From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,fca456da8e6ec463 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2001-01-26 15:45:45 PST Path: supernews.google.com!sn-xit-02!supernews.com!isdnet!newsfeeds.belnet.be!news.belnet.be!btnet-peer1!btnet-feed5!btnet!mendelevium.btinternet.com!not-for-mail From: Nick Williams Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Latin and other irrelevant topics Date: Fri, 26 Jan 2001 23:43:42 +0000 Organization: BT Internet Message-ID: <3A720BAE.4060204@acm.org> References: <94s5iq$rdk$1@nnrp1.deja.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: 213.123.23.210 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux 2.4.0 i686; en-US; 0.7) Gecko/20010105 X-Accept-Language: en Xref: supernews.google.com comp.lang.ada:4588 Date: 2001-01-26T23:43:42+00:00 List-Id: Robert Dewar wrote: > Ah, so you were just guessing about the meaning of cf :-) And > here I was thinking you were quoting Ovid (though I must say > I cannot remember the use of this Latin word in Ovid, it does > not easily fit into Iambic pentameter -- well actually that's > not fair, it could fit, but I still don't remember him using > the term, and I had to learn thousands of lines of Ovid -- it > was the usual punishment at my school -- so while we were in > exile being punished, we got to learn all about his laments > of frigid winters in the North :-) Iambic pentameter, in Ovid? Say it isn't so! Surely most of Ovid is elegiac couplets, wherein both the hexameters and the pentameters are _dactylic_? And the bits of verse that aren't elegiac couplets are dactylic hexameter pure and simple (like the Metamorphoses). Assuming that the word in question is 'conferre'; it appears in both Metamorphoses and Amores in its infinitive form, although exceedingly infrequently; the 'contul-' perfect root is rather more common, it seems. Obviously, it is significantly easier to scan conferre in hexameter, because the two long syllables can be the second syllable of a spondee, and the start of the next foot: cf. 'et conferre gradum, et veniendi discere causas' (Aeneid, Book IV, Aeneas' fallen countrymen greet him in the underworld). Cheers, Nick Williams PxCS.