What do units say?

**Tiberius Nero** · 02-02-2007, 17:20

Originally Posted by Teleklos Archelaou

I don't have a vox latina lying around here, but -ii doesn't become a single long syllable in anything I've read (certainly none of the professors I've ever had have omitted one of the two i's). They aren't dipthongs. The latter i has a macron over it when they are rendered with macrons also.

I am not sure if I understand what you say correctly, but in certain places two "i" in Latin do tend to contract in a single long one e.g. the genitive "Vergili" instead of "Vergilii" or "di" (nom. pl. "gods) instead of "dii". It isn't obligatory, but it is fairly common.

**Teleklos Archelaou** · 02-02-2007, 17:34

That gods one is somewhat of an exception, and the plural should theoretically be dei; the dii and di are forms that are used, but it's irregular for those reasons. It's not common to just contract any double i endings. You were right to say "in certain places", but not to say "its fairly common". Anyway, at *absolute* worst, you could say our endings in this matter are an option, you certainly can't say they are wrong. Vocatives and genitives are different matters (vocatives with an i at the end of the stem do contract to a single i, but these aren't singular vocatives we are talking about).

**Tiberius Nero** · 02-02-2007, 17:45

I meant it is fairly common to have forms like "Vergili" or "consili" (genitives) instead of "Vergilii" or "consilii"; the contracted versions are more common actually in those cases than the uncontracted ones.

But I didn't say you are wrong to take the option you took with the uncontracted forms, I just found the statement

but -ii doesn't become a single long syllable in anything I've read (certainly none of the professors I've ever had have omitted one of the two i's).

somewhat bizzare, and only offered my opinion.