Editing Plautus (section)

===Archaic features===
The diction of Plautus, who used the colloquial speech of his own day, is distinctive and non-standard from the point of view of the later, [[Classical Latin|classical period]]. M. Hammond, A.H. Mack, and W. Moskalew have noted in the introduction to their edition of the ''Miles Gloriosus'' that Plautus was "free from convention... [and] sought to reproduce the easy tone of daily speech rather than the formal regularity of oratory or poetry. Hence, many of the irregularities which have troubled scribes and scholars perhaps merely reflect the everyday usages of the careless and untrained tongues which Plautus heard about him."<ref>Ed. M. Hammond, A.H. Mack, & W. Moskalew, ''Miles Gloriosus'' (Cambridge and London, 1997 repr.), pp. 39-57.</ref> Looking at the overall use of archaic forms in Plautus, one notes that they commonly occur in promises, agreements, threats, prologues, or speeches. Plautus's archaic forms are metrically convenient, but may also have had a stylistic effect on his original audience.

These forms are frequent and of too great a number for a complete list here,<ref>The reader is directed to the word studies of A.W. Hodgman (Nouns 1902; Verbs 107) to grasp fully the use of archaic forms in Plautine diction.</ref> but some of the most noteworthy features which from the classical perspective will be considered irregular or obsolete are:

*the use of uncontracted forms of some verbs such as ''mavolo'' ("prefer") for later ''malo''<ref>From ''magis volo'' "want more".</ref>
*the use of the final -''e'' of second person singular imperatives in verbs which in classical Latin lack it, e.g. dic(e) "say".
*the retention of -''u''- in place of the later -''i''- in words such as ''maxumus'', ''proxumus'', ''lacrumare'' etc. (see [[Sonus medius|Latin spelling and pronunciation §Sonus medius]]), and of -''vo''- before ''r'', ''s'' or ''t'', where the use after ''ca''. 150 BC<ref>R.H. Martin, ''Terence: Phormio'' (London: Methuen, 1969). P. 86 n. 29.</ref> would favour -''ve''- (as ''vostrum'' for later ''vestrum'')
*the use of the -''ier'' ending for the present [[passive voice|passive]] and [[Latin conjugation#Deponent and semi-deponent verbs|deponent]] [[infinitive]] (e.g. ''exsurgier'' for ''exsurgī'')
*the forms of ''sum'' often joined to the preceding word, which is called [[prodelision]] (as ''bonumst'' "it's good" for ''bonum est'' "it is good")
*the dropping of the final -''s'' of 2nd-singular verb forms and the final -''e'' of the question-particle [[wikt:-ne#Latin|-''ne'']] when the two are joined (as ''viden?'' for ''videsne?'' "you see? you get it?")
*the retention of short -''ŏ'' in noun endings in the [[Latin Declensions#Second declension (o)|second declension]] for later -''ŭ''
*the retention in many words of ''qu-'' instead of later ''c-'' (as in ''quom'' instead of ''cum'')
*the use of the ''-āī'' genitive singular ending, disyllabic, besides ''-ae''
*the retention of final -''d'' after long vowel in the pronouns ''mēd'', ''tēd'', ''sēd'' (accusative and ablative, used before prevocalic words, forms without ''-d'' also occur)
*the occasional addition of a final -''pte'', -''te'', or -''met'' to pronouns
*the use of -''īs'' as an accusative plural and occasionally nominative plural ending.<ref>This list compiled from a number of word studies and syntactic texts listed in the reference section.</ref>

These are the most common linguistic peculiarities (from the later perspective) in the plays of Plautus, some of them being also found in [[Terence]], and noting them helps in the reading of his works and gives insight into early Roman language and interaction.