Revision history

Revision history

From version 2.25:

• Refinement of the downgrading of verbs caused by use of of rare inflections, first introduced with version 2.24.
• Enhancement of the electronic dictionary with the addition of a further 1,270 new medieval Latin words.
• Translations of further pages of the remaining 30 classical Latin texts of sufficient length supplied by the Packard Humanities Institute examined manually, and the very few systematic grammatical/translation errors fixed.

From version 2.24:

• The downgrading of even common verbs, such as amare, when combined with certain inflections (especially those of future-perfect, passive and imperative) to reflect their rarity, regardless of how common the verb stem is with more usual inflections. Blitz Latin now understands that verbs such as amator (for example) are far rarer than other more common inflections of the verb amare.
• Extension of the Latin dictionary for words with various prefixes and suffices.
• Translations of further pages of the remaining 34 classical Latin texts of sufficient length supplied by the Packard Humanities Institute examined manually, and the very few systematic grammatical/translation errors fixed.

From version 2.23:

• Extension of the Latin dictionary for late Latin (4th, 5th, 6th centuries AD).
• Extension of the original limited variants of verb ‘ait’ in order to accommodate use/mis-use of the verb by late classical and medieval writers.
• Re-examination of nouns to ensure correct placement between those which are: Proper names (eg Cicero), Trades of Persons (such as bakers or senators), Groups (such as the inhabitants of a land or city), Abstract nouns (hunger, pain) and Things (tangible objects). This information is used to determine the type of verb that each type of noun can attract. For example, a king can love a queen, and a king can love a table, but a table cannot love a king, a queen, or another table. An example of the hitherto-undocumented sophistication of Blitz Latin in recent releases.
• Translations of further pages of the remaining 36 classical Latin texts of sufficient length supplied by the Packard Humanities Institute examined manually, and the very few systematic grammatical/translation errors fixed.

Blitz Latin 2.22

• Further emphasis on the medieval/early Neolatin vocabulary, for the benefit of the majority of users.
• Improvements in the AI code to ensure that common verbs with rare inflections (for example, ending in -ator) do not displace less common nouns with similar endings. Equally, common verbs that could be construed with unlikely 1st- or 2nd- person inflections, when they should be nouns or adjectives, are also less favoured.
• The number of Latin Standard Phrases now exceeds 16,000. Many of these LSPs will have their inflections or verb endings assigned automatically during use. From version 2.22, these user phrases will also consider the ‘area’ of the translation (eg ‘Ecclesiastical’, ‘Legal’, ‘Technical’ and others).
• Translations of further pages of the remaining 38 classical Latin texts of sufficient length supplied by the Packard Humanities Institute examined manually, and the very few systematic grammatical/translation errors fixed.

Blitz Latin 2.21

• A much larger emphasis on the medieval/early Neolatin vocabulary, recognising that many medieval/Neolatin words have meanings much closer to modern English than the classical Latin meanings. Most of these new meanings were supplied by user Patricio Shaw, with verification in medieval/post-medieval dictionaries. The new medieval meanings are selected from the new menu option Edit/Area Preferred/Prefer Medieval meanings. This option is only active when ‘Medieval Latin’ is selected from menu item Edit/Age Preferred.
• Similarly, the existing menu item Edit/Area Preferred/Neolatin has been renamed to /Prefer Neolatin meanings, and is now only active when ‘Latin From All Ages’ is selected from menu item Edit/Age Preferred. Further assistance from Ian Bruce is gratefully acknowledged.
• If you have chosen, for example, ‘Ecclesiastical area’ as ‘Area’, and ‘Age’ as ‘Medieval’, Blitz Latin will now make a first search for Latin words with your preferred Area and, if it fails, it will then search for a matching Latin word from your specified Age. If that fails too, a word from the classical period will be selected. Likewise, if you wish to translate a scientific text from the Neolatin age, the first search will be for words with a modern scientific meaning, the second search for a word with a Neolatin meaning, and failing there a search for medieval and classical Latin words.
• The number of Latin Standard Phrases now exceeds 15,700. This number includes some 140 medieval/NeoLatin phrases also provided by Patricio Shaw. Many of these LSPs will have their inflections or verb endings assigned automatically during use.
• Translations of further pages of the remaining 42 classical Latin texts of sufficient length supplied by the Packard Humanities Institute examined manually, and the very few systematic grammatical/translation errors fixed.

Blitz Latin 2.18

• Nouns that can be singular only now recognised by Blitz Latin. Nouns that can only be plural were already recognised.
• Change to rules for the AutoSVOE translation option. This user-option automatically switches between SVOE translation and NOM-V translation (definitions of SVOE, Nom-V and Auto-Svoe are in the manual.)
• 150 new Latin words first encountered with the Christian writer Tertullian (3rd Century AD) located and added to the electronic dictionary.
• The increasing sophistication of Blitz Latin’s translation routines means that proper names, and names of countries and rivers, are better listed in the electronic dictionary with the correct description of whether the names refer to proper names, groups of people, countries or locations such as towns. Previously, many were computed according to general rules as and when encountered in texts. Accordingly some 950 of the most common proper names in the PHI texts have been added to the electronic dictionary, together with 710 of the most common medieval proper names found from our large collection of medieval Latin texts.
• Dates or times such as ‘vixit annis LX mensibus VII diebus XXVI.’ or alternatively ‘vixit LX annis VII mensibus XXVI diebus.’ are now handled much better with dedicated code.
• Number of Latin Standard Phrases now exceeds 15,300. Many of these LSPs will have their inflections or verb endings assigned automatically during use.
• Translations of further pages of the remaining 45 classical Latin texts of sufficient length supplied by the Packard Humanities Institute examined manually, and the very few systematic grammatical/translation errors fixed.

Blitz Latin 2.17

• Added menu item for user to SAVE preferred user settings. Previously it was necessary to make changes to the usersettings.txt file.
• Many words in -ator or -ctor had peculiar verb forms only, although clearly intended as 3rd-declension nouns. Added around 50 new noun entries, nearly all from later Latin. Similarly over 100 new words added as suffices ending in -orius.
• Medieval phonetics system overhauled. Medieval writers tended to spell-as-they-spoke. The original coded system, to try to link an unknown Latin word with that which was intended by its phonetic sound, has been augmented with an extra dictionary file called PhoneticUK.dat. Phonetic matches from the coded system and the phonetic-dictionary file are now compared, and those matches that are common are given priority for translation. This system reduces idiosyncratic errors caused by use of either system alone.
• Number of Latin Standard Phrases now exceeds 15,200. Many of these LSPs will have their inflections or verb endings assigned automatically during use.
• The vocabulary file of the Elder Pliny, XPlinyUserFile.txt, has been extended to over 1,300 unique Latin words. For use only by those who wish to translate the Elder Pliny, see the entry for version 2.16 below.
• Translations of further pages of the remaining 47 classical Latin texts of sufficient length supplied by the Packard Humanities Institute examined manually, and the very few systematic grammatical/translation errors fixed.

Blitz Latin 2.16

• Any Latin word that occurs more than twice in the combined texts of the Packard Humanities CD-ROM (containing all classical Latin up to 200 AD) will now be translated. Excludes mis-spellings and proper names.
• 2,355 compound words, previously handled with code for prefixes and suffices, located in paper dictionaries and added to electronic dictionary.
• Pliny words: words found only in the writings of the Elder Pliny are not included in the electronic dictionary. However, for those who require them, an extra user file entitled XPlinyUserFile.txt is supplied as part of the installation package. The list of Pliny words is not complete, but is certainly comprehensive with just under 1,200 words. Since the file will NOT be required by most users of Blitz Latin, this extra file must be renamed to PlinyUserFile.txt before use. Then it will be installed automatically when Blitz Latin starts up.
• Number of Latin Standard Phrases now exceeds 15,100. Many of these LSPs will have their inflections or verb endings assigned automatically during use.
• Translations of further pages of the remaining 49 classical Latin texts of sufficient length supplied by the Packard Humanities Institute examined manually, and the very few systematic grammatical/translation errors fixed.

Blitz Latin 2.15

• 600 Latin words used in medieval northern Italy added.
• Many of the most common medieval variants of classical Latin words, hitherto located by Blitz Latin’s phonetics ability, now added to the electronic dictionary. Eg presencia for praesentia.
• Inflections now filtered for age (some inflections confined mostly to the medieval era.)
• 3rd-declension Latin nouns derived from Greek (eg praxis, -is or -eos, fem.) now have inflections better assigned.
• Number of Latin Standard Phrases now exceeds 14,900. Many of these LSPs will have their inflections or verb endings assigned automatically during use.
• Translations of further pages of the remaining 49 classical Latin texts of sufficient length supplied by the Packard Humanities Institute examined manually, and the very few systematic grammatical/translation errors fixed.

Blitz Latin 2.14

• Handling of abbreviations much improved.
• More than 1,800 increasingly rare Latin words added to the main Latin dictionary. This includes many new compound words from the 3rd-5th centuries AD.
• Dictionary for botanical Latin expanded by more than 1,100 words, mostly from the southern hemisphere. Now 5,673 dedicated entries.
• Translations of further pages of the remaining 49 classical Latin texts of sufficient length supplied by the Packard Humanities Institute examined manually, and the very few systematic grammatical/translation errors fixed.
• Number of Latin Standard Phrases now exceeds 14,700. Many of these LSPs will have their inflections or verb endings assigned automatically during use.

Blitz Latin 2.13

• Modern computers have much more memory than when Blitz Latin was first created in 2001. All dictionary data files (including the optional botanical Latin dictionary) are now read from memory, instead of from the hard-drive. This results in a speed acceleration of around 50%. That is, a very long file that once took 3 seconds to translate will now take about 2 seconds. This change will benefit especially those using Blitz Latin on computers with anti-malware programs operating in the background – no longer sudden pauses in translation.
• Rearrangement of sentences with vocatives. In order to improve grammatical accuracy, Latin sentences of the type ‘da mi catillum, puer, mundum’ are now rearranged internally to this pattern: ‘da mi catillum mundum, puer’. This ensures that mundum is handled as an adjective and not as the unrelated noun.
• Better handling of named sons and daughters, eg ‘Inachus Aureliani filius’ will be translated as ‘Inachus son of Aurelian’.
• Better handling of pronouns ‘qui’ and ‘quae’ in their capacity as either singular or plural nominative pronouns.
• Translations of further pages of the remaining 49 classical Latin texts of sufficient length supplied by the Packard Humanities Institute examined manually, and the very few systematic grammatical/translation errors fixed.
• Number of Latin Standard Phrases now exceeds 14,500. Many of these LSPs will have their inflections or verb endings assigned automatically during use.

Blitz Latin 2.12

• Emphasis on NeoLatin words. 1,400 new words added, predominantly from verifiable ‘NeoLatin’ words (many proved to be actually from late medieval or 16-18th Centuries) found in modern compilations on the Internet. In addition, permitted Latin stem-length increased from 20 to 24 characters, to accommodate NeoLatin’s frequent excursions into long compound words to describe modern technological or scientific advances.
• Syncope improved, to handle such conversions as ‘dixti’ to ‘dixisti’ and ‘dixtis’ to ‘dixistis’ and similar. The first of such words were previously being recognised falsely, for example as the verbs ‘dix.ti’, while words like ‘dixtis’ were not recognised at all.
• Blitz Latin no longer permits active forms of the present tense of deponent verbs, nor passive forms of the present tense for semi-deponent verbs.
• ut + subjunctive verb. Should the verb be shown in English as the indicative form or the subjunctive? For a long time, Blitz Latin has adopted conventional practice in using the Indicative form for the English translation of the verb. After some complaints that this was unnatural, Blitz Latin now uses the subjunctive form of the English verb. Example: ‘ut habeat’. Was ‘in order that s/he/it has’. From 2.12, ‘in order that s/he/it may have’.
• Translations of further pages of the remaining 51 classical Latin texts of sufficient length supplied by the Packard Humanities Institute examined manually, and the very few systematic grammatical/translation errors fixed.

Blitz Latin 2.11

• Another 700 new words, of all ages, added from Smith’s 1850 Latin dictionary and verified in modern dictionaries. Words identified from images of pages supplied kindly by Ian Bruce, then processed by OCR.
• The Vatican’s Acta Apostolicae Sedis texts from 1909-2002 processed to remove non-Latin paragraphs, and the remaining 11.5 million (sic) words processed with Blitz Latin to provide modern, previously-unrecognised words from ecclesiastical Latin. Around 500 new Latin stems added to the electronic dictionary.
• Translations of further pages of the remaining 55 classical Latin texts of sufficient length supplied by the Packard Humanities Institute examined manually, and the very few systematic grammatical/translation errors fixed.

Blitz Latin 2.10

• New code permits single Latin Standard Phrases to recognise almost all inflections of nouns, adjectives and participles.
• More than 2,000 new words, of all ages, added from Smith’s 1850 Latin dictionary and verified in modern dictionaries. Words identified from images of pages supplied kindly by Ian Bruce, then processed by OCR.
• More than 1,000 new Latin Standard Phrases added. Total now exceeds 13,700.
• Recognition of basic Ablative Absolute construction provided as optional feature.
• Much better handling of ‘ABL-noun opus est’.
• Perfect form of deponent verbs now assigned TRANS/INTRANS nature according to the main verb.
• User can now set background colour of text windows. Menu item ‘View/Select Font and Background Colour…’
• Code for handling ‘Area’ (where user can select Legal, Ecclesiastical, Scientific or other area to improve translation) overhauled, improved and accelerated.
• Translations of further pages of the remaining 56 classical Latin texts of sufficient length supplied by the Packard Humanities Institute examined manually, and the handful of systematic grammatical/translation errors fixed.

Blitz Latin 2.06:

• More than 200 new Latin Standard Phrases added. Total now exceeds 12,600.
• Common endings for masculine and neuter adjectives are now classified as M/NT, and no longer as MASC and NT. This improves translation of some ambiguous clauses, such as ‘intra brevissimum deinde spatium.’
• Improvements to SVOE word-ordering.
• Translations of further pages of the remaining 57 classical Latin texts of sufficient length supplied by the Packard Humanities Institute examined manually, and the handful of systematic grammatical/translation errors fixed.

Blitz Latin 2.05

• More than 200 new Latin Standard Phrases added. Total now exceeds 12,400.
• Handling of pronouns and the Super-Adjective (SADJ – certain types of pronoun or adjective commonly encountered as nouns) now improved.
• Handling of both-and code (et… et…., aut… aut…, vel… vel…, and similar) improved.
• Another 100 of the commonest medieval words found by computer search now added.
• Improvements to SVOE word-ordering.
• Translations of further pages of the remaining 58 classical Latin texts of sufficient length supplied by the Packard Humanities Institute examined manually, and the handful of systematic grammatical/translation errors fixed.

Blitz Latin 2.04

• Another 165 Latin Standard Phrases added. Total now exceeds 12,180.
• Rare occurrences of VIIque, viiiique and similar now handled correctly (previous flagged as ‘Unknown’).
• Translations of further pages of the remaining 60 classical Latin texts of sufficient length supplied by the Packard Humanities Institute examined manually, and systematic grammatical/translation errors fixed. We can now find very few new errors or Latin words missing from the electronic dictionary.

Blitz Latin 2.03

• Another 500 Latin Standard Phrases added. Total now exceeds 12,000.
• Extension of the medieval vocabulary after searches of hundreds of medieval Latin files for the most common missing words.
• Rare occurrences of quidamque, quaedamque and similar now handled correctly (previous flagged as ‘Unknown’).
• Translations of further pages of the remaining 60 classical Latin texts of sufficient length supplied by the Packard Humanities Institute examined manually, and systematic grammatical/translation errors fixed.

Blitz Latin 2.02

• Extension of the code for Latin Standard Phrases (LSPs) to improve flexibility, especially for the handling of verbs as infinitives that can be accessed by any form of the verb. There are currently more than 11,500 LSPs, all manually checked, now available to registered users. Click Latin User Phrases for further details.
• Extension of LSPs for many medieval texts.
• The medieval inflection -e is now converted accurately to -ae. However, in view of the possibility of confusion, this option has to be actively engaged by the user.
• Translations of further pages of the remaining 61 classical Latin texts of sufficient length supplied by the Packard Humanities Institute examined manually, and systematic grammatical/translation errors fixed.

Blitz Latin 2.01

• The key feature of the new release of Blitz Latin, and the reason for the new version number (2.mn-series), is the introduction of a huge number (currently more than 9,500) of Latin Standard Phrases (LSPs). These are provided on a file that is made available only to registered users. Their effect is to enhance translations by Blitz Latin with predetermined phrases that substitute the original translations, where applicable. The result is another big step forward in the translation quality from Blitz Latin. Click Latin User Phrases for further details.
• The above LSPs are completely compatible with the new Botanical Latin dictionary, released in April 2012.
• Translations of further pages of the remaining 61 classical Latin texts of sufficient length supplied by the Packard Humanities Institute examined manually, and systematic grammatical/translation errors fixed.
• See also below (version 1.82) for other new additions.

From version 1.82 (Not released, but included with version 2.01):

• A substantial increase in the number of medieval words in the electronic dictionary. These words were located by electronic search of the programmer’s 1,000-odd medieval Latin text files and also of all of Bracton’s medieval legal compendium. However, only registered users will have the benefit of the separate medieval dictionary of some 4,000 of the most common medieval Latin words.
• A number of very common comparatives and superlatives of adjectives have been completely reprogrammed as a new category within Blitz Latin. I finally became tired of seeing ‘more good’ and ‘most good’ instead of ‘better’ and ‘best’; ‘more high’ and ‘most high’ where ‘higher’ and ‘highest’ were intended; ‘more previous’ where ‘earlier’ was required, and so on. These common changes have a surprisingly beneficial optical effect on translations by Blitz Latin.
• Improvements to the word classification system introduced with version 1.81.
• Translations of further pages of the remaining 61 classical Latin texts of sufficient length supplied by the Packard Humanities Institute examined manually, and systematic grammatical/translation errors fixed.

What’s new in version 1.80?

The most important addition to this version of Blitz Latin has been a substantial database of modern Botanical Latin (over 4,000 dedicated new words). The new database is a stand-alone item, supplied as a separate data file, and is available only to those who pay for the licence. It has its own manual.

The introduction of this new, optional module for Blitz Latin has had the additional effect that some grammatical errors in the standard program have now become apparent. These have all been fixed in this release. In addition, the habitual translations of further pages of the remaining 61 classical Latin texts of sufficient length supplied by the Packard Humanities Institute were examined manually, and systematic grammatical/translation errors fixed. These changes have resulted in the following majorimprovements to Blitz Latin:

• Both the code which substitutes adjectives for verb participles and the code which links adjectives/verb-participles to remote nouns has been greatly improved, and discriminates much better between conflicting alternatives.
• Synthetic adverbs are now created from simple adjectives and verb participles (eg perurbane from perurbanus). These adverbs are created only for classical Latin, owing to potential confusion caused by medieval scribes who wrote -e when they intended -ae.
• A partial attempt has been made to separate the various forms of quis, when intended to be used as ‘which’ (the form invariably used previously in Blitz Latin) and ‘who/whom/what’.
• The inflections exemplified by capiunto and capiuntor are now recognised. Previously the code sought in vain capunto andcapuntor. Similarly, abbreviated forms of certain verb imperatives are also now recognised.

A very few of the most common abbreviations are now recognised, eg ‘coss.’ to give ‘consules’ and ‘p.’ to give ‘pondo’ (alternatives are possible). Other one-letter abbreviations are marked with the underscore character, for example ‘d. ‘ to give ‘d_ ‘. The intention is to reduce the number of new sentences caused by failure to translate short abbreviations.

The Latin dictionary now contains more than 43,000 words, including large medieval, Catholic/Vatican and modern sub-dictionaries. This is 47,000 words with the supplemental medieval dictionary, 51,000 words with optional Botany add-on. These are words as they would be counted in a paper dictionary, i.e. not counting the very many inflected variants of nearly every word. The count is nearly 3.5 million words if inflections are counted.

What’s new in version 1.79?

• Translations of further pages of the remaining 66 classical Latin texts of sufficient length supplied by the Packard Humanities Institute examined manually, and systematic grammatical/translation errors fixed.
• The relative pronouns ‘quis’ and ‘qui’ (and related pronouns such as ‘quisquis’) are now recognised under certain circumstances as initiating a new clause. For example, ‘Perseus disco misso quem ventus distulit in caput Acrisii’. This sentence really comprises two clauses, thus: ‘Perseus disco misso -,- quem ventus distulit in caput Acrisii’, where ‘quem’ refers to ‘disco’. Blitz Latin will now often recognise the double clause, which greatly improves the translation of this type of sentence.
• Single verbs can often be divided into transitive and intransitive types, with different meanings, while many prepositions can take two different cases with different meanings. For example ‘in+ABL’ and ‘in+ACC’. Previously Blitz Latin recognised the differences, and could choose correctly between two different verbs, of which one was transitive and the other intransitive. However, where a single verb could be transitive or intransitive, or for prepositions which take two cases, Blitz Latin usually assigned the type of verb, or of preposition, that is encountered most frequently. This technical difficulty has now been overcome, with another significant improvement to the translations of Blitz Latin. A one-word Latin sentence ‘noveram.’ illustrates the difference. Since there is no object in this clause, the intransitive form should be taken. However, the transitive form occurs more frequently. Blitz Latin used to favour the transitive verb. Now it favours the intransitive variant.

What’s new in version 1.78?

• Translations of further pages of the remaining 67 classical Latin texts of sufficient length supplied by the Packard Humanities Institute examined manually, and systematic grammatical/translation errors fixed.
• Further extensions to the electronic dictionary, including words found predominantly or only in Cato.
• All common verbs with verbose meanings checked manually against paper dictionaries to ensure that most common meaning is being used.
• Better handling of the verb fio, fieri, ‘Alter’ no longer listed as a potential conjunction! (but retains its correct meanings).
• Various minor translation bugs fixed.

What’s new in version 1.77?

• Persistent window size (BL remembers the size to which you opened the window, now).
• Ability to change fonts, from Arial (default) to Courier or to Times New Roman.
• Improved/revised documentation.
• Improved grammar, from testing PHI texts.
• Better handling of spoken elisions (eg, with the playrights Plautus and Terence)
• Extensions to dictionary for several earlier classical Latin texts.
• Better handling of pronouns to differentiate use as noun-like or adjectival.

What’s new in version 1.76?

• Better handling of pronouns to differentiate use as noun-like or adjectival.
• Better use of frequency-of-occurrence to determine whether rare nouns should be used in place of alternative speech-types.
• All very frequent verbs checked manually to make sure that the first meaning used (where there are several alternatives) is that most frequently encountered. Previously, the most pithy meaning was selected.
• Copula verbs <Copula.htm> bridging two nominatives are now much better handled. Extended to include all verbs listed in Gildersleeve’s Latin Grammar.
• The Locative case <Locative.htm> is now handled for named towns and small islands.
• Complicated code to separate alternate meanings of the common words /aeris/ (money/air), /auri(s)/ (gold/breeze/ear) and /avi(s)/(grandfather/bird) according to local context.
• Code to try to match inflected forms of alius, or of alter, across multiple clauses.
• ‘Unknown’ proper names now recognised as forms such as the common -io,-ionis; -as,-atis; -is, -idis.
• Translations of further pages of the remaining 76 classical Latin texts of sufficient length supplied by the Packard Humanities Institute examined manually, and systematic grammatical/translation errors fixed.
• Further extensions to the electronic dictionary.

What’s new in version 1.75?

• Further improvements to grammar.
• The maximum number of clauses (originally 25), and the maximum number of words (originally 200), in a sentence (including punctuation as a word) have both been doubled. This means that virtually all Latin sentences likely to be encountered will now be translated without complaint.
• Much improved handling of the AI Selection routines, so that lengthy clauses are now broken down into shorter sub-clauses for analysis.
• ‘Consistency Code’. This code tries to ensure consistency, or continuity, across clauses in single sentences. For details, see Consistency Code (in the help file).
• Translations of further pages of the remaining 80 classical Latin texts of sufficient length supplied by the Packard Humanities Institute examined manually, and systematic grammatical/translation errors fixed.
• Further extensions to the electronic dictionary.
• Assorted minor bug fixes, including improvements to the registration system.

What’s new in version 1.74?

The emphasis has again been on improvements in grammar.

• Corrections to translations of the passive voice, dating back to the first release of Blitz Latin! For example, est amatus = ‘he has been loved’, not ‘he is loved’. Many thanks to Ian Bruce for pointing out this rather basic error.
• Likewise, translation of the conjunction ‘cum’ now tests whether it is followed by an indicative or subjunctive verb. Again pointed up by Ian Bruce. Other users please note that I cannot fix errors if no one draws them to my attention!
• Translations of further pages of the remaining 85 classical Latin texts of sufficient length supplied by the Packard Humanities Institute examined manually, and systematic grammatical/translation errors fixed.
• Handling of certain pronouns (especially idem) improved, while Blitz Latin now recognises archaic perfect forms (eg amassi instead of amavi).

What’s new in version 1.73?

Version 1.73 is intended only for use with Microsoft Windows XP and Vista. For other Microsoft operating systems, please use Blitz Latin for 95/98/ME.

In 1.73 the emphasis has again been on improvements in grammar. In particular, some of the new changes/fixes have caused unexpectedly a marked improvement in understanding complex Latin text. This version of Blitz Latin is a major release!

• • Where single Latin nouns or adjectives can only be translated with two or more words in English, the several English words are now hyphenated. For example, the Latin noun ‘magnatus’, formerly translated as ‘great man’, will now be translated as ‘great-man’. A few translations will have several hyphens. This change to the electronic dictionary greatly aids visual assignment of Latin words to their meanings in translated sentences.
  • Translations of further pages of the remaining 90 classical Latin texts of sufficient length supplied by the Packard Humanities Institute have been examined manually, and systematic grammatical/translation errors fixed.
  • More decisions are now being made by the Artificial Intelligence routines, and fewer by crude grammatical block deletions of alternative translations of individual words.
  • Handling of punctuation improved further, and now very good.
  • Basic handling of constructions which bridge prepositions, for example: nullo in loco.
  • Handling of adjectives (or similar) linked to remote nouns improved to a standard similar to that for adjacent pairs.
    • The emphasis has again been on improvements in grammar.
    • Translations of further pages of the remaining 95 classical Latin texts of sufficient length supplied by the Packard Humanities Institute examined manually, and systematic grammatical/translation errors fixed.
    • Abbreviated proper names, eg ‘Q. Numerius’, are now handled automatically as proper names in the form of ‘Q_Numerius’.
    • Better handling of plerusque.
    • Improvements to reviews of what the Artificial Intelligence has done.
    • The small dialogue box (obtained by highlighting a single Latin word then pressing the Translate button) now has the capacity to accommodate ‘cocta’, the word with the most variants yet found.
    • Other improvements to grammar. The user should again see an improvement in translation quality as a result of the above changes.
    • The user can now set a ‘usersettings.txt’ file to ensure that Blitz Latin always loads with the desired menu options pre-set. See User Settings.
    • The user can now also designate certain words as not to be translated, for example the vowels ‘a’ and ‘e’ when described as vowels. See Single Word Underscores.
    • Latin glossary. This is the most important change. It allows the user to find a Latin glossary of every single Latin word in a text simply by clicking on each Latin word with the mouse. This can be very useful for users with great experience in Latin.
    • Improvements in grammar
    • Translations of further pages of the remaining 108 classical Latin texts of sufficient length supplied by the Packard Humanities Institute have been examined manually, and systematic Blitz Latin grammatical/translation errors fixed.
    • Improvements to code linking remote adjectives with their nouns/pronouns (several changes; some code completely rewritten).
    • Improved handling of pronouns (several areas). Reflexive pronouns better handled (especially ‘se’).
    • Elaboration of gerunds fixed (why didn’t anyone tell me it has been defective for ages?) Thus ‘eligendi’ = ‘of the selecting’. Previous simply ‘selecting’.
    • Best ordering code improved for verb layers.

Version 1.72

IMPORTANT – This version of Blitz Latin (1.72 WINXP) can be used ONLY with Microsoft Windows operating systems WIN XP and Vista. If you use Win98 and older, install Version 1.71a. This has the dictionary improvements but not the program improvements listed below.

For users of previous versions of Blitz Latin the following provides a summary of new features:

Blitz Latin 1.71

Blitz Latin 1.68

• • Improved Latin grammar.
    Larger display box to show grammar alternatives for single words.
    Now ‘Vista compatible’ (sic).
    • Translations of further pages of all 362 classical Latin texts supplied by the Packard Humanities Institute examined manually, and systematic grammatical/translation errors fixed.
    • Other improvements to grammar. The user should again see a significant improvement in translation quality as a result of the above changes.
    • Cut-and-pasting text now available as menu options, or by right mouse-click on text window.
    • Improvements in SVOE best-ordering.
    • About 120 new Latin words added. It is now very hard to find new Latin words for the Latin dictionary, but some medieval words have been scraped out of Anglo-Saxon charters.
    • Includes 1,500 new Latin words. The vocabulary of Blitz Latin is so comprehensive that it is now getting difficult for the author to find new words.
    • Many important new grammar improvements.
    • ‘Easy Latin’ mode for teachers and students. This works by eliminating rare translations when more common translations exist. All the less frequent Latin words are deleted during translation unless no common alternative exists.
    • A further 2,000 Latin words from Vatican/Catholic/ecclesiastical sources, of all ages.
    • Blitz Latin will now auto locate the dictionary.
    • Several improvements to grammar.
    • Contains further extensions to the dictionary and the neural network engine, many more improvements to the grammar, and the ability for the user to add pre-translated short phrases.
    • Generally a little faster still, and up to 50% faster when translating very long Latin texts (eg Justinian’s Digest).
    • Fewer words rejected simply on alleged grammatical grounds; the artificial intelligence prefers to inspect them first!
    • Medieval dictionary which adds over 4,000 words to Blitz Latin is now sent to all registered licence holders.
    • Faster still with high-speed look-up tables! Average 15% improvement in trials over 20 million Latin words! A guiding principle to BlitzLatin enhancements is that speed should not be compromised by new features.
    • More small changes to grammar understanding.
    • Ability to trim the Latin dictionary to user’s preferred area (classical, medieval or modern Latin).
    • And yet more new words added to dictionary.
    • Larger dictionary
    • Many small changes to grammar understanding. This has made a noticeable improvement to translation quality.
    • Automatic switching by program from area to area, for example from ecclesiastical to legal to scientific translation.
    • Improved comprehension of medieval misspellings.
    • New utility “LatinWords” which simplifies adding new words to the supplementary dictionary.
    • New licence codes. This is free to existing licence holders. Please contact us if you have not received your new licence directly from us already.
    • Improved dictionary and grammar
    • 2,500+ modern Latin words added (It is estimated that more Latin has been written in the last 50 years than in the classical era!)
    • Spell-checker
    • Improved screen interface
    • Recognises phonetic medieval spelling (compensates for the all too common “spell it as it sounds” style of less well tutored medieval clerics).

Blitz Latin 1.67

Blitz Latin 1.66A

Blitz Latin 1.66

Blitz Latin 1.65

Blitz Latin 1.64

Blitz Latin 1.63

Blitz Latin 1.61

Blitz Latin 1.53

Blitz Latin 1.52

Blitz Latin 1.51