Roman Army Drill

[Robert Vermaat]

What are those "-way," "-tay," "-nay," "-lay," and "-gay"? Is that how Latin should be pronounced? Sounds like the American way of pronouncing foreign words carried over to Latin.

Not just American, the commands of the brethren of Legio II Augusta sound very similar. In The Netherlands we pronounce these words differently (I think, I guess each person pronounces them in their own unique way), and in France and Italy they sound diggerently, too.

It's a (mostly) reasonable attempt at mimicking what's known of classical pronunciation.

Is it? Does this pronounciation exactly match the Greek phonetic writing?

I do wonder, though, why all those commands are 2nd person singular imperative active. Surely they should all be 2nd person plural imperative active if you're addressing a squad.

That's an old question, and I always answer it the same: it doesn't matter if the grammar is correct, it matters whether the soldier understands how his reaction must be. Modern commands in both the Dutch and British armies can curl the toes of many a language teacher. But they are clear to the soldiers.

PS. Isn't there some way to better highlight a quoted text? Posts can get quite hard to read sometimes since everything is in the same font on the same background. Or am I missing something obvious?

You could add a color if you are quoting more people. I have done so in this post, as an example.