Teach Yourself Inscriptions

[mcbishop]

Just been emailed this by an outpost in the frozen north and thought it might be of wider interest. Uses inscriptions in the Great North Museum and provides audio guides to pronunciation. Reminded me of the tapes that went with the Cambridge Latin Course many years ago ('Queeeeeeeentus est in uillam!'). I failed my Latin O Level twice so will definitely be using this to brush up ;-)

Enjoy!

Mike Bishop

[Magnus]

Very cool! Thanks!

[M. Demetrius]

Good find, Mike. Send thanks up to the frozen northerners.:wink:

[Doc]

Thanks for the link. I have always wanted to learn how to look at some inscription and determine what it says.

[Vindex]

What an excellent website! Thank you for posting this.

[Ron Andrea]

Cool. 8) Thanks.

[Doc]

When I mouse over the text on the tombstone section, parentheses appear. What is their purpose? Is that a way indicating a certain tenses or to indicate where the inscription words or symbol are separated by those dots?

[Doc]

Speaking of Roman inscrptions and writing, does anyone know of a good website for reading, saying etc. Roman numbers? I do not mean exactly like the one posted presently on this thread although it would be nice, but something to the effect that I can say Legio I in latin not in English.

[markusaurelius]

Thanks!

[Scilantius]

The various parentheses that appear when you mouse-over the text are an epigraphy standard - the "Leiden parentheses system".

Their meanings are as follows:
[ ] - Reconstruction of missing/damaged parts of the monument

--- - A so called lacune or gap, an indeterminable number of glyphs missing

[.] - A determinable number of glyphs missing, denoted by the number of dots (in this case, one glyph is missing

( ) - Spelled out abbreviations, like for instance D M = D(is) M(anibus)

< > - Masons corrections or additions

{ } - Masons deletions of mistakes (double letters, upside down,...)

[[[ ]] - Reconstructed parts of the inscription that have been erased in antiquity (damnatio memoriae)

vvv - Empty space on the monument, each v represents the space of one glyph (in this case three) (v stands for vacat)

That's about it,...

As for the link, I stumbled onto this forum due to this thread, and the link is indeed interesting, especially to see some monuments and practice on them a bit, he he

The thing that irks me though, is the pronounciation and the fact that vixit is written out (and pronounced) as uixit.

Anyway, hopefully this will explain why and how the parentheses are used!

[M. Demetrius]

I can say Legio I in latin not in English

Legio Unus (LEG' ee oh OO' noos) unless I have it wrong with the last syllable, in which it might be more like OO' nus)

Is that what you were asking? We believe the V was sometimes pronounced like a w in English, Vicus being WEE' koos. There was no U in Latin, only a V, and the Double U (W) is really a Double V, and is pronounced like a W when followed by a vowel, and a U when followed by a consonant. Do I have it right, experts?

The hard fact is that we don't know for sure how 1st C Latin was pronounced, and most of our conclusions are drawn from rhyming bits in poetry and the Latin Vulgate of the Catholic church. Cicero would most certainly cringe at all our efforts.:???:

[popularis]

I can say Legio I in latin not in English

Generally, Legio I means "the first legion" rather than "legion one", in which case it would be 'prima' rather than 'una' i.e. Legio prima (first legion) rather than Legio una (legion one).

There's a guide to Latin ordinal numbers (first, second, etc.) at about.com. Remember also that a legion (legio) is feminine, so prima, not primus (and secunda, not secundus etc).

Or you can cheat The wikipedia pages for most legions give (a version of) their spelled-out latin title.

blue skies

[Doc]

Tom,

Thanks for the link.