College Record 2019

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Books Published
by Wolfsonians
90
Latin Grammarians on
the Latin Accent
Philomen Probert (GBF)
Latin Grammarians on the Latin
Accent offers a fresh perspective
on a long-standing debate about
the value of Latin grammarians writing about
the Latin accent: should the information they
give us be taken seriously, or should much of it
be dismissed as copied mindlessly from Greek
sources? This book focusses on understanding
the Latin grammarians on their own terms:
what they actually say about accents, and
what they mean by it. Careful examination
of Greek and Latin grammatical texts leads
to a better understanding of the workings of
Greek grammatical theory on prosody, and
of its interpretation in the Latin grammatical
tradition. It emerges that Latin grammarians
took over from Greek grammarians a system
of grammatical description that operated on
two levels: an abstract level that we are not
supposed to be able to hear, and the concrete
level of audible speech. The two levels are
linked by a system of rules. Some points of
Greek thought on prosody were taken over
onto the abstract level and not intended as
statements about the actual sound of Latin,
while other points were so intended. While
this book largely sets aside the question
whether the Latin grammarians tell us the
truth about the Latin accent, focussing instead
on understanding what they actually say, it
begins to offer answers for those wishing to
know when to ‘believe’ Latin grammarians in
the traditional sense: the book shows which
of their statements are intended – and which
are not intended – as statements about the
actual sound of Latin.
Varro: De lingua Latina
Wolfgang David Cirilo de Melo
(GBF)
Marcus Terentius Varro (116-27
BC) was the greatest polymath
of the Roman Republic. During
his lifetime he authored several
hundred books, and though many of them
dealt with linguistic topics, De lingua Latina
(‘On the Latin language’), the first large-scale
linguistic treatment of Latin, was by far his
most significant work. Originally consisting of
twenty-five volumes one introductory, followed
by six on etymology, six on morphology, and
twelve on syntax – only Books 5–10, treating
etymology and morphology, have come down
to us in a more or less complete form, though
a fair number of fragments of other volumes
have been transmitted in other authors.
These two volumes aim to provide a
comprehensive treatment of this highly
technical text in a new critical edition
accompanied by a clear, accurate translation
and full commentary. In Volume I, an
introductory study outlines Varro’s life and
works, analysing his own linguistic usage
and setting his insights about language in
their historical and intellectual context. His
etymology and morphology are contrasted
with our own modern methods, yielding
important and sometimes surprising insights
into how an educated Roman looked at the
history of his own language: although his
etymology is, by current standards, prescientific,
it is actually quite often in agreement
with modern etymology, while his morphology
also has much in common with a modern
approach, focusing on the question of how
regular language is and providing arguments
against and in favour of regularity. Detailed
discussions of these and other of Varro’s
linguistic ideas are brought to the fore in the
exhaustive commentary in Volume II, which also
sheds much-needed light on the work’s textual
problems, cultural background, and distinctive
Varronian style.
COLLEGE RECORD 2019