19
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 ...
15
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.] Benedixisti,...
15
Welcome to the site!
Non ministrari, sed ministrare (VG Mt 20,28)
Is a well-attested phrase with that exact meaning. It literally means not to be served but to serve. The context is Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew saying that He (the Son of man) came not to be served but to serve.
Update: it is (arguably) a common choice for mottos. Besides the American ...
14
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 ...
13
The subject is latus. Definition 6 in OLD is most relevant here:
6 (of solid objects, usu. w. abl.) To be bathed or soaked (in a fluid specified or implied), run, stream, overflow, etc.)
For comparison, there's Ovid Metamorphoses 9.57-58:
vix tamen inserui sudore fluentia multo
bracchia, vix solvi duros a corpore nexus.
...arms streaming (with) ...
12
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 pronunciation, it would be ['la.ti.ũ:]. Germans and classicists prefer this one. Note that this is how Romans most likely pronounced it, ...
12
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 ...
answered Mar 24 '16 at 21:10
Nathaniel is protesting
10.5k3 gold badges30 silver badges96 bronze badges
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 ...
12
A clue is in the next line:
S[anctus] Liberalis Attinensis Episcopus, Heliodori discipulus…
Saint Liberalis of Altinum, the Bishop and a student of Heliodorus…
In other words, "Liberalis" is the name of a saint.
So I'd translate your sentence something like:
[Sanctus] Liberalis corporis & sanguinis Christi Domini alimenta sustentabatur.
[...
11
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.
...
11
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 ...
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
I compared the Latin Gloria with the Greek Doxa: Greek language has much more vocative forms than Latin. In the Doxa series of vocatives alternate with series of nominatives, mostly with the article "'o" (absent in Latin); like: "kyrie 'o theos, 'o amnos tou theou, 'o yios tou patros" (Latin "Domine Deus, Agnus Dei, Filius Patris"). Nominative serves not ...
9
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 ...
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
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 ...
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, ...
answered Mar 30 '16 at 13:34
Nathaniel is protesting
10.5k3 gold badges30 silver badges96 bronze badges
9
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.)
...
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"...
9
The ...abus dative/ablative plural is a rare feature of the first declension that can in exceptional cases be traced back at least to classical Latin. For example, you will find Cicero saying (Pro C. Rabirio perduellionis reo):
ab Iove Optimo Maximo ceterisque dis deabusque immortalibus [...] pacem ac veniam peto
Clearly in this case Cicero uses the form ...
9
As Draconis and I mentioned in the comments, your translation is fine. If I might break it down:
tibi trádidit Dóminus ánimas redemptórum in supérna felicitáte locándas
The subject is dominus in the nominative. The main verb is tradidit, in the perfect tense, and its direct and indirect object are animas and tibi respectively. The basic sentence is &...
8
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.
...
8
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....
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
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 ...
Only top voted, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible
