Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Hyaenae (DeFuria)


Hyaenās singulīs annīs nātūram mūtāre ferunt, et quī modo mās fuit, deinde in fēminam convertī. Cum ōlim itaque Hyaena masculus contrā nātūrae lēgēs cum fēminā coīre vellet, Heus tū, illa ait, nē quid tāle faciās; haec eadem enim mox ipse patiēris.

SOURCE: This comes from the Latin translation that accompanies De Furia's edition of the Greek Aesopic corpus, published in 1810 and available at GoogleBooks. This is fable 325 in De Furia; for other versions, see Perry 243.

READ OUT LOUD. Choose which marked text you prefer to practice with - macrons (above) or accent marks (below) - and read the text out loud until you feel comfortable and confident. Then, try reading the unmarked text at the very bottom. It should be easy for you after practicing with the marked texts. :-)


ACCENT MARKS. Here is the text with accent marks, plus some color-coding for the words of three or more syllables (blue: penultimate stress; red: antepenultimate stress):

Hyaénas síngulis annis natúram mutáre ferunt, et qui modo mas fuit, deínde in féminam convérti. Cum olim ítaque Hyaéna másculus contra natúrae leges cum fémina coíre vellet, Heus tu, illa ait, ne quid tale fácias; haec éadem enim mox ipse patiéris.


UNMARKED TEXT. Here is the unmarked text - after practicing with the marked text that you prefer, you should not have any trouble with the unmarked text:

Hyaenas
singulis annis
naturam mutare ferunt,
et qui
modo mas fuit,
deinde
in feminam convertit.
Cum olim itaque
Hyaena masculus
contra naturae leges
cum femina coire vellet,
Heus tu, illa ait,
ne quid tale facias;
haec eadem enim
mox ipse patieris.



IMAGE. Here is an illustration for the story (image source) showing a hyaena: