Excellent! I had thought of Mr M Jagger but he is not that old. - I chose Juvenal and went to John Griffith's lectures: they were splendid and the best part was the demolition of erring commentators by A E Housman. '...Strasbourg, a city famous for its geese.' Before he was a Professor of Classics, Housman worked at the Patent Office and lived a few doors from me in Highgate, where he wrote 'A Shropshire Lad'.
Appreciate the Latin recitation, Armand. I was having trouble discerning - are you pronouncing the “v” as a hard sound or more like “u”? What rule governs for Latin poetry written in different eras?
I tend to vary, and there is no absolute rule. The classical Latin was clearly a 'w' - but it might already have been pronounced like a v in parts of the Roman world (compare how people from Eastern European countries today will say 'vie' rather than 'why'). The v sound would have become standard by late antiquity, perhaps 5th cent AD, and that is then the rule for the Romance languages that develop thereafter.
What great fun! I think it may be a sign of a poetic revival when poetry lovers are no longer afraid to have fun.
Excellent! I had thought of Mr M Jagger but he is not that old. - I chose Juvenal and went to John Griffith's lectures: they were splendid and the best part was the demolition of erring commentators by A E Housman. '...Strasbourg, a city famous for its geese.' Before he was a Professor of Classics, Housman worked at the Patent Office and lived a few doors from me in Highgate, where he wrote 'A Shropshire Lad'.
I like
Excellent!
Appreciate the Latin recitation, Armand. I was having trouble discerning - are you pronouncing the “v” as a hard sound or more like “u”? What rule governs for Latin poetry written in different eras?
I tend to vary, and there is no absolute rule. The classical Latin was clearly a 'w' - but it might already have been pronounced like a v in parts of the Roman world (compare how people from Eastern European countries today will say 'vie' rather than 'why'). The v sound would have become standard by late antiquity, perhaps 5th cent AD, and that is then the rule for the Romance languages that develop thereafter.