| Posted on Fri Jan 23, 2009 05:16:13 | |
| | I am told that the catullus corpus is the first instance of "Basium" in Latin, as opposed to Osculum.
"Basium" is also the source for all of the romance words for "Kiss"
This suggests that this is an instance of Catullus writing as Romans were actually speaking.
Could someone perhaps explain to what degree Catullus would have sounded "slangy" to a Roman of his time? How different is his latin from what was being spoken in the Roman streets? | |
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