If a Roman or anyone for that matter picked up a non macronised text and started reading it out loud, how would he know how to pronounce it?
What I'm getting at is words like hic, without further context how does he know whether it's hic or hiic? Similarly how can he know without further context whether a first declension noun is nominative or ablative so as to pronounce it correctly.
This would potentially be very problematic for the listener, surely?
What I'm getting at is words like hic, without further context how does he know whether it's hic or hiic? Similarly how can he know without further context whether a first declension noun is nominative or ablative so as to pronounce it correctly.
This would potentially be very problematic for the listener, surely?