Macrons or no Macrons?

[Interficio]

Which do you prefer?

Personally, I prefer using macrons so it wont get confusing when you have phrases like "Secunda Hora" in the ablative of time,when,or within which. I just feel that without macrons, it isnt true latin and you will probably mispronounce the word

 

[zoomzan]

I agree. I started my first-ever Latin diary entry yesterday. In the beginning, I wrote half of it without macrons. But I felt very uncomfortable doing it, since I always use macrons in my study notes.

I contemplated the subject for a while. In the end, I decided - even though Romans themselves did not use macrons - I was not Roman. Romans knew the correct pronunciation by advantage of being born Roman. I lack that advantage. Therefore, I should use macrons whenever I can.

Another thing is that some Romans did improvise different schemes to represent vowel length, only these schemes never caught on.

Lastly, different dictionaries sometimes label macrons differently. Also, many books don't label macrons, and sometimes while learning new vocabulary, we don't have time to look up macrons immediately. Again, I just try to use macrons whenever I know them.

 

[Gregorius]

I almost always use macrons, not only for ease of reading but also because it enhances the phonetic precision of the language. I've come to believe that all languages should aspire to have a high degree of phonetic precision in their writing system, a belief which of course renders my native English a very poor contender.

 

[Interficio]

I agree. I started my first-ever Latin diary entry yesterday. In the beginning, I wrote half of it without macrons. But I felt very uncomfortable doing it, since I always use macrons in my study notes.

I contemplated the subject for a while. In the end, I decided - even though Romans themselves did not use macrons - I was not Roman. Romans knew the correct pronunciation by advantage of being born Roman. I lack that advantage. Therefore, I should use macrons whenever I can.

Another thing is that some Romans did improvise different schemes to represent vowel length, only these schemes never caught on.

Lastly, different dictionaries sometimes label macrons differently. Also, many books don't label macrons, and sometimes while learning new vocabulary, we don't have time to look up macrons immediately. Again, I just try to use macrons whenever I know them.

Yes, whenever I look up new words on online dictionaries, it frustrates me that they arent able to add macrons where they belong on a word

 

[inthegobi]

I'm new, but opinionated. I'll just get this off my chest now.

I *dislike* macrons. (1) They're not historical; (2) they look stuffy, academic and distracting on the page; (3) anyway, by the time you have enough latin under your belt, they begin to be superfluous except for tricky passages and classical poetry.

I've been using the accent-mark to indicate long vowels when i need to. I've noticed that the 16th century latin i've been translating seems to do the same - most often for the preposition a, although in that case i haven't a clue why (just to make it stand out as indeed a separate word?) I got the habit from Tolkein however, who uses it as a long mark in his invented languages.

So, my little opinion. what think ye all?

chris kirk

 

[Cato]

Macrons are a handy study tool, but like all study tools there comes a point when one needs to lay the crutch aside. I've always encouraged students to "notice them, but don't copy them."

That long a ending will help you distinguish 1st declension nominative from ablative, the long u in the -us ending indicates a 4th declension plural and not a 2nd declension singular, and dont confuse words like levis ("light" or "smooth"?) and solum ("only" or "ground"?). But let's not get carried away. Keeping them in mind (along with a close scrutiny of accent) will help you with quantitative verse later, but I personally don't write them unless I'm making a specific point about vowel quantity.

That's not meant to discourage you zoomzan; if you feel comfortable including them, by all means do so. But please don't let fretting over macrons slow you down; we need more committed Latinists...

 

[Interficio]

IMO they are vital in order to tell differences between present and perfect verbs.

ex: effugit vs. effugit
(He/She/It Escapes vs. He/She/It Escaped)

You tell the difference by the long u in the second perfect version