Latin
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]- (Classical Latin) IPA(key): /ˈmai̯.i̯us/, [ˈmäi̯ːʊs̠]
- (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /ˈma.jus/, [ˈmäːjus]
- Dictionaries or reference works sometimes mark the 'a' in the first syllable with a macron; however, the heavy weight of this syllable was not based on it containing a long vowel /aː/. Rather, this word was pronounced with /ajj/, a short vowel /a/ followed by a geminate consonant /jj/ (alternatively interpreted by some Latinists as /ai̯j/, a diphthong ending in -i̯- followed by the consonant /j/), as usual for Latin words with intervocalic -i-.[1][2]
Etymology 1
[edit]From Maia, the name or epithet of a goddess. The name may have originally been a native Latin formation from a feminine suffixed form of Proto-Indo-European *méǵh₂s (“great”) that was eventually conflated with Ancient Greek Μαῖα (Maîa, “Maia”), daughter of Atlas and mother of Hermes, whose name is derived from μαῖα (maîa, “lady”).
Adjective
[edit]Maius (feminine Maia, neuter Maium); first/second-declension adjective
Usage notes
[edit]In Classical Latin, month names were regularly used as adjectives, generally modifying a case-form of mēnsis m sg (“month”) or of one of the nouns used in the Roman calendar to refer to specific days of the month from which other days were counted: Calendae f pl (“calends”), Nōnae f pl (“nones”), Īdūs f pl (“ides”). However, the masculine noun mēnsis could be omitted by ellipsis, so the masculine singular forms of month names eventually came to be used as proper nouns.[3]
The accusative plural adjective forms Aprīlīs, Septembrīs, Octōbrīs, Novembrīs, Decembrīs[4] are ambiguous in writing, being spelled identically to the genitive singular forms of the nouns; nevertheless, the use of ablative singular forms in -ī and comparison with the usage of other month names as adjectives supports the interpretation of -is as an accusative plural adjective ending in Classical Latin phrases such as "kalendas Septembris".[5]
Declension
[edit]First/second-declension adjective.
| singular | plural | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| masculine | feminine | neuter | masculine | feminine | neuter | ||
| nominative | Maius | Maia | Maium | Maiī | Maiae | Maia | |
| genitive | Maiī | Maiae | Maiī | Maiōrum | Maiārum | Maiōrum | |
| dative | Maiō | Maiae | Maiō | Maiīs | |||
| accusative | Maium | Maiam | Maium | Maiōs | Maiās | Maia | |
| ablative | Maiō | Maiā | Maiō | Maiīs | |||
| vocative | Maie | Maia | Maium | Maiī | Maiae | Maia | |
Proper noun
[edit]Maius m sg (genitive Maiī or Maī); second declension
Declension
[edit]Second-declension noun, singular only.
1Found in older Latin (until the Augustan Age).
Descendants
[edit]- Balkan: Romance
- Aromanian: maiu
- Italo-Romance:
- North-Italian:
- Gallo-Romance:
- Occitano-Romance:
- Ibero-Romance:
- Insular Romance:
- Borrowings
- Unsorted borrowings
These borrowings are ultimately but perhaps not directly from Latin. They are organized into geographical and language family groups, not by etymology.
- Africa
- Americas
- Asia and Oceania
- Central and Western Asia
- South Asia
- Oceania and Southeast Asia
- Europe
- Basque: maiatz
- Celtic
- Baltic
- Germanic
- North Germanic
- West Germanic
- Slavic
- Uralic:
See also
[edit]
Roman calendar on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
References
[edit]- ^ W. M. Lindsay (1894) The Latin Language, page 8:
- Cicero wrote ii to express the sound of the second element of an i-diphthong before a vowel (see ch. ii. § 55), e.g. aiio, Maiia, Aiiax (Quint, i. 4. II; Vel. Long. 7.54 K. : et in plerisque Cicero videtur auditu emensus scriptionem, qui et ‘Aiiacem’ et ‘Maiiam’ per duo i scribenda existimavit.
- ^ Nishimura, Kanehiro (2011) “Notes on Glide Treatment in Latin Orthography and Phonology: -iciō, servus, aiō”, in Historische Sprachforschung / Historical Linguistics, volume 124, page 193:
- It is well known that Latin orthography tends to avoid gemination of ⟨i⟩ for two successive i̯-glides [...] The most classic case may be maior 'larger'; its phonological representation is /mai̯i̯or/ [...] the provision of a macron (i.e., māior, as if the vowel were long) in order to display the syllable weight — the way common in a number of grammar books and dictionaries — is utterly misleading in that it disguises the phonological reality. [...] Note also Cicero's preference for [...] "Maiiam" [...] Whatever the original Greek phonetic values of [...] Μαῖα, the glide seems to have at least phonetically filled both the coda of the first syllable and the onset of the second when borrowed into Latin (see Hoenigswald 1949: 394 and Godel 1953: 93).
- ^ Karl Gottlob Zumpt (1853) Leonhard Schmitz, Charles Anthon, transl., A Grammar of the Latin Language, 3rd edition, pages 31, 85
- ^ Gaeng, Paul A. (1968) An Inquiry into Local Variations in Vulgar Latin: As Reflected in the Vocalism of Christian Inscriptions, page 183
- ^ Frost, P. (1861) The Germania and Agricola of Tacitus, page 161
- ^ The template Template:R:sq:Schumacher-Matzinger does not use the parameter(s):
1=page:213
Please see Module:checkparams for help with this warning.Schumacher, Stefan, Matzinger, Joachim (2013) Die Verben des Altalbanischen: Belegwörterbuch, Vorgeschichte und Etymologie (Albanische Forschungen; 33) (in German), Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, →ISBN
Further reading
[edit]- Māius 2 Māius in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
- “Māius”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
Etymology 2
[edit]An elliptical form of Maiusdeus (“the great god”, “Jupiter”), from maius (“great”, archaic form of magnus) + deus (“god”).
Proper noun
[edit]Maius m sg (genitive Maiī or Maī); second declension
Declension
[edit]Second-declension noun, singular only.
1Found in older Latin (until the Augustan Age).
References
[edit]- “Māius”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- “Māius”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
- Māius 1 Māius in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
- Latin 2-syllable words
- Latin terms with IPA pronunciation
- Latin terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- Latin terms borrowed from Ancient Greek
- Latin terms derived from Ancient Greek
- Latin lemmas
- Latin adjectives
- Latin first and second declension adjectives
- Latin proper nouns
- Latin second declension nouns
- Latin masculine nouns in the second declension
- Latin masculine nouns
- Latin compound terms
- la:Months
- la:Divine epithets