Prof. Jeanne Neumann of Davidson College kindly took time to give Nunc a good looking over. Here is a transcript of the changes she recommended. I'm presenting these comments verbatim for the educational value they have. The actions I took appear in italics. Additional changes appear in brackets.
Post scriptum: Prof Watanabe of Western Washington University reviewed this book for Bryn Mawr. He indicated many useful points for improvement and I have made full use of his advice. His recommendations also appear below.
This is odd: "et quoqe mihi"
Iohannes is better than 'Johannus'
--Prof. Watanabe
Changed to "Et mihi" and "Iohannes". Michelle Vitt originally pointed this out and to my shame, I didn't heed her.
This is always a toughie: quid is fine although quod is probably more correct. I'd leave the quid
--Prof. Neumann
Left as is
Italia should have a macron over the "I"
--Prof. Watanabe
Macron added
MartInus would be better than Martin
--Prof. Watanabe
changed to 'MartInus'
I think when citing numbers as numbers (and not adjectives) it is better to use the neuter (i.e. unum not unus; tria not tres). The best Latin speakers do this and I'll bet it follows ancient practice--this is the one point I have not corroborated.
--Prof. Neumann
All numbers changed to neuter form
Mix up with the picture [Variation 4: 'Claudia?' changed to 'Laura?']
Although solicitari is a recognized variant of sollicitari, the latter is more common and I think would be better here
Also, Apollo is misspelled (Appollo)
--Prof. Neumann
Phaethon is misspelled (needs an 'h')
--Profs. Neumann and Watanabe
Changed to sollicitari.
Appollo / Phaethon now properly spelled
[macrons on 'telephonice' were not uniform throughout the book--now uniformly: tElephOnicE]
Since you conveniently listed the cardinals in that chapter, you might consider listing the ordinals here.
--Prof. Neumann
Good idea and done. I think Michelle Vitt also suggested this in the first edition and I never got around to it :-(
You might have gotten caffae from Traupman, but it's not right. Using David Morgan's lexicon (whose Latinity is just short of exquisite--it'll be out within the year, I think, but I have a non-circulating draft) here's the word:
cafea (long e, accented), ae or
cafeum (long e, accented), i
"The spelling cafaeum, frequent in early modern Latin texts, shows that the word was accented on the penultimate (as would be expected from the vernacular terms"
--Prof. Neumann
'Duo ampullas' should be 'duas ampullas'
--Prof. Watanabe
Changed all instances of caffea to cafEa, ae.
Also macron added to 'mala'
[variation 2] now 'duas ampullas'
SEE UNIT 29 FOR ADDITIONAL CHANGES & REASONS
de aliquo rogare: there are only a couple of examples of rogare with de + the ablative. The standard usage is with the accusative, single or double. Since the accusative is also standard in indirect commands (te rogo ut...), it would be better to use the standard syntax here.
Rogo aliquid
Rogo aliquem
Rogo aliquem aliquid
--Prof. Neumann
Changed to : 'Licetne mihi aliquid rogare?'
proxime would not have been my choice for a quasi prepsosition here. I would have used iuxta because this book is for beginning students and it is 'technically' an adverb that takes dative, accusative and ab (yes, it is definitely quasi prepositional, but you are aiming at developing a sense of idiom and it might be useful to use something more common--but maybe you are looking at later Latin texts in which it is common--if so, ignore me :-) )
--Prof. Neumann
Changed all instances of 'proxime' to 'iuxta'. And yes, I was aiming at idiom--but idiom can be created with common words. Changed with pleasure.
Togae sunt ibi: needs to be illic
--Prof. Neumann
Done.
[The order for the prompts in the variations was reversed. This has been corrected.]
CalEtur is better than 'calidumst'
--Prof. Watanabe
Changed to 'CalEtur'
abhinc hebdomadem: while this is the right syntax, I don't find any examples of abhinc with time without a number, and I would suggest abhinc hebdomadem unam.
--Prof. Neumann
Changed to 'abhinc hebdomadem unam'. This is especially nice because 'unam' will show students the gender.
[The order of the prompts for the variations was reversed. This has been corrected]
abfuisti is fine (you were away at that moment when I called you)
fui should be eram (I was at the theatre during the whole evening)
--Prof. Neumann
Done--Shame on me! This is one of the things I often tell my ESL students to be careful about!
Will you have some kind of appendix to the book? pedifolle ludere, e.g. is great, but it might be helpful to students to know the game itself is pedefollium so they know the idiom and the lemma. What do you think?
--Prof. Neumann
Of course an appendix would be nice. Perhaps in a future edition. For now there is Traupman's book and (soon?) Michelle Vitt's.
'Quomodo erat heri' sound odd.
--Prof. Neumann
Yes, and unnecessary to boot. Removed the first two lines of this dialogue and changed 'Quid egisti' to 'Quid heri egisti'.
['Caput me dolet' changed to 'caput mihi dolet'. Also some other health problems listed to aid students.]
Studere in an absolute sense occurs, but it is very rare without referent
--Prof. Neumann
Changed to: 'Quod discipuli mei pensa non conficiunt'
Another option for orange juice is sucus aurantinus
--Prof. Neumann
I like this, but fear 12 year-old boys will give teachers headaches. I'll change the English from "juice" to "drink". Also I'll try to make an online resource for teachers and include this suggestion there.
['Quid hodie te delectet' changed to 'Quid te hodie...' This was done to match the software and audio which was already recorded.]
Aliquem should be 'aliquam' throughout.
--Prof. Watanabe
Changed to 'aliquam'
volo takes an object infinitive (volo te convenire) but not an object clause (volo te abhinc abire)
--Prof. Neumann
Very subtle distinction! I changed it to 'sodes' + imperative:
'Da mihi, sodes, litteras...'
AND I noticed that this should apply to Unit 11 as well.
'Visne mihi aliquid emere?' So I 've changed that to:
'Possumne tibi aliquid emere?'
Olim (at some point either in the past or future) is better Latin than in futuris. Where did you get 'in futuris'? Is it in later authors?
--Prof. Neumann
Changed to 'Quid olim fieri volis?'