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On its December 23rd broadcast, Nuntii Latini had this to say about Angela Merkel.

Angela Merkel, cancellaria foederalis Germaniae, se una cum propinquis et amicis eorum, qui strage Berolinensi mortui erant, dolere dixit. Se nolle Germanos metu malitiae deprimi.

I had difficulty translating this, at first, but then I realized that the two sentences are probably using an accusativus cum infinitivo.

Angela Merkel, Federal Chancellor of Germany, said she is one to grieve with the friends and neighbors of those who had been killed in the Berlin massacre. [She said] she did not want Germans to be depressed by fear of evil.

I first wanted to know if I'm correct in assuming that the "dixit" in the first sentence is implied in the second. Is this kind of omission common? I'm also curious whether my overall translation is correct. I feel like there may have been places where I could have been more idiomatic. For example, I'm not too comfortable with my phrasing "said she is one to grieve with [...]". This is the question I put in the title, and perhaps it's my main source of discomfort.

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  • Yes, the punctuation is unusual as far as classical texts go, but the second sentence is indeed an indirect statement coming off of dixit.
    – cmw
    Dec 29, 2016 at 3:09
  • @C.M.Weimer: I've actually seen that not infrequently, a new sentence that is really just an a.c.i. I don't know what printing tradition that is.
    – Cerberus
    Dec 29, 2016 at 12:06

1 Answer 1

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The only thing you're missing is ūnā, which here is an adverb meaning "together". See L&S, part C of the entry. As for the second sentence, yes, in a multi-sentence passage of indirect discourse it's normal for the accusative and infinitive construction to continue throughout, without a repeated verb of speaking.

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    It's worth pointing out that if one wants to say "one" instead of "together" as in the OP's translation, it should be unam in accusative due to the ACI structure.
    – Joonas Ilmavirta
    Dec 29, 2016 at 15:14
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    Worth noting also that una cum is a pretty common pair: "together with"
    – brianpck
    Dec 29, 2016 at 18:25
  • Thanks! I did not know that about una. Also good to know that it commonly pairs with cum.
    – ktm5124
    Dec 30, 2016 at 1:02

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