Nicholas Zair
Biographic Data
| ID | 5637494 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Nicholas Zair |
| GIVEN NAMES | Nicholas |
| FAMILY NAME | Zair |
| SIGNATURE | ZAIR N |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Cambridge |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 13 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 2 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 12 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2008 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Does Orthographic Variation Preclude Standardisation
In this response to Adams' article I begin by talking a bit, in a fairly atheoretical way, about definitions of standardisation. This is because Adams' argument that Latin was not, in the first century BC, a standard language, rests to a large degree on his own view of standardisation: one which approaches it very much from the perspective of the modern nation‐state with a highly centralised school system. I then focus on his main argument agains…
Liquid polarity, positional contrast, and diachronic change: Clear and dark /r/ in Latin
Apparently disparate sound changes in Latin, involving both vowels and consonants but sensitive to /r/, can be explained by reconstructing a positional clear/dark contrast in /r/, motivated by the seldom-mentioned “liquid polarity” effect. Examining these diachronic processes together allows us to see a larger picture, providing evidence for the reconstruction of successive past synchronic states. Latin /r/ mirrored the behaviour of Latin /l/ up …
Word-final -s in Ennius’ Annales: A sociolinguistic approach
In Ennius’ Annales , as in other Roman poetry of the third, second, and to some extent first centuries BC, a word-final syllable consisting of a short vowel followed by -s can scan as light even when followed by a word beginning with a consonant. In the Annales , light scansion is the norm in the second part of the foot (thesis), but heavy scansion is found four times. I argue that attempts to emend away these instances of heavy scansion are not …
The Mamertini in Messina: Mobility, Migration and Mercenaries
The Mamertini are unusual in the ancient world, if not unique, as a group of mercenaries for whom we have both a record in ancient authors of their movements and behaviour (to some extent, and with some variation between authors), and a small number of inscriptions which can be attributed to them partly on linguistic grounds (being written in Oscan in an otherwise Greek-speaking milieu) and partly because some of them explicitly state that they h…
Migration, Mobility and Language Contact in and around the Ancient Mediterranean
Book summary page views Book summary page views help Close Book summary page views help Book summary views reflect the number of visits to the book and chapter landing pages. Total views: 0 * Loading metrics
Irrational Lengthening’ in Virgil
Word-final syllables consisting of a short vowel or a short vowel followed by a single consonant sometimes scan as heavy in Latin hexameter poetry, a feature known as ‘irrational lengthening’, lengthening in arsis, diastole etc. We examine the contexts in which this occurs in the poetry of Virgil. It is widely acknowledged that this phenomenon is based on a similar licence in earlier Greek and Roman models for Virgil, but it has also been argued …
Reconstructed forms in the Roman writers on language
Ancient writers on the Latin language had the concept of ‘reconstruction’ of words which existed in earlier stages of the language. In some ways this was similar to modern notions of reconstruction, in others different. In this article I show how writers subsequent to Varro continued to use concepts of relationships of sounds between older and classical Latin, and between Latin and other languages, to come up with their reconstructions. I will al…
Creating Orthographies for Endangered Languages
Oscan in the Greek Alphabet
Oscan was spoken in Southern Italy in the second half of the first millennium BC. Here, for the first time, all the evidence for the spelling of Oscan in the Greek alphabet is collected and examined. Understanding the orthography of these inscriptions has far-reaching implications for the historical phonology and morphology of Oscan and the Italic languages (for example providing unique evidence for the reconstruction of the genitive plural). A s…
The Treatment(s) of *-u- after a Coronal in Oscan: Dialect Variation and Chronology
The evidence for the treatment in Oscan of *- u - after a coronal is examined. In the areas which use the Oscan alphabet (Campania and Samnium), this has become [i̯u]; in the areas which use the Greek alphabet (Lucania and Bruttium) it has become [y]. Contrary to previous assumptions, there is evidence for a change to [y] in the Latin-alphabet Tabula Bantina from Lucania, since the in the forms petiropert ‘four times’ and manim ‘hand’ is most eas…
Latin glārea ‘gravel’
The Reflexes of the Proto-Indo-European Laryngeals in Celtic
In The Reflexes of the Proto-Indo-European Laryngeals in Celtic, Nicholas Zair for the first time collects and assesses all the words from the Celtic languages which contained a laryngeal, and identifies the regular results of the laryngeals in each phonetic environment. This allows him to formulate previously unrecognised sound changes affecting Proto-Celtic, and assess the competing explanations for other developments. This work has far-reachin…
Rome and its Empire, AD 193-284
This was a time of civil war, anarchy, intrigue, and assassination. Between 193 and 284 the Roman Empire knew more than twenty-five emperors, and an equal number of usurpers. All of them had some measure of success, several of them often ruling different parts of the Empire at the same time. Rome's traditional political institutions slid into vacuity and armies became the Empire's most powerful institutions, proclaiming their own imperial champio…
Irrational Lengthening’ in Virgil
Word-final syllables consisting of a short vowel or a short vowel followed by a single consonant sometimes scan as heavy in Latin hexameter poetry, a feature known as ‘irrational lengthening’, lengthening in arsis, diastole etc. We examine the contexts in which this occurs in the poetry of Virgil. It is widely acknowledged that this phenomenon is based on a similar licence in earlier Greek and Roman models for Virgil, but it has also been argued …
Rome and its Empire, AD 193-284
This was a time of civil war, anarchy, intrigue, and assassination. Between 193 and 284 the Roman Empire knew more than twenty-five emperors, and an equal number of usurpers. All of them had some measure of success, several of them often ruling different parts of the Empire at the same time. Rome's traditional political institutions slid into vacuity and armies became the Empire's most powerful institutions, proclaiming their own imperial champio…
Rome and its Empire, AD 193-284
This was a time of civil war, anarchy, intrigue, and assassination. Between 193 and 284 the Roman Empire knew more than twenty-five emperors, and an equal number of usurpers. All of them had some measure of success, several of them often ruling different parts of the Empire at the same time. Rome's traditional political institutions slid into vacuity and armies became the Empire's most powerful institutions, proclaiming their own imperial champio…
The Reflexes of the Proto-Indo-European Laryngeals in Celtic
In The Reflexes of the Proto-Indo-European Laryngeals in Celtic, Nicholas Zair for the first time collects and assesses all the words from the Celtic languages which contained a laryngeal, and identifies the regular results of the laryngeals in each phonetic environment. This allows him to formulate previously unrecognised sound changes affecting Proto-Celtic, and assess the competing explanations for other developments. This work has far-reachin…
Latin glārea ‘gravel’
The Treatment(s) of *-u- after a Coronal in Oscan: Dialect Variation and Chronology
The evidence for the treatment in Oscan of *- u - after a coronal is examined. In the areas which use the Oscan alphabet (Campania and Samnium), this has become [i̯u]; in the areas which use the Greek alphabet (Lucania and Bruttium) it has become [y]. Contrary to previous assumptions, there is evidence for a change to [y] in the Latin-alphabet Tabula Bantina from Lucania, since the in the forms petiropert ‘four times’ and manim ‘hand’ is most eas…
Oscan in the Greek Alphabet
Oscan was spoken in Southern Italy in the second half of the first millennium BC. Here, for the first time, all the evidence for the spelling of Oscan in the Greek alphabet is collected and examined. Understanding the orthography of these inscriptions has far-reaching implications for the historical phonology and morphology of Oscan and the Italic languages (for example providing unique evidence for the reconstruction of the genitive plural). A s…
Creating Orthographies for Endangered Languages
Reconstructed forms in the Roman writers on language
Ancient writers on the Latin language had the concept of ‘reconstruction’ of words which existed in earlier stages of the language. In some ways this was similar to modern notions of reconstruction, in others different. In this article I show how writers subsequent to Varro continued to use concepts of relationships of sounds between older and classical Latin, and between Latin and other languages, to come up with their reconstructions. I will al…
The Mamertini in Messina: Mobility, Migration and Mercenaries
The Mamertini are unusual in the ancient world, if not unique, as a group of mercenaries for whom we have both a record in ancient authors of their movements and behaviour (to some extent, and with some variation between authors), and a small number of inscriptions which can be attributed to them partly on linguistic grounds (being written in Oscan in an otherwise Greek-speaking milieu) and partly because some of them explicitly state that they h…
Migration, Mobility and Language Contact in and around the Ancient Mediterranean
Book summary page views Book summary page views help Close Book summary page views help Book summary views reflect the number of visits to the book and chapter landing pages. Total views: 0 * Loading metrics
Irrational Lengthening’ in Virgil
Word-final syllables consisting of a short vowel or a short vowel followed by a single consonant sometimes scan as heavy in Latin hexameter poetry, a feature known as ‘irrational lengthening’, lengthening in arsis, diastole etc. We examine the contexts in which this occurs in the poetry of Virgil. It is widely acknowledged that this phenomenon is based on a similar licence in earlier Greek and Roman models for Virgil, but it has also been argued …
Word-final -s in Ennius’ Annales: A sociolinguistic approach
In Ennius’ Annales , as in other Roman poetry of the third, second, and to some extent first centuries BC, a word-final syllable consisting of a short vowel followed by -s can scan as light even when followed by a word beginning with a consonant. In the Annales , light scansion is the norm in the second part of the foot (thesis), but heavy scansion is found four times. I argue that attempts to emend away these instances of heavy scansion are not …
Liquid polarity, positional contrast, and diachronic change: Clear and dark /r/ in Latin
Apparently disparate sound changes in Latin, involving both vowels and consonants but sensitive to /r/, can be explained by reconstructing a positional clear/dark contrast in /r/, motivated by the seldom-mentioned “liquid polarity” effect. Examining these diachronic processes together allows us to see a larger picture, providing evidence for the reconstruction of successive past synchronic states. Latin /r/ mirrored the behaviour of Latin /l/ up …
Does Orthographic Variation Preclude Standardisation
In this response to Adams' article I begin by talking a bit, in a fairly atheoretical way, about definitions of standardisation. This is because Adams' argument that Latin was not, in the first century BC, a standard language, rests to a large degree on his own view of standardisation: one which approaches it very much from the perspective of the modern nation‐state with a highly centralised school system. I then focus on his main argument agains…
History (11 works) · Linguistics (9 works) · Linguistics and language evolution (8 works) · Philosophy (8 works) · Classical Antiquity Studies (6 works) · Art (4 works) · Computer Science (4 works) · History (3 works) · History (3 works) · Literature (3 works)