You’re an admirable fellow, Alatius, to care so deeply,—as one should, of course, because these things do matter. That’s why I raised this issue. It’s very curious. Maybe you are wholly right, but I raise a doubt based on what I have read in sources about nineteenth century naming conventions, to allow for discussion. What I could find again immediately I pointed to in the thread “Pronouncing neolatin proper names”.
Magnus vir es, Alati, cui tam curae res sit,—ut certè idoneum est, quod id multùm refert! Proinde, illam rem invocavi. Ea interest. Forsit non erras, at dubitum rogo quod de vestigiis praeter consuetudines nominandi saeculo undevicesimo pendit, ut conferamus. Quas partes vestigiorum statim reperire potui alio in filo, “Neolatinorum propriorum nominum sonus” nomine, innui.
I personally appreciate macrons since I am still very early in learning latin. But I suppose it all depends on the purpose of your book! Whether its intended for learning or for experienced latinists to simply enjoy. Or, of course, to just get a wider audience.
Is there going to be an electronic version… for Nook or in .EPUB format?
Hōc in librō offertur lēctōrī nova ēditiō fābulae Alicia in Terrā Mīrābilī in Latīnum annō 1964ᵒ̄ ā Clive Harcourt Carruthers conversae. Differt ā prīmā ēditiōne duābus praecipuīs rēbus: cum quod discrīmen nunc servātur inter i litteram vōcālem et j litteram vim cōnsonantis habentem, tum quod omnēs vōcālēs longae sunt līneolīs superscrīptīs ōrnātae. Complūribus linguae Latīnae fautōribus cōnsultīs placuit sīc scrīptūram mūtāre. Scīlicet, ut in omnibus rēbus hūmānīs, quot hominēs, tot ferē dē orthographiā sententiae. Quamquam plērīque cōnsultōrum favēbant tālibus līneolīs, nōnnumquam monitum est eās nōn nisi in librīs in ūsum tīrōnum scrīptīs adhibendās esse. Jūdicāvimus autem eōs lēctōrēs, quibus opus nōn sit longīs vōcālibus līneolīs distīnctīs, hās notās praetermittere posse; eārum tamen praesentiam saepe nōn modo tīrōnibus auxiliō fore sed interdum etiam perītiōribus lēctōribus.
Vōcālēs longās nōn imprīmīs idcircō līneolīs distīnximus, quō facilius scandantur versūs librī. Immō, Carruthers metra antīqua nōn adhibuit, nisi in carmine “Ut caudam crocodīlus”, versibus hendecasyllabīs compositō, atque in carmine elegiacō “Grandis es aevō, pater Gulielme”: cēterīs in poēmatibus imitātus est exemplōrum Anglicōrum metra, quae nōn pendent ex syllabārum longitūdinibus. Eā potius causā vōcālēs longās ac brevēs distīnximus, quod quam plūrimum volumus adjuvāre lēctōrēs vōce legentēs. Vidēlicet, praecipuē eīs magnum adjūmentum erit, quī prōnūntiātuī restitūtō faveant, sed spērāmus hoc etiam lēctōribus quōlibet prōnūntiātū ūtentibus auxiliō fore, quod ad syllabās rēctē acuendās pertinet.
In this book we present a new edition of Clive Harcourt Carruthers’ 1964 translation of Alice into Latin. It differs from Carruthers’ original text chiefly in two ways: a regular distinction between the vowel i and the consonant j has been made, and long vowels are marked with macrons consistently throughout. These changes were made after some consultation with modern Latinists. Naturally, opinions differ about these orthographic practices: while a large majority was in favour of the use of macrons, a common reservation was that they should be restricted to beginners’ texts. However, the view we have taken has been that readers who do not need vowel length to be marked can ignore it, but that marking it regularly gives good support not only for novice readers but for many expert readers as well.
We have not marked long vowels primarily in order to help scan the metre of the poems in the book. Indeed, Carruthers made use of classical quantitative metres in only two of his poems: “Ut caudam crocodīlus” written in hendecasyllabics, and “Grandis es aevō, pater Gulielme” in elegiac couplets; for the rest, he emulated the stress-based metres of the English original. The reason we have marked long vowels is that as much as possible we want to support anyone who wishes to read the Latin aloud. Of course this will be especially helpful for those who aspire to a reconstructed classical pronunciation, but we hope that it just as well will aid all readers, regardless of their preferred mode of pronunciation, when it comes to accentuating the words.
Is there going to be an electronic version… for Nook or in .EPUB format?
Perhaps, eventually. Unfortunately, fine typography is unavailable in such publications. And generation of an ePub book from source is not particularly trivial. But in any case, I have no plans to publish an electronic version of any of my books in the near future. There are many other books in the queue, plus I have my regular work.
I don’t like unearthing such old topics (that’s called necromancy), but it still seems the best place where to ask this: will Aliciae per Speculum Trānsitus be released someday? And what is the reason for which it wasn’t released yet?
