Re: Stacking up on standard works

At 4:18:42 AM on Monday, April 16, 2012, Tavi wrote:

> --- 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.

Unless, of course, the distinction is irrelevant or readily
understood from context.

> 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.

On the contrary, <rato, raton-> is well-attested in
post-classical Latin.