Nonne

[Peter J. Grey]

I suppose this is really a question about Latin textbooks, but it's
always puzzled me.

General interrogative sentences are explained, in all the books I've
read at least, as being made by placing -ne at the beginning of the
sentence, where 'beginning' means following the first word since -ne is
an enclitic.

Then negative interrogative sentences are explained separately as made
by placing nonne at the beginning.

Maybe I'm missing something, but is the second part saying anything more
than the negative interrogative begins with non with -ne added in its
usual role?

[Neeraj Mathur]

Post by Peter J. Grey
I suppose this is really a question about Latin textbooks, but it's
always puzzled me.
General interrogative sentences are explained, in all the books I've
read at least, as being made by placing -ne at the beginning of the
sentence, where 'beginning' means following the first word since -ne is
an enclitic.
Then negative interrogative sentences are explained separately as made
by placing nonne at the beginning.
Maybe I'm missing something, but is the second part saying anything more
than the negative interrogative begins with non with -ne added in its
usual role?

You're essentially correct, but it's generally treated this way (with
nonne as a single item) because it contrasts with the use of num. Nonne
is used when the question expects the answer to be yes, num with no:

Nonne id dixisti - 'You did say that, didn't you?'
Num id dixisti - 'You didn't say that, did you?'not!')
Dixistine - 'Did you say that'?

It's best to learn them that way: nonne expects 'yes', num expects 'no',
-ne is neutral.

Neeraj Mathur

[Aug. de Man]

"Peter J. Grey"

Post by Peter J. Grey
Then negative interrogative sentences are explained separately as made
by placing nonne at the beginning.
Maybe I'm missing something, but is the second part saying anything more
than the negative interrogative begins with non with -ne added in its
usual role?

Ask an Arabic-speaking person: "Aren't you hungry?" and (s)he will say "yes!",
meaning (s)he is NOT hungry.
It is not so evident for everyone that questions with "nonne" suppose the
opposite of what you are asking, so this must be explained apart.

Aug. de Man

[P&G]

Post by Aug. de Man
It is not so evident for everyone that questions with "nonne" suppose the
opposite of what you are asking, so this must be explained apart.

Different languages treat negative questions differently.
English answers the fact, Arabic the grammar,, and German has a special word
to cover the confusion.
Latin treats all questions as an implied negative, so a negative question,
being a double negative, is an implied positive. So questions starting with
nonne imply that the fact is true. So the expected answer in English is
"yes".

Peter