Acadēmīa:Latin conventions

This page explains the conventions for texts written in Latin. In general, the Acadēmīa follows a spelling convention based on current usage. Cases of doubt and deviations are documented and clarified here.

Letters

v and j

The letters v,j should be used to distinguish them from u and j. Deviating from this:

• the compounds "su", "gu", and "qu" should not be written as "sv", "gv", and "qv".
• j should not be doubled, if it is between two vowels (e.g. cūjus not cūjjus)
• In poetic texts or texts with metrical clauses, words should be written as the meter suggests (e.g., "Italjam" instead of "Italiam" in Virgil, Aeneid v. 2).

Macrons

To avoid homographs (e.g., "nōvī" vs. "novī"), macrons should be used consistently. Breve, however, which can be found in some older dictionaries, is not preferred. The following points should be noted:

• Macrons should be set as they most commonly appear. Iambic shortenings should not appear in the lemma, but can appear in written text.

Sonus medius

The sonus medius is usually rendered as i, but can also be written as u. (documentum vs. docimentum). There are no fixed rules for this. For lemmas, redirections can be set up in case of doubt.

Compound spelling

Comma

• Since non-finite clauses (e.g. AcI, PC) are not true subordinate clauses, they should not be separated by commata.