Interrogative.
(E. Morris:
On the Sentence-Question in Plautus and Terence. Baltimore, 1890.)
-ne, which Plautus (but seldom Terence) sometimes puts late in
the sentence, e.g.
Curc. 17 “
et heri cenavistine?”, often plays the part
of
nonne, e.g.
It is often omitted in colloquial Latin, e.g.
rogas? (see
Abraham ‘Studia Plautina,’ p. 233); and since scribes had a habit
of ignoring a final n, it is often hard to tell whether e.g.
novisti or
novistin was what Plautus wrote. Apparently
vin is appropriate to
the beginning,
vis to the middle of a sentence; and the same may
hold of
novistin and
novisti, etc. (but cf.
Curc. 18, etc.).
Nonne is not common in Plautus, but is undoubtedly in use, e.g.
Amph. 407 “
non loquor?, non vigilo? nonne hic homo modo me
pugnis contudit?” (For a full list of examples, see Schrader:
de particularum
‘-ne,’ ‘anne,’ ‘nonne’ apud Plautum prosodia. Strasburg,
1885, pp. 42 sqq.) It is only found before a word beginning with
a Vowel (i.e. it is never a disyllable in Prosody), while
non (as in
the line just quoted) takes its place before an initial consonant.
But we are not justified in writing
non in these cases as
‘nonn’ (like
tun, egon, hicin, etc.), for
non is often found before an initial vowel.
The relation of
nonne to
non is precisely that of
anne (before initial
vowel only) to
an (before initial cons. or vow., e.g. ăn est)
1. The
form enlarged by the addition of
-ne pleased the ear of Plautus when
a vowel followed, but he did not choose to give it trochaic scansion
(cf.
hisce, illisce before vowel,
his, illis before consonant or vowel).
Num (cf.
numquid) and
numnam, e.g.
apparently do not necessarily expect a Negative
answer, e.g.
Bacch. 1110 Ter. Haut. 429.
Num non occurs in
the phrase
num non vis (
Aul. 161,
Most. 336,
Poen. 1079). The
existence of
‘numne’ (see Lease, Classical Review, xi, 348) in the
Dramatists' Latin is doubtful.
Numquid aliud me vis?, usually
shortened to
numquid me vis? or
numquid vis? or
numquid aliud?
was the formula of polite leave-taking (cf. Donatus' note on
Ter.
Eun. II. iii. 50: “
recte abituri, ne id dure facerent, ‘numquid vis?’
dicebant iis quibuscum constitissent”).
An does not necessarily express an alternative question in Old Latin
e.g.
Pseud. 309 “
A. te vivum vellem. B. eho! an iam mortuust?”
But the alternative use is also frequent, e.g.
The Neuter of
ecquis often plays the part of an Interrogative Conjunction
in Plautus, e.g.
ecquid audis? And the same is true of
numquid, satin -- e.g.
Trin. 925; cf.
--
etiam and
similar words. We may add
ēn of
en umquam, e.g.
Trin. 589
“
o pater, enumquam aspiciam te?” (see below,
IX). On the Indirect
Interrogatives
utrum, necne, annon, see
2 s.vv.
