Subject: tc-list Latin Vulgate Bible

From: Vincent Broman <[email-masked]>
Date: 26 Nov 1997 19:04:32 -0000

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There is an electronic transcription of the Vulgate Bible available on the
Internet in lots of places, such as the OBI, with no provenance mentioned.
I've compared the text at the beginning of Mark against the apparatus
of the Nestle-Aland Nova Vulgata and concluded that it seems
to be the Stuttgart 1975 Vulgate.  The accuracy seems to be pretty good,
i.e. it wasn't a quick scanning hatchet job.  The differences from the
Nova Vulgata with apparatus seemed to be orthographical, stuff that is
not expected to be reflected in its apparatus anyway.
Has anyone seen any Latin bibles in electronic form not derived from this
transcription?

A question about Latin Vulgate orthography....
In the 4th/5th century of Jerome, did Latin distinguish U/V and I/J already?
I know that they are classically the same, and that later in the
middle ages V and B are confused, indicating V had become a consonant.
But when did these changes occur?

Vincent Broman                                       San Diego, California, USA
Email: broman at sd.znet.com (home)       or spawar.navy.mil or nosc.mil (work)
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From: "Stephen C. Carlson" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 27 Nov 1997 00:02:14

>But when did these changes occur?

Orthography and pronunciation are two separate issues, and I will address
the latter first.  A good source for classical Latin pronunication is W.
Sidney Allen, VOX LATINA (Cambridge: U.P., 1965) (2d ed. 1978).  On page
41, Allen explains that the evidence in the 1st cen. B.C. clearly shows
that Latin 'v' was pronounced as a [w].  However, starting the 1st cen.
A.D., 'v' and 'b' were sporadically confused in inscriptions, and by the
2d cen. A.D. Velius Longus clearly referred to friction in the sound,
indicating a [v] or more probably a [B] sound ([B] as in Spanish 'lavar'
[laBar]).  The [w] sound for 'v' appears to have lasted in a few isolated
quarters until the 5th cen. A.D.

As for I/J, Allen, p.38, only says that the change from the semi-vowel "y"
sound to an affricative "j" sound is "very late" and indeed has not yet
occurred in all places, e.g. Spanish "yace" from Latin "iacet."  I can only
infer from this statement that Jerome probably said a "y" sound.

According to Allen, the orthographic distinction between the consonants j, v
and vowels i, u is relatively recent, i.e. no earlier than the 15th cen.,
since the medievel usage was for j, v to be used in word-initial position
and i, u in other places.  The vowel/consonant orthographic distinction can
be traced to a suggestion by Leonbattista Alberti in 1465 and adopted into
Spanish in 1492 and Latin in 1559, followed shortly by the French.  I am
personally aware that 'j' in Italian is used variously for foreign words,
certain dialectal words (e.g. Romanesque "ajo" ['y' sound] = Std.It. "aglio"
garlic), and as a old-style abbreviation for a final '-ii'.

In summary, for the Vulgate, I/J and U/V were not orthographically
distinct, yet consonantal I/J was probably pronounced as a "y" and
consonantal U/V as a (Spanish) "v".

Stephen Carlson
--
Stephen C. Carlson                   : Poetry speaks of aspirations,
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