Just wondering if anyone could answer a few questions about these.
Where they are identical because the text lacks accent marks, are there any examples where the context leaves the meaning ambiguous? The meaning of Latin verbs often being broad, I imagine there might be some.
Also, which are most common? eg occido from caedo or from cado? I reckon the former, but I would be interested to hear the opinions of others.
Robin
Hi Robin. I can’t answer your specific questions, but as fyi here are two sources for Latin homonyms and homographs:
this list from Dickinson College, and this inexpensive book. The definition of homonym in the latter is broad and from memory I’m certain it includes homographs. I own it but am out of town this week, otherwise I’d look up caedo/cado occīdo/occido for you.
are there any examples where the context leaves the meaning ambiguous?
Intuitively, I doubt it, just as I imagine context always resolves the meanings of homographs and homonyms in any other language. I will bear the responsibility though - may a bear eat me alive! - if I am wrong. I suppose you could go through all the citations in the OLD (Oxford Latin Dictionary), but that would be a bear.
which are most common?
Again, eyeballing the respective number of citations in the articles in the OLD (or TLL) might support an educated guess. Or mess around with the frequency statistics in the Perseus Latin Word Study Tool. Others here may know of other specific tools for checking Latin word frequency.
The handbook of Latin homonyms is available here on line https://archive.org/details/handbookoflatinh00huss_0/page/n4
Thanks all. The Dickinson list is enough to start with. Apples and masts and cheeks! Just read treasure island in Latin and there is a barrel of mala tied to the malus.