[Ads-l] bona fide (adj.), 1755

[Stanton McCandlish]

​Is there a good resource on the differing approaches to pronunciation of
Latin?  I never took Latin formally, but have absorbed a lot of obscure
vocabulary from studies of the Roman imperial era.  I've noticed people
vary sharply between "keteris", "seteris" and "cheteris" for a word like
*ceteris*, with "keteris" being how a Roman would have said it (at least in
the early empire).  I'm guessing modern pronunciation as "seteris" is from
Spanish and French influence, and "cheteris" from Church influence, but am
uncertain about this (I'm not Catholic, either).  I just remember a
professor giving "FEE-nus AF-ruh-chay" for "*Finis Africae*" and wondering
why.

I seem to also recall that Latin during its living language range had
pronunciations shift, though I'm not sure which ones in what directions,
and whether those shifts were consistent.  Curious when and where *c* started
to turn sibilant before short vowels, *v* to our [v] sound instead of
[u]/[w], *ae* away from a diphthong to [i] (English "ee"), etc.

--
Stanton McCandlish
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On Fri, Jun 30, 2017 at 9:37 AM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
wrote:

> I was struck by Stephen Colbert’s pronunciation of “bona fide” not in the
> standard style of non-lawyers, “bonified”—which has indeed spawned the
> eggcornish orthographic reanalysis along these lines—or as the juridical
> “bon-uh FIE-dee”, both of which Ben mentions, but with the pronunciation
> that would have warmed the heart of my, and Colbert’s, Latin teachers,
> /‘bon@ fide/.
>
> He was raised Catholic and attended parochial school, which probably
> explains it—we’d have to check to see if he uses /tS/ for <c> before front
> vowels, as in “c(h)eteris paribus” or “ecc(h)e homo”, to know whether his
> Latin is classical or church.
>
> LH
>
>
>
> > On Jun 30, 2017, at 12:25 PM, Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> >
> > My latest WSJ column is on "bona fide," much in the news thanks to the
> > SCOTUS ruling on the Trump administration's travel ban.
> >
> > https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-bona-fide-became-a-key-
> player-in-travel-ban-debate-1498835369
> >
> > Twitter link to follow if paywalled:
> >
> > https://twitter.com/bgzimmer/status/880815456113897472
> >
> > The OED entry hasn't been updated since... 1887? Anyway, I didn't see
> > anything earlier than the OED's 1542-3 cite for adverbial "bona fide" on
> > EEBO, but the adjectival sense is easily antedated (OED has 1788).
> >
> > Reports of Adjudged Cases in the Courts of Chancery, King's Bench, Common
> > Pleas and Exchequer, Volume 2, 1755.
> >
> > p. 1162: And the sessions having held, that his taking to this acre, and
> > living on it eight years, did not gain a settlement under 9 Geo. I. c. 7.
> > which requires a /bona fide/ payment of 30 l.
> > https://books.google.com/books?id=ogJLAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA1162
> >
> > p. 1207: [Y]et the bankrupt had in the mean time such a property in them,
> > as enabled him to transact and sell to a /bona fide/ purchaser.
> > https://books.google.com/books?id=ogJLAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA1207
> >
> > --bgz
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org