D'Ooge vs. Wheelock: amaverimus

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pster
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D'Ooge vs. Wheelock: amaverimus

Post by pster »

For the perfect subjunctive active amaverimus, D'Ooge makes the i short, while Wheelock makes it long. This is just one difference in this vicinity. Who is correct?

Qimmik
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Re: D'Ooge vs. Wheelock: amaverimus

Post by Qimmik »

Originally, the vowel was long, but later there was fluctuation between long and short -i-.

See Allen & Greenough 169d, Note:

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/tex ... 99.04.0001

So both are right.

adrianus
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Re: D'Ooge vs. Wheelock: amaverimus

Post by adrianus »

You might find this interesting, too:
De hâc re, forsit hoc tibi curae sit:
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=WCpT ... rt&f=false
I'm writing in Latin hoping for correction, and not because I'm confident in how I express myself. Latinè scribo ut ab omnibus corrigar, non quod confidenter me exprimam.

Qimmik
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Re: D'Ooge vs. Wheelock: amaverimus

Post by Qimmik »

Originally, the -i- of the future perfect was short and the -i- of the perfect subjunctive was long, but these forms became confused, since, apart from vowel quantity, they are identical in all forms except the first person singular (and originally, the third person plural). Generally, the -i- was shortened in all forms, but the long -i- was preserved in poetry when metrically convenient.

Some metrical shapes don't fit in the hexameter. Ovid has dederitis, a future perfect with long -i-, at Metamorphoses 6.357, and Vergil has egerimus, a perfect subjunctive with short -i- at Aeneid 6.514. Dederitis with a short -i- would yield a tribrach (three short syllables in a row), which can't fit in the hexameter; egerimus with a long -i- would yield a cretic (long-short-long), which is equally impermissible in the hexameter.

Source: A. Ernout, Morphologie historique du latin, sec. 308, pp. 217-9.

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