Monday, September 20, 2010

-ĕrunt is Not Absent from Classical Poetry

As Clackson points out, I made a mistake in representing the statistics for the 3rd plural perfect endings.  I followed the presentation of Bauer 1933, but Bauer lumped together -ērunt and -ĕrunt in his counts whereas I separated them.  This creates the misleading impression that -ĕrunt  is not attested in Vergil or Horace, but that is wrong.  According to Pye 1963 -erunt is attested at Verg. E. 4.61, G. 2.129, 3.283, Aen. 2.774, 3.48, 3.681 and 10.334. So the figures for Vergil should be corrected to -ērunt 22 vs. -ĕrunt 7. In Horace according to Pye there are three examples of -ĕrunt (Epod. 9.17, S. 1.10.45, Ep. 1.4.7). So the figures for the Satires should be corrected to -ērunt 10 vs. -ĕrunt 1.  The figures for Plautus, Terence, and Juvenal are correct.

See D. Pye. 1963. Latin 3rd plural perf. ind. act. endings in verse usage. TPhS:1-27.

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