adsum / assum

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pmda
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adsum / assum

Post by pmda »

In LLPSI Cap XXXII Orberg has: Mihi vero multi sunt tales amici, qui semper mihi aderunt in rebus adversis, seu pecunia seu alia re mihi opus erit. Orberg explains 'aderunt' in the margin as follows:

ad-esse (+dat) = auxilium ferre - I guess it means being 'there to help' in this context. In any case his view of the verb is to simply give us the infinitive: ad-esse and in the vocabulary at the back he has: ad-esse, af-fuisse + dat

Forms of this verb given on the internet are:

1) Wiktionary: assum, asesse, asfuī, asfutūrus

2) Whitakers Words: adsum, adesse, adfui /arfui, adfuturus / arfuturus (irr.) and, separately, assum, adesse, affui, affuturus

3) 501 Latin verbs: adsum, adesse, adfui, adfuturus

And of course Lewis & Short explains it here..

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/tex ... ight=assum

However none of the forms above gives affui except Whitakker'.... 501 Latin Verbs gives afui...

Id be interested in any observations...

Qimmik
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Re: adsum / assum

Post by Qimmik »

afui is from abesse.

If I were you, I'd stick with adsum, adesse, adfui. The other forms are archaic (especially those in ar-). Adsum and adfui may well have been pronounced as if spelled assum, affui, and may even have been spelled that way by writers in the classical period (late Republic and early Principate; there's likely considerable variation in the mss. and inscriptions, so we probably can't know for sure), but most texts print adsum and, perhaps somewhat less consistently, adfui.

According to L&S, the forms in ar- are found in the Senatus consultum de Bacchanalibus, an opinion of the Roman Senate which dates to 186 BCE, i.e., more or less archaic and pre-classical. These forms probably do reflect a pronunciation that persisted through the classical period, but you will probably never find this spelling in print, except in transcriptions of inscriptions.

The excellent Wikipedia article on the S.C. de Bacchanalibus inscription is worth reading for both historical and linguistic reasons:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senatus_co ... chanalibus

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