A group exercise...

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whiteoctave
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A group exercise...

Post by whiteoctave »

Hey all,

We all know that the inflected nature of Latin makes certain letters very commonly the last on words (e.g. 's' in 2nd dec. masc. nom. sing. [-us]and also in 1st/2nd dec. masc./fem/nt. dat./abl. pl. [-is]) and consequently some letters very rarely end words or perhaps, as I want you to find out, never.

Basically, I would like examples of Latin words that end in each letter of the alphabet. I should stress at this point that I do not want one word that can be so madly inflected that it itself can end in all the letters of the alphabet!
For example, for "a" you could have puella, da, vestra etc, and for "b" ab, ob etc.. If you could give all the necessary information on the word, i.e. case/dec./num./gen. or mood/pers./num./tense inter alia, that would be nice.

Is it possible?

~dave

P.S. A philology professor said in a lecture last term that the onlytwoverbs in the first person singular present indicative to end in 'm' are sum (and its compounds) and possum.
Naturally I felt goaded to try and prove him wrong and soon stumbled across the first person singular of the defective verb "inquam". I was soon, however, shot down as this specific first person, though used indicatively in Classical times was subjunctive in origin, as in "I would say".
This led onto a widescale debate on whether "inquit" represents the indicative third person perfect as well as the indicative third person present. Even though it is used in clear past tenses, it could be argued that it is a vivid present or a form of repraesentatio.
The grammar books have been divided throughout the past centuries, as have the dictionaries, and certain evidence does exist in support of their being a perfect form (which is what I, among others, believe), but I fear I have bored you sufficiently hitherto!

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benissimus
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Post by benissimus »

Hmm... I'll work on that but I am already wondering if there are any that end in Z and I am quite sure there are none that end in F, K, or Q.

A nauta “sailor” nauta, nautae/1st decl/masc/nom/sing
B ob “on account of” prep. +acc.
C lac “milk” lac, lactis/3rd decl/neut/nom/sing
D istud “that” iste, ista, istud/1st-2nd decl adj/neut/nom/sing
E Carthagine “Carthage” Carthago, Carthaginis/3rd decl/fem/loc/sing
F X
G
H ah “ah!; ha!” interj.
I navi “ship” navis, navis/3rd decl/fem/abl./sing
J X
K X
L animal “animal” animal, animalis/3rd decl/neut/nom/sing
M Tiberim “Tiber (River)” Tiber, Tiberis/3rd decl/masc/acc/sing
N Psychen “Psyche” Psyche, Psyches/Greek 1st decl/fem/acc/sing
O latro “I bark” latro (1)/1st conj/1st pers/pres/sing/indic/act
P
Q X
R mentiemur “we will lie” mentior, mentiri, mentitus sum/4th conj/1st per/future/plur/indic/pass(deponent)
S anas “duck” anas, anatis/3rd decl/fem/nom/sing
T puderet “intranslatable” pudeo, pudere, pudui, puditum (to be ashamed)/2nd conj/3rd person/imperf/sing/subj/act
U Theseu “Theseus” Theseus, Thesei (-eos)/Greek 3rd decl/masc/voc/sing
V X
W X
X nutrix “nurse” nutrix, nutricis/3rd decl/fem/nom/sing
Y
Z
flebile nescio quid queritur lyra, flebile lingua murmurat exanimis, respondent flebile ripae

whiteoctave
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Post by whiteoctave »

I forgot to say that we should try and do it without proper nouns or Greek translitterations, but I like many of your words. I'll add some:

A nauta “sailor” nauta, nautae/1st decl/masc/nom/sing
B ob “on account of” prep. +acc.
C lac “milk” lac, lactis/3rd decl/neut/nom/sing
D istud “that” iste, ista, istud/1st-2nd decl adj/neut/nom/sing
E e "from" prep. +abl. (preced. cons.)
F could well have problems here...
G " " "
H ah “ah!;"interj.
I navi “ship” navis, navis/3rd decl/fem/abl./sing
J j was not a separate Roman letter
K In classical times K had become redundant owing to the widening of the letter 'c' to cover the k phoneme. It was left, of course, in archaic terms such as Kalendae and some abbreviations. Thus, we need not include it here.
L animal “animal” animal, animalis/3rd decl/neut/nom/sing
M deum "god." deus, dei/4th decl/masc/gen/pl.
N en "look!" interj.
O latro “I bark” latro (1)/1st conj/1st pers/pres/sing/indic/act
P volup "delightfully" adv. of Terence inter alia.
Q ok, I think we can concede that this one will not work!
R mentiemur “we will lie” mentior, mentiri, mentitus sum/4th conj/1st per/future/plur/indic/pass(deponent)
S anas “duck” anas, anatis/3rd decl/fem/nom/sing
T puderet “it cause(d) shame/ he/she/it feels/felt ashamed” in Subj. mood pudeo, pudere, pudui, puditum (to be ashamed)/2nd conj/3rd person/imperf/sing/subj/act
U eheu "alas!" intetj.
V =u in Latin
W Not a Roman letter
X nutrix “nurse” nutrix, nutricis/3rd decl/fem/nom/sing
Y Not a Roman letter, used in translitteration of Greek
Z Not a Roman letter, used in translitteration of Greek

Thus, we are defeated on Q, but still need F or G, and I think it may be possible to get g...

~dave

Moerus
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Post by Moerus »

In Latin 'q' only occures if followes by a 'u' to form the combination 'qu'. It's in fact the same problem as the 'c' - 'k' whch you descibed perfectly!. If the 'c (pronounced like a k, not like s or something)' was followed by the semi-vowel u, it was written like 'qu'. So indeed, you will never find a real Latin word ending in 'q'.

For the 'f' and the 'g', I will think about it.

Moerus

mingshey
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Post by mingshey »

How's "Iraq" spelled in Latin? :? :roll: :?:

Moerus
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Post by Moerus »

Iraq = Iraquia (Lat.)

As I said, 'q' = only in combination with 'u' = 'qu'.

I have to say in old Latin and in inscriptions you will sometimes find an old orthography for 'c': exempli gratia 'qur' pro 'cur (Cf. Plautus et allii).

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