well as excessively eager personification of letters, fill the pages of dactylic verse.

~D