Tag: Augustine

Ambrose Reads in Silence

In classical times reading was done aloud, even in private. But St. Augustine remembered that his mentor St. Ambrose had a habit of reading in silence, without even whispering the words. It was so unusual that it called for an explanation.

And when he read, his eyes ran over the pages, and his heart sought under­standing, but his voice and tongue were silent. Often when I have been there (for no one was refused entrance, nor was it the custom to give him notice of any one’s coming) I have seen him reading in this manner in silence, and never other­wise: and I have sat down, and after a long silence (for who could find in his heart to be trouble­some to one so intent?) I have gone away; conjec­turing that for that short time which he had for the repairing of his mind, free from the noise of other men’s business, he was loth to be taken off from what he was about. And per­haps for this reason did not read aloud, lest his auditor being attentive to the reading, might desire his expo­sition where the author seemed obscure, or his entering into a discus­sion of diffi­cult ques­tions; and by this means his time might be abridged, and he hindered from reading so much as he had a mind. Though perhaps his chief cause for reading in silence might be to save his voice, which was easily weakened. But whatever his reason was the inten­tion of that man was cer­tainly good.

——St. Augustine, Confessions, Book VI, Chapter III, translated by Richard Challoner.

The African Accent in Latin

The Roman province of Africa was noted for producing famous writers and orators in Latin—Apuleius and Augustine among them. But did Latin-speaking Africans have an identifiable regional accent?

It seems that they had, at least by the late 300s. Here are two Latin writers—one African, one not—who both mention it. Augustine, the African, also mentions one of the particular features of the accent.

Augustine: …why should a teacher of godliness who is addressing an unlearned audience shrink from using ossum instead of os, if he fear that the latter might be taken not as the singular of ossa, but as the singular of ora, seeing that African ears have no quick perception of the shortness or length of vowels? (On Christian Doctrine, Book IV, Chapter 10.)

Jerome: There was a man at Rome who had an African, a very learned man, as his grammar teacher; and he thought that he was rising to an equality with his teacher because he copied his strident voice and his faulty pronunciation. (Apology Against Rufinus, Book III, chapter 27.)