Priscian’s Latin: new insights from the manuscript tradition

Abstract

Abstract The paper deals with a selection of linguistic features of Priscian’s Latin (6th century AD), namely the use of the indefinite pronoun and adjective after a negation, the declension of Greek loan-words with nominative ending in -ys, and the use of verbal moods and tenses in concessive clauses. The inquiry takes advantage of the new ongoing collation of the 8th–10th-century manuscripts of the Ars Prisciani, which enables ascription to Priscian’s linguistic use of some peculiar syntactic and morphological features that had been obliterated by the standardizing attitude of the former critical editor, Martin Hertz.