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#154785 02/01/06 10:35 PM
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tsuwm Offline OP
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jam proximus ardet Ucalegon

Ucalegon. sb. [< L Ucalegon < Gk Oukalegon < ouk 'not, un-' + alegô 'to have a care, mind, heed'] 1. A neighbor whose house is burning. 2. Proper name: a Trojan elder in the Iliad 3.147 who sat at the Scæan gates.

a question for jheem (or other):
"jam proximus ardet Ucalegon" gets 77 ghits
"iam proximus ardet Ucalegon" gets 115 ghits
is there anything to this other than the usual Latin quaintness? (i.e., is one of these considered to be more correct?)

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Ah-ha! So it looks like Ucalegon is an eponym.

As for the j/i, I've noticed these letters were often interchanged, and not only in Latin. I'll leave it to the Nuncle and his Elk to expound, since I don't know why that was the case.

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tsuwm Offline OP
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Marianna was the overwhelming winner with four(4) votes for her k), Line of verse that cues the chorus to intervene in ancient Greek tragedy.

A whole bunch of others collected two(2) votes per ea. (Owlbow(a), Faldage(c), wofa(e), TEd(n), musick(o) , Alex(s))

Elizabeth Creith was the onliest one to deflagrate the correct answer.

themilem voted for hizown(e), once again.

thanx to etaoin for the solitary vote for h).

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I believe I received only a single vote (Faldage's) other than my own.

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I've noticed these letters were often interchanged, and not only in Latin. I'll leave it to the Nuncle and his Elk to expound, since I don't know why that was the case.

...and wasn't just that little twist used in "Raiders of the Lost Ark," even?

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tsuwm Offline OP
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Quote:

I believe I received only a single vote (Faldage's) other than my own.




right you are; good call, fellow hogmaster.

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Well, that genuinely is a completely worthless word!

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tsuwm Offline OP
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Quote:

Well, that genuinely is a completely worthless word!




Oh, I know!!

-tsuww

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Thanks for voting for mine, Connie!

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The Romans themselves only used 'I', because 'J' hadn't been invented yet. The Roman 'I' was used to represent two sounds one a vowel, the other a consonant. Thus they wrote IVLIVS rather than JULIUS. In mediaeval times (I can't remember more precisely than that and my book's at home), the letter 'j' was developed to represent the consonant sound. 'J' was used to represent the consonant in Latin texts up to the late 19th/early 20th century, when it was gradually replaced by the 'i' as a conscious return to Roman practice.


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