Modern Terms

Koko
Modern Terms

Postby Koko » 2014-01-05, 23:44

DISCLAIMER:I'm not sure if there is already a topic like this.

What would words like telephone and cellphone be in Latin? Since telephone is telefono, masculine, I feel like the Latin word would be telefonus, -ī. Yet, it could also be telefon, -is.
And in French, cellphone is cellular, I believe; moreover, I would think a cell would be called cellar, -ularis OR cellular, -is.
Last edited by Koko on 2014-07-04, 6:10, edited 1 time in total.

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linguoboy
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Re: Modern Terms

Postby linguoboy » 2014-01-06, 1:43

Florus treats "telephone" as a neuter (i.e. telephonium). For "cell phone" he suggests telephoniolus. (Cf. It. telefonino.) [See: http://latinlexicon.org/latinitas_recens_latine.html.]

ETA: For other suggested translations, see: https://la.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telephonum.
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Koko

Re: Modern Terms

Postby Koko » 2014-01-06, 4:25

Wouldn't the pronunciation be different? I don't see why the /f/ would become [ph] if Latin has <f> for /f/. Unless it is Church Latin… in which case i would prefer telefonium and telefoniolus.

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Bernard
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Re: Modern Terms

Postby Bernard » 2014-01-06, 7:54

PH] Apud W. Sidney Allen* hoc legimus: "The diagraphs ph, th, ch represented aspirated voiceless plosives - not unlikely the initial sounds of pot, top, cot respectively. ... It should perhaps also be emphasized that there is no justification for pronouncing the aspirates as fricatives - i. e. as in photo, thick, loch; this is admittedly the value of φ, θ, χ in Late Greek, but it had not yet developed by classical Latin times."
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* Vox Latina, A Guide to the Pronunciation of Classical Latin, 2nd ed., Cambridge 1978, pp.26f.

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Bubulus
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Re: Modern Terms

Postby Bubulus » 2014-05-18, 0:39

Well, but if we're reading a text dating to the 4th century AD or such, then it's justified isn't it? Hieronymus in his translation of the Bible does use <ph th ch> when he transcribes words from Hebrew having [f θ x] in the pronunciation used by its readers...

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Bernard
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Re: Modern Terms

Postby Bernard » 2014-05-19, 18:57

Querubín scripsit / wrote:Well, but if we're reading a text dating to the 4th century AD or such, then it's justified isn't it? ...
Res ita videtur esse ut scripsisti. :yep:

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Re: Modern Terms

Postby Quasus » 2014-05-25, 23:23

linguoboy wrote:telephonium[/url].]

I wonder what the i serves for.

Querubín wrote:Well, but if we're reading a text dating to the 4th century AD or such, then it's justified isn't it? Hieronymus in his translation of the Bible does use <ph th ch> when he transcribes words from Hebrew having [f θ x] in the pronunciation used by its readers...


Latin pronunciation has wildly varied in time and space, there's no hope to sound `authentically' on all occasions. On the other hand, if you read a 4th century text according to the pronunciation of that time, you kind of imitate the accent of the guys who didn't actually speak the language they used to write. Just stick to a modern convention.


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