17
I found the question very interesting, and got me researching against my will.
Most of the texts of the Mass —and specifically these— come from antiquity, a time when Latin was still alive. Had there been grammatical errors, twenty centuries would suffice to find and correct them. So it may be a little far-fetched to put a mistake as the default hypothesis. ...
17
A quick web search shows that the phrase 'Diabolus enim et alii Daemones' (without the contra) appears to originate from the Fourth Council of the Lateran (1215). The full sentence is Diabolus enim et alii daemones a Deo quidem natura creati sunt boni, sed ipsi per se facti sunt mali, which I would translate as something like, 'For the Devil and other demons ...
15
Just like in English, there are many ways to pronounce Latin.
Would you say that British pronunciation is correct and American is wrong?
Any valid pronunciation will do, but the best choice depends on context.
If you are singing a song from 18th century Germany, it is most appropriate to sing with with the corresponding pronunciation.
If you are reading ...
14
The other answers are good for explaining the grammar. However, I would add that an important part of translating any text is remembering the context in which the passage was written. (I realize that the other answerers probably subscribe to this platitude as well.)
So, let's look at the opening lines of the psalm (taken from Douay-Rheims):
[2.] ...
12
The Baronius press edition is going (rightly so, I think) for elegance of English rather than absolute correct correspondence to Latin grammar. Conversus is a little tricky here, because while it's technically, as you say, a perfect passive participle, there's also a sense in which it's neither passive nor active but middle, which is a voice from ancient ...
12
In Latin there is no equivalent for please, you use some form of I ask, instead. Aparently, having a specific word for please dates back just to the Renaissance, and in many languages it comes from more elaborate formulas like if it pleases you, if you are so kind.
I'd offer two possible variants:
Ora, quaeso, pro me (or with a different word order: ora ...
11
Henry Preston Vaughan Nunn, in his Introduction to Ecclesiastical Latin, is helpful in this regard. He sets the stage for the distinctions between Classical and Ecclesiastical Latin by briefly covering the origin of the latter:
The most potent influences in the formation of early Ecclesiastical Latin were (1) the Vernacular Latin of the period, by which ...
10
I found two examples (from 1667 and 1709) that uses the first portmanteau that came to my mind: omnimisericors.
...laudo, adoro, & revereor te, Domine DEUS, Omnipotens, Omnimisericors, qui aquarum fontes creasti, etc...
This is obviously not standard.
The much more common way of saying "most merciful" in liturgical Latin is clementissimus.
There ...
10
Ignore the prefixes here. Semantically here they're exactly the same. They both mean "to pour out", and although profundere is more likely than effundere to mean "to cause to pour out", as a passive participle that distinction is not felt. Moreover, any distinction is all but lost in post-Classical Latin. By 1957, they were completely synonymous, and word ...
10
Forgive me if I use IPA notation. As a non-native speaker of English, I still have some difficulty with English vowels and don't really feel comfortable using English-based systems as Webster's
In Classical reconstructed pronuntiation, it would be ['la.ti.ũ:]. Germans and clasicists prefer this one. Note that this is how Romans most likely pronounced it, ...
9
One common argument for classical pronunciation is that it's "the way Romans spoke Latin." While I appreciate (and usually try to make) historically informed choices, this argument only tells part of the story. Yes, it's the way Romans spoke Latin—until the 2nd or 3rd century A.D. At that point Latin started to turn into Late Latin, and what we think of now ...
9
Forgive me if I'm missing something, but:
I think your issue here may be with the English rather than the Latin. To say that something "was wont to do" something ("wont" with an o and no apostrophe rather than "want" with an a) is an archaic way to say that it "was used to doing" something or "used to do" something.
So rather than desire or privation, the ...
9
First, this is not specific to ecclesiastical Latin.
The same genitive is there in classical Latin as well.
The verb miserere is used impersonally.
It means roughly "to distress" or "to excite pity".
For example, me miseret means "I am distressed".
The reason of distress or the target of pity is indicated by genitive: me miseret Marci means "I pity Marcus".
...
9
I've also answered the cross-posted version of this question on the Christianity Stack Exchange.
During papal coronations, these words are spoken to the pope while a cloth is burned in front of him. Janos M. Bak interprets:
Pater sancte, sic transit gloria mundi [...] is supposed to remind the pontiff of the temporality of even his power.
In that vein, ...
9
Short answer: no. At least since Post-Classical Latin, and quite possibly from earlier.
One may or may not believe the quote attributed to Julius Caesar when he calls Brutus fili mi despite the fact their relationship was aquired by adoption. Nevertheless, it is a sign that at some point later, it was considered valid and no one saw it as a mistake.
The ...
9
If there is an implicit sit, it does not show uncertainty.
The conjunctive mood can show uncertainty, but it has other functions.
One of them is wishes (sometimes called optative), like sit Deus tibi benignus, "may the God be benign to you".
The English "may" does not imply uncertainty either, unless I'm mistaken.
"There may be" is uncertain by "may there be"...
8
Sic Transit Gloria Mundi is literally translated as So passes the glory of the world. The associated Wikipedia article includes some further detail about its use in the papal coronation ceremony from 1409 to 1963:
As the newly chosen pope proceeded from the sacristy of St. Peter's Basilica in his sedia gestatoria, the procession stopped three times. On ...
8
The most general words for 'school' are ludus and schola, the latter usually being reserved for more advanced students. (You might also like academia, but it really refers to a place for philosophical discussion, rather than instruction.)
There is a choice of adjectival name for Rochester : Durobrivensis (from the oldest name, something like 'Durobrivae'), ...
8
Your translation is definitely on the right track, but there are a couple of things I want to point out:
Omnis modifies generis; that is, omnis generis means "of every kind". There doesn't seem to be any other word than generis that omnis could match.
Existimant doesn't have an obvious subject. The sentence you quote starts a section, so if there is an ...
8
Mea culpa comes from the Confiteor which is a common prayer recited, among other times, towards the end of the prayers at the foot of the altar in the (Catholic) Roman rite.
The full text of the prayer as recited in the Tridentine missal:
Confiteor Deo omnipotenti, beatæ Mariæ semper Virgini, beato Michaeli Archangelo, beato Ioanni Baptistæ, sanctis ...
8
The only way I can interpret this is as follows, although I am not certain:
[Maria, you are] an offshoot to the train of angels.
So planta is like the tendril of a larger thing, or like a foot planted down somewhere as a first 'base of operations'. Maria came to earth 'representing' or foreshadowing the angels that will probably come down from Heaven on ...
8
As you've discovered, there's not a good universal standard for pronouncing Latin.
Classical Pronunciation
This probably isn't what you want, but it's what all the others are derived from. The h is pronounced like in English: /ˈmi.hi/.
Spanish Pronunciation
In Spanish pronunciation of Latin, /h/ generally disappeared, leaving /ˈmi.i/. (Though see below.)
...
8
This seems related to Latin language only per accidens.
I'm not a theologian, but I think I know the basics from a Catholic POV.
I'll try to answer in the order you put the questions:
What does this mean exactly?
Translations to modern languages vary, but some of them say Christ was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit. Conception needs the ...
8
The simple imperative in Latin is significantly more polite than it is in English. It's even used when making requests to God in Ecclesiastical Latin: pie Iēsū domine, dōnā eīs requiem sempiternam "good lord Jesus, give them eternal rest".
However, if you want to avoid the imperative, there are a few different ways.
One is to use a subjunctive instead:
...
7
The standard way of addressing the Virgin Mary under a (substantive) title is to use an appositive noun, in the same case. There is no need to add a or de.
As you can see in the Litany of Loreto, all the titles follow this pattern:
Virgo fidelis,
Speculum iustitiae,
Sedes sapientiae,
Causa nostrae laetitiae
etc.
I would thus say Sancta Maria, ...
7
Roy J. DeFerrari's A Lexicon of St. Thomas Aquinas (1948) p. 983 (PDF p. 990):
sacramentum, i, n., (1) sacrament in the wider sense of the word, i.e., that which is sanctified or consecrated, (2) sacrament in the proper sense of the word, i.e., sign of a holy thing which sanctifies man or concerns him, (3) sacrament in the narrowest sense of the word, ...
7
What you see is a symptom of English and Latin having grammatically different idiomatic expressions for things like that.
I cannot find a perfectly literal translation, but perhaps this series of attempts sheds some more light1:
Deus tu conversus vivificabis nos.
You God, having been turned, will quicken us.
You God, when turned, will quicken us.
...
7
Here's my understanding of the verse. (Note: I'm only a beginner with Latin.)
Remember (Memento), O founder/maker (conditor) of things (rerum), that (quod) once (olim), you took (sumpserīs) the form (formam) of our (nostri) body (corporis) by being born (nascendo) from (ab) the sanctified (sacratā) womb (alvo) of a virgin (virginis).
Nascendo / gerund vs....
7
The important thing here is to make a distinction between the gerund and the gerundive.
The gerund looks exactly like the masculine or neuter singular forms of gerundive, but they are two different things.
Gerundive is also known as passive future participle, and this alternative name describes its use quite well.
Gerund is more like the infinitive; ...
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