Saturday, January 9, 2010

More on Syllabic Notation

On pg. 393 fn. 60 I mention the phenomenon of syllabic notation whereby a consonantal letter is used to represent the consonant itself and the vowel found in its name. For example DCVMIVS for Decumius (ILLRP 70, Praeneste) and LVBS for lubē(n)s (ILLRP 82, 217). Interestingly, the Hadrianic grammarian Q. Terentius Scaurus (7.15 Keil) mentions this practice in his work De orthographia:

singulae pro syllaba scribebantur, tamquam satis eam ipso nomine explerent: ut puta decimus, d per se deinde cimus; item cera, c simplex et ra, et bene, b et ne. ita et quotiens kanus et karus scribendum erat, quia singulis litteris primae syllabae notabantur, k prima ponebatur, quae suo nomine a continebat, quia, si c posuissent, cenus et cerus futurum erat, non canus et carus.

Scaurus was probably drawing on older sources here. Incidentally a new edition and commentary of Scaurus' De orthographia was recently published. See the review by Leofranc Holford-Strevens.

Biddau, Federico, (ed., trans., comm.). 2008. Q. Terenti Scauri. De orthographia. Hildesheim: Weidmann.




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