Re: Stacking up on standard works

From: Tavi
Message: 69340
Date: 2012-04-16

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Rick McCallister <gabaroo6958@...> wrote:
>
> Early Romance and Vulgar Latin are virtually the same thing and when Trask says Latin, he does not mean Cicero's Latin.
>
When somebody says "Latin" and/or uses capital letters (an old-fashioned custom) he/she's implicitly meaning "Classical Latin", otherwise he/she would say "Vulgar Latin", "Late Latin", etc. Also an asterisk is used before forms unattested in Latin. So when Trask (who was a professional linguist) writes Lat RATONE or Lat. rato:ne(m) he's *explictly* meaning this is an attested Latin word, something which is utterly false.

IMHO somebody capable of mistakes like this one can hardly be considered a good comparative linguist.