06-25-2012, 12:54 AM
It seems like the kind of perverse thing the Historiae author would write doesn't it? I suppose it is possible.
Well I cite Juvenal largely for the fact that its roughly around that time and during that text specifically that I noticed that tendency for /w/ to behave like /v/. I also noticed the kind of...well not exactly misuse but the beginning of the decline of the future tense i.e instead we get either participle or habeo + infinitive formations instead of "I will X".
I'm not sure how exact the timing is off the top of my head, in truth I'm not a Latinist outside of my comparative philology role and begin to lose interest in the tongue during the early empire so after that I've only read what I've been forced too.
I just checked Sihler's grammar and sv phonology of says that whilst it began to fricatise during the Imperial period* there is some evidence that as late as the 5th century AD some dialects kept the softer /w/ sound!!!!!
* So essentially around Juvenal's time, maybe later. We can tell due to a) inscriptions and b) loanwords into other languages like Greek (so the month name noembros, or names like Oualerios < Valerius) or Germanic (so we say "wine" < vinum) and c) copyist errors in texts.
Well I cite Juvenal largely for the fact that its roughly around that time and during that text specifically that I noticed that tendency for /w/ to behave like /v/. I also noticed the kind of...well not exactly misuse but the beginning of the decline of the future tense i.e instead we get either participle or habeo + infinitive formations instead of "I will X".
I'm not sure how exact the timing is off the top of my head, in truth I'm not a Latinist outside of my comparative philology role and begin to lose interest in the tongue during the early empire so after that I've only read what I've been forced too.
I just checked Sihler's grammar and sv phonology of says that whilst it began to fricatise during the Imperial period* there is some evidence that as late as the 5th century AD some dialects kept the softer /w/ sound!!!!!
* So essentially around Juvenal's time, maybe later. We can tell due to a) inscriptions and b) loanwords into other languages like Greek (so the month name noembros, or names like Oualerios < Valerius) or Germanic (so we say "wine" < vinum) and c) copyist errors in texts.
Jass
