Vol. 24 No. 2 (2018)
COMMENTARII BREVIORES

De rutilo metri Graeci nomine

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  • Ekaterina Novikova
Ekaterina Novikova
Institute of Linguistics, RAS; Moscow State University

Published 2019-06-10

Keywords

  • ancient metrics,
  • conjectures,
  • Italic glosses,
  • Oscan alphabet,
  • Roman grammarians
Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

How to Cite

Novikova, E. (2019). De rutilo metri Graeci nomine. Hyperboreus, 24(2), 343-345. https://doi.org/10.36950/NDDW6598

Abstract

The paper deals with the interpretation of the gloss rutilum (an alternative name for a trochee), which was attributed to the language of the Aurunci by Diomedes. The Auruncan language, according to the standard view, is a North-Oscan dialect  that used a version of the Etruscan alphabet. In this alphabet, Y with a point at the top corresponds to the letter O, while a simple Y corresponds to the letter V. The gloss could be thus read as *rotilom. The next problem is the suffix -il-, which E. Forcellini treated as equivalent to the diminutive suffix -ul- (rotulus). This paper argues that what lies behind -il- is instead Oscan -ii-.

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