César et l’alphabet: un fragment du De analogia (frg. 4 p.148 Funaioli = 5 p. 179 s. Klotz)

Alessandro Garcea (1)

1 Rome et ses Renaissances - Centre Guillaume Budé

In a discussion on ‘double consonant’, the Latin grammarian Pompeius (GL 5,108,7-13) inserts two quotations: the first one from the De analogia of Caesar, and the other one from the De antiquitate litterarum of Varro. Each expresses a different opinion about the original Latin alphabet. Varro distinguishes sixteen ancient characters among the twenty-three used in the classical age, whereas Caesar limits himself to eleven original characters. The latter opinion raises doubts among the scholars, who generally try to modify the text conveyed by Pompeius. An examination of the parameters followed by Varro and the comparison between his fragment and that of Caesar allow us to choose another possibility : the two groups of signs are not on the same level and the Caesar’s list concerns only the consonant elements of the varronian inventory

Mots clés: Caesar; Latin grammarians; Spelling

Domaines: Etudes classiques; Linguistique

Alessandro Garcea. César et l’alphabet: un fragment du De analogia (frg. 4 p.148 Funaioli = 5 p. 179 s. Klotz). Histoire Epistémologie Langage, 2002, 24 (2), pp.147-164. ⟨halshs-01169031⟩