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1500 questions
13
votes
1 answer
Why did Roman children call their father 'tata' instead of 'pappa'?
I was reading a text from Hans H. Øberg, and I saw in the text the following sentences:
Noli dicere 'tatam' et 'mammam', Iuliola! Ea nomina a te audire nolumus. Ita loquuntur parvuli infantes, nec sermo infantium te decet. 'Patrem' et 'matrem'…
L. Peters
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13
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1 answer
How to tell when an inscription is post-classical?
When traveling in Europe, I occasionally come across Latin inscriptions.
Their ages vary greatly, and I would like to get some tools for quickly estimating their age.
How can I tell if an inscription is classical or later?
What should I look for in…
Joonas Ilmavirta
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13
votes
1 answer
cunnilingus vs cunnilinctus
I'm interested in the morphology of these two words. How are they structured and does their structure affect their meaning at all?
Bill Heap
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13
votes
5 answers
How to translate “Wir müssen wissen, wir werden wissen.” into Latin?
“Wir müssen wissen, wir werden wissen.” — David Hilbert
“We need to know, we will know.” — David Hilbert
I was trying to translate this quote into Latin while preserving the parallelism between the two parts but I couldn't come with something…
user10176
13
votes
0 answers
the kiskis and kankan debate: primary sources
There's a very famous story about how in the middle of the sixteenth century the Sorbonne University filed a legal claim to the Parlement de Paris re: the correct pronunciation of qu- in Latin, viz. in the words quisquis and quamquam (e.g. Waquet…
Alex B.
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13
votes
2 answers
Should “cum” be included in this sentence or not?
I have a sentence that I need to translate:
Having left the forum with haste, ... etc
And I'm translating it as "e foro cum celeritate egressi, ..." (the rest of the sentence refers to multiple people hence why I'm using egressi) but I'm not sure…
pigeonburger
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13
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4 answers
French and Latin "s'il te/vous plaît"
The phrases si tibi placet and si vobis placet can be found in Latin literature, but they are not particularly common.
At least superficially they correspond to the French "s'il te plaît" and "s'il vous plaît".
The difference in frequency can be…
Joonas Ilmavirta
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13
votes
6 answers
How to say "I am falling in love with this language"?
What I currently have for this is probably a literal translation:
In amor cum haec lingua cado
Thank you
Johhan Santana
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13
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When did nouns and adjectives derived from pronouns appear?
Latin has some nouns and adjectives derived from pronouns:
unicus, identitas, qualitas, neutralis…
I have the impression that such derivations are mainly later than classical, but I do not really know.
These derivatives look like something I would…
Joonas Ilmavirta
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13
votes
3 answers
Help with Latin translation from a 17th century ecclesiastical Latin book
The book is Panoplia Clericalis, and the passage I'm having difficulty with (which I suspect is much easier than I think) is, from page 602:
De colorum mixtione, qui differunt, ex varia eorum commixtione omnis ferè generis colores fieri posse…
Matt Gutting
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13
votes
1 answer
Why are so many Latin men's names (cognomina) in the usually-feminine first declension?
The first declension, with the -a ending, is usually feminine.
Why are so many men's names (cognomina), however, in the first declension -- Seneca, Cinna, Aggrippa, Sulla, and more? This is far out of proportion to the handful of masculine improper…
Joshua Fox
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13
votes
5 answers
How do you show an infinitive for reason?
For instance, if you say, "I came here to eat," or "We want something good to eat," you are using the infinitive "to eat" to express reason or purpose. How do translate something like this in Latin?
Clayton Ramsey
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13
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2 answers
Feminine case 3rd-person version of “Veni, vidi, vici”
How does the famous saying:
Veni, vidi, vici.
have to be changed so that it describes a female person, such as in English:
She came, she saw, she conquered.
Reversing Google Translate gives conflicting results.
Ken Edwards
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13
votes
1 answer
Which animal names have grammatical gender, and which have common gender?
In Allen & Greenough, §34, I see a short discussion on the gender of animal names:
Many nouns may be either masculine or feminine, according to the sex of the object. These are said to be of Common Gender: as, exsul, exile; bōs, ox or cow; parēns,…
Nathaniel is protesting
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13
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1 answer
Use of ß (“eszett”) in Latin text
I am translating a medical text from the late 16th century. The author is Swiss. The text uses the ß character (like the German eszett).
Example:
toti amplißimo conseßui
Is this character being used in place of a double s?
Earlier in the text, a…
mattrweaver
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