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From: lilandbr@scn.org (Leland Bryant Ross)
Subject: Re: A.D.
Message-ID: <E6Jx6y.95E@scn.org>
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Reply-To: lilandbr@scn.org (Leland Bryant Ross)
Organization: Seattle Community Network
References: <M7AAEAAdxSGzEwGi@jmwa.demon.co.uk> <Pine.A32.3.93-heb-2.07.970213121041.49200A-100000@ashur.cc.biu.ac.il>
Date: Wed, 5 Mar 1997 03:47:21 GMT
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Xref: glinda.oz.cs.cmu.edu sci.lang:71542 sci.classics:17746


In a previous article, jmw@jmwa.demon.co.uk (John Woodgate) says:

>In article <01bc2666$43d6c6c0$538562cf@goodnet.goodnet.com>, Steve
>MacGregor <SteveMac@GoodNet.Com> writes
>>Gian Carlo Macchi <macchi@marina.scn.de> wrote in article
>><5ebr37$ma1@news.fth.sbs.de>...
>>
>><<I remember to have read "ante Christum natum", but I don't remember
>>where and when.>>
>>
>>  More likely would be "ante Christi natum".
>>
>Well, no, actually. A subtle difference between the English and the Latin
>parsing. English would say 'before the birth of Christ' , which would make
>'Christ' genitive and equate to 'Christi'. But the Latin says 'before Christ,
>born', and 'ante' takes the accusative case, so 'Christum'. The adjective
>(past participle) 'natus' then agrees in case with its noun, so 'natum'. In
>any case, if 'Christi' were right, it would have to be 'nati'.

There's Latin and then there's Latin.  There've gotta be a dozen ways a 
native Latin speaker *might* phrase her equivalent for English "B.C."  
The syntax of Late and Mediaeval Latin (and of the vulgar form that was 
becoming Romance) differed a great deal from Cicero's, too, and while the 
form that Cicero would have preferred might have been the "best", in this 
case it would be an anachronism, since Cicero (God rest his soul) never 
heard of Christ.  By the time the B.C. concept became important, most of 
the Latin in actual use, apart from liturgical texts and the Vulgate, had 
begun to ape the preposition-filled syntax we still favor today.

?No es verdad?
--
Liland Brajant ROS'        Juvat me nubes labentes spectare
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