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How to Practice Speaking Latin

How does one go about learning to speak Latin fluently? I am considering three options. Translation Based Method - Doing many translations (from Latin to English) would increase my vocabulary in ...
Sapphira's user avatar
  • 2,103
18 votes
4 answers
4k views

The best way to say *interesting* in Latin

It's sometimes difficult to convey some meaning in such an old language as Latin. I have trouble with the word interesting. I've heard someone say iucundus in this meaning, but it's not an accurate ...
marmistrz's user avatar
  • 633
18 votes
2 answers
2k views

Latin plural of Curriculum Vitae?

Curriculum vitae (often abbreviated CV) is a common Latin locution present in a high number of languages, including English. In English, as in other languages, how to pluralize these foreign locutions ...
Rafael's user avatar
  • 11.4k
18 votes
3 answers
8k views

What are the Latin names for modern countries?

With the Olympics starting this week, I got interested in all the countries of the world. Naturally, I would like to know the Latin names for modern countries. I have only been able to find a few ...
Sam K's user avatar
  • 3,998
18 votes
1 answer
3k views

What does the Latin abbreviation "A. O. R." stand for?

Lately I have come across what appears to be a Latin abbreviation, "A. O. R.," on several title pages of books from the eighteenth century. The abbreviation may have to do with the date, perhaps? Here'...
twoblackboxes's user avatar
18 votes
2 answers
5k views

What is the distinction between gaudium and laetitia when both denote "joy"?

Both gaudium and laetitia denote joy, but appear to be used differently depending on the circumstances. What is the distinction between the two (or more) Latin words for joy?
Mark M.'s user avatar
  • 197
18 votes
3 answers
328 views

What is the meaning of "suffragio" at the time of Calvin?

In the 1559 edition of Calvin's Institutes, he writes: Quare dum illam recipit, ac suffragio suo obsignat, non ex dubia aut alioqui controversa authenticam reddit Ford L. Battles renders it this ...
Nathaniel is protesting's user avatar
18 votes
2 answers
2k views

What is "slipped my mind" in Latin?

In English and other languages, we often use alternatives to "I forgot," apparently to shift blame from ourselves to inanimate objects. So in English, we say, It slipped my mind. And in Spanish: ...
Nathaniel is protesting's user avatar
18 votes
1 answer
468 views

What was a language for the Romans?

Defining "language" is not easy, and for many not even necessary. There are many aspects to this, and I'm interested in something more specific: distinguishing a language from a dialect. Where did ...
Joonas Ilmavirta's user avatar
18 votes
2 answers
3k views

Where to find ancient mathematics in Latin?

I am a professional mathematician and an avid Latinist, and I would like to be able to read and write mathematics in Latin. I prefer classical style, so I would like to read some ancient mathematical ...
Joonas Ilmavirta's user avatar
18 votes
1 answer
364 views

What have we learned about Latin in the last century?

I have studied Latin, but in none of the courses I have taken has there been discussion about any progress in understanding Latin. I do believe — and hope — that classically oriented ...
Joonas Ilmavirta's user avatar
18 votes
2 answers
2k views

What does the "Roman" numeral Ɔ represent?

It's conceivable that the numeral Ɔ and letters it combines with are a mediaeval conceit rather than truly Roman — hopefully this is still on topic. I'm trying to decipher the publication date of a ...
Andrew Leach's user avatar
18 votes
2 answers
1k views

What is the history of scientific Latin?

Scientists up until the mid-19th century (e.g., Gauss) would frequently write scientific works in Latin. What sort of Latin would it be considered? Would Gauss's writings, for example, be considered ...
Geremia's user avatar
  • 3,628
18 votes
1 answer
8k views

What is an overview of the differences between Classical and Ecclesiastical Latin?

I'm aware of some of the differences in pronunciation between the two, and perhaps this can be covered in greater detail elsewhere, but are there also any other key areas of differences (with perhaps ...
Tim's user avatar
  • 291
18 votes
1 answer
16k views

When and how much did Romans speak Greek?

Here are a few historical facts that most amateur ancient historians are aware of: The Romans began speaking Latin. After the conquest of Alexander the Great, Greek became a "lingua franca" in the ...
brianpck's user avatar
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18 votes
1 answer
1k views

Examples of the use of Claudian letters (Ⅎ, Ↄ, Ⱶ)

Emperor Claudius introduced three additional letters to the Latin alphabet: Ⅎ, Ↄ, and Ⱶ. What are some examples of the words in which these letters were used?
Sir Cornflakes's user avatar
18 votes
1 answer
1k views

What were used as "filler" words in Classical Latin?

Do scholars have any idea what "words" were used as filler words in Classical Latin, similar to uh and um in English? Surely Cicero and other great orators instructed their pupils to never, ever say &...
Nathaniel is protesting's user avatar
18 votes
1 answer
2k views

How can I use "quippe" properly?

Lewis & Short gives the following definition: surely, certainly, to be sure, by all means, indeed, in fact certainly, indeed, forsooth for, for in fact for, because, inasmuch as for ...
Joel Derfner's user avatar
  • 16.5k
18 votes
1 answer
2k views

On the etymology of “discipulus” and “disciplina”

I am interested in the origin of the words discipulus and disciplina, which have found their way into many modern languages, e.g., in the English words disciple and discipline. Unfortunately, there ...
Wrzlprmft's user avatar
  • 1,164
18 votes
1 answer
314 views

Dating the penult rule

When did initial-syllable stress give way to the penult rule? W.S. Allen suggests that the former persisted "until around Plautus's time", and provides metrical evidence from Plautus and Terence that ...
Simon Korneev's user avatar
18 votes
1 answer
377 views

Can "si etiam" have the same meaning as "etiam si"?

As is well known, "etiam si" is a Latin conjunction that means "even if." Are there any examples in Classical or Medieval Latin in which reversing the word order and saying "si etiam" preserves the ...
SAG's user avatar
  • 1,022
17 votes
5 answers
8k views

What is a Latin version of Inshallah?

Anyone who served in the military in Iraq (and probably anyone who has done business in the Gulf) in the last 15 years is familiar with the term 'Inshallah.' I suppose it means 'God willing,' as in, "...
kingledion's user avatar
17 votes
2 answers
9k views

Do *Mundi* and *Mundum* mean different things?

I came across this expression in the book: The Invisible Man, (H.G. Wells) Griffin contra mundum...with a vengeance From my very basic knowledge of Latin (I'm a Bio. student) I take it that contra ...
paracetamol's user avatar
17 votes
6 answers
6k views

Difference between "Lacrimosa" and "Lacrymosa"

This movement from Mozart's Requiem is known as either "Lacrimosa" or "Lacrymosa" (see for instance the Wikipedia article, which uses both spellings). Why is there two different spellings and which ...
laurent's user avatar
  • 273
17 votes
2 answers
2k views

How do we know that Italian words come from accusatives, not ablatives?

I have been told by several sources that Italian nouns and adjectives that originate from Latin come from accusative forms. Also the final -m is lost and an u becomes o. For example, caro > carnem > ...
Joonas Ilmavirta's user avatar
17 votes
2 answers
1k views

When and why did the ablative form?

When did the ablative originate? Additionally, I’d like to know which case was used before the ablative for adverbials. I think it replaced the dative, as I also study Ancient Greek. In that language, ...
TooMuchRAM's user avatar
17 votes
2 answers
762 views

Why do we say that an ablative absolute has a participle?

An ablative absolute consists of a noun in the ablative and a participle modifying it. Except that that's not really the case. We frequently find the participle replaced with just an adjective (or ...
Mar Johnson's user avatar
17 votes
2 answers
1k views

What colours did different colour words mean, exactly?

There are many different words for colours in Latin, but it's not easy to tell what kind of colour was exactly meant by each word. Do we know what different colour words meant? In particular, is there ...
Joonas Ilmavirta's user avatar
17 votes
2 answers
3k views

Please help translate this short Latin phrase left behind by a deceased man

I worked an estate sale a few years ago and the experience has never left me. The man who passed away left this note on a chalk board and I found a photo of it the other day. I have wondered what it ...
Nicocurio's user avatar
  • 171
17 votes
2 answers
4k views

What do animals say in classical Latin?

It is well known that the way animals "speak" is amusingly different in different languages. (See lion below.) This makes it hard to guess what kinds of words the Romans would have put in the mouths ...
Joonas Ilmavirta's user avatar
17 votes
2 answers
664 views

Why is the passive participle in Matthew 10:1 rendered as active in English?

I'm a little confused by the clause that begins Matthew 10: 10:1 Et convocatis duodecim discipulis suis, dedit illis potestatem spirituum immundorum, ut ejicerent eos, et curarent omnem languorem,...
ktm5124's user avatar
  • 12k
17 votes
3 answers
1k views

Did the Romans use dictionaries to check what words mean?

Did Romans or other ancient users of Latin have lists of difficult words with explanations in Latin? I mean dictionaries composed entirely in Latin, not dictionaries between Latin and another language....
Joonas Ilmavirta's user avatar
17 votes
1 answer
5k views

Meaning of "cum inter nonnullos"

I'm reading The Name of the Rose, by Umberto Eco, which has a lot of Latin phrases and expressions, since the story is set in the 14th century and the protagonist is a franciscan friar. The expression ...
franksands's user avatar
17 votes
2 answers
574 views

How to read mathematics out loud?

Reading symbolic mathematical expressions out loud in any language is mainly folklore: everyone in the field knows how to do it but finding explicit written instructions is surprisingly hard. I have ...
Joonas Ilmavirta's user avatar
17 votes
1 answer
679 views

Did ancient Romans develop cryptography for Latin?

Did the Romans ever develop any form of cryptography, where either words were replaced with other words or letters were replaced with other letters? Do we have any remaining examples, and if so have ...
tox123's user avatar
  • 1,623
17 votes
2 answers
9k views

What is the most neutral word for "shield"?

As you know, Latin language has several terms for what we call "shield", namely clipeus, scutum, parma, pelta etc. I'm just wondering which among them is the most "neutral" or "common" word that ...
broccoli forest's user avatar
17 votes
1 answer
766 views

What are the relative frequencies of cases in Latin?

Latin has seven cases: nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, ablative, vocative, locative. What are their relative frequencies in classical Latin? I suppose an answer would have to be based on ...
Joonas Ilmavirta's user avatar
17 votes
1 answer
2k views

What are the key differences between the main Latin verbs meaning "to kill"?

I'm a student and my class laughs when we learn a new verb for "to kill". Just to list some of them: necare interficere extinguere There are of course many others. What are the key differences ...
Distjubo's user avatar
  • 273
17 votes
2 answers
1k views

Is the usage of "id est" in Latin exactly like the usage of "i.e." or "that is" in English?

There was a question a little while back on the English SE asking about the "plural form of i.e." (unfortunately, it got closed because the author didn't clarify what they meant). While I was trying ...
Asteroides's user avatar
  • 28.8k
17 votes
1 answer
629 views

What errors did the Greeks typically make in Latin?

Suppose a person born and educated in Greece comes to ancient Rome. They have learned Latin and can converse fluently but not at a native level. What kinds of wrong pronunciation, vocabulary, or ...
Joonas Ilmavirta's user avatar
17 votes
1 answer
2k views

Are there Latin words known only by reconstruction from Romance languages?

I presume that many Latin words made it to the Romance languages, but were never attested in writing, whether because they were limited to Vulgar Latin or just because by chance no writer used them ...
Joshua Fox's user avatar
17 votes
1 answer
2k views

How does forem compare to essem?

The verb esse has two sets of imperfect conjunctive forms: essem, esses, esset… and forem, fores, foret… What is the difference between these two, in meaning and in use? Are there cases ...
Joonas Ilmavirta's user avatar
17 votes
2 answers
2k views

In Classical Latin, what was the geographic extent of "Asia"?

On the first page of Lingua Latina per se Illustrata, students review a map of the Roman Empire, which is marked with the names of three continents and several smaller regions. The borders of the ...
Nathaniel is protesting's user avatar
17 votes
1 answer
767 views

What did the Romans consider the "basic" form of a verb?

Many of us are used to using the (active present) infinitive form of a verb as a "label" or "basic form" or "representative" of the verb. By this I refer to uses like dictionary entries or grammatical ...
Joonas Ilmavirta's user avatar
17 votes
4 answers
1k views

Why do fear clauses invert the meaning of ut and ne?

In a fear clause, we'd write something like this: Timeo ne angue necer I fear I will be killed by a dragon As usual, my Latin writing is bad, and I only barely remember passive subjunctive. Please ...
user avatar
17 votes
2 answers
738 views

Nonne "a fortiori, a priori, a posteriori" solecismi sunt?

Are the terms a fortiori, a priori, and a posteriori bad Latin? If so, how and when did they become established? I understand that the dative case never takes a preposition in Latin—a most welcome ...
Ben Kovitz's user avatar
  • 15.9k
17 votes
1 answer
1k views

Why are verbs often listed under their first person singular form and not under infinitive as in many other languages?

The natural way of listing verbs in dictionaries is by infinitive, but this is not the case in many Latin dictionaries. Why? Were there some of the first Latin dictionaries using first person singular ...
Pavel V.'s user avatar
  • 1,873
17 votes
1 answer
992 views

How can I say "undo" in Latin?

The question of how to express my username, Undo, in Latin recently came up in chat. As Ben Kovitz notes, Latin seems to lack the word 'defacio' or similar. How can I say my name, the verb "undo", in ...
user avatar
17 votes
1 answer
321 views

Why did Hieronymus choose to use Latin tenses that don't exist in Hebrew when translating for the Vulgata?

Nisi Dominus ædificaverit domum, in vanum laboraverunt qui ædificant eam. [psalm 126:1] I am pretty sure that classical Hebrew has no future perfect tense, so how did Jerome arrive at his ...
Senex Ægypti Parvi's user avatar
17 votes
1 answer
6k views

What's the difference between amare and diligere?

In honor of the day (at least in the US): what specific differences can we point to in the usage of amo and diligo, as well as their corresponding nouns amor and dilectio? Lewis and Short indicates: ...
brianpck's user avatar
  • 40.6k

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