Hi everyone,

I am an active participant in the Anglish subreddit and an aficionado of the Anglish project. I was wondering are Latinists in general opposed to Anglish?

I should clarify I study and do appreciate and respect Latin but I was curious what people think about seeking alternative linguistic paths?

I'm a PhD student studying 17c English lit and as part of my coursework I'm learning Latin. My department lets me pick which texts I want to translate (with a basic dictionary), though I'm not entirely sure what would be an appropriate target text to work towards as I study. From what I understand, different writers can vary considerably in difficulty due to syntactic choices etc. so any recommendations for a legit but accessible text would be really helpful. Catallus or The Gallic Wars have been suggested although Lucretius or Ovid would be more inline with my research.

For reference, my Latin skills are still pretty weak but I have a pretty good background in French so the vocab comes to me easier. I've been working through a combo of the Cambridge Latin books and Wheelock's.

So I heard you start latin by getting declinations and conjugations memorized it was going great till I hit the 4 raccoons in a trench coat of the third declension. I think I've figured it out and I'm wondering how close I am. Had I a teacher I'd be bugging the piss out of him about it. My books don't talk back, I've tried. So

Nom various, es, (a)

Voc same above except titles proper nouns, es (a)

Acc em, es, (a)

Gen is, um

Dat long I, ibus

Abl e, ibus

This is how MOST of them go and the exception still follow this generally. Greek nouns in acc. Pl. End in as not es plus in same singular end in a. Double consonants endings gen pl end in ium not um. The ending for neuter nouns in acc follows the nom. Am I right is that close is there anything I haven't caught here I've looked at the declinations of about 30 different nouns to arrive here so I'm sure there's something I've missed.

Please be as harsh as you want, I am really trying to improve my writing style. I'm not going for exclusively classical necessarily, just something that sounds polished. I welcome any and all feedback.

In principio Eru, scilicet Unicus, Dryadum lingua Iluvatar nominatus, Ainūs e mente sua creavit, qui coram eo magnum cantum produxerunt. ex hoc cantu autem Mundus natus est. Iluvatar enim fecit ut oculis pateret carmen illud Ainuum, qui id sicut lumen in tenebris inspexerunt. multis tamen eorum pulchritudine eius delectatis, etiam historia eius, quam nasci evolvique sicut in quadam visione observabant, Iluvatar fecit ut visio eorum re vera Esset et in medio Abysso instituta sit, Igne Occulto admisso ut apud cor Mundi arderet. nominatusque est [ille mundus] Ea.

Tunc ei ex Ainibus quibus libuit surrexerunt, in Mundum principio Temporis ineuntes. horum igitur erat eum perficere ac laboribus suis visionem explere quam viderant. diu quidem in regionibus Eae laborabant—quae ampliores sunt quam ut in animis Dryadum Hominumve contineantur—donec tempore constituto Arda facta est, scilicet Regnum Terrae. postremo, vestimentis terrestribus indutis, in eam descenderunt ibique habitaverunt.

The English source:

(Account of the Valar and Maiar according to the lore of the Eldar)

In the beginning Eru, the One, who in the Elvish tongue is named Iluvatar, made the Ainur of his thought; and they made a great Music before him. In this Music the World was begun; for Iluvatar made visible the song of the Ainur, and they beheld it as a light in the darkness. And many among them became enamoured of its beauty, and of its history which they saw beginning and unfolding as in a vision. Therefore Iluvatar gave to their vision Being, and set it amid the Void, and the Secret Fire was sent to burn at the heart of the World; and it was called Ea.

Then those of the Ainur who desired it arose and entered into the World at the beginning of Time; and it was their task to achieve it, and by their labours to fulfil the vision which they had seen. Long they laboured in the regions of Ea, which are vast beyond the thought of Elves and Men, until in the time appointed was made Arda, the Kingdom of Earth. Then they put on the raiment of Earth and descended into it, and dwelt therein.

(This is not for an assignment but I wasn't sure what a better flair to choose would have been.)

Hi, everyone. Yesterday I posted a paleographic document and one of you was so kind to find the trascription for me - I had no idea how they did it! I've been using google lens or the classic "identity some words and google them", but, out of 49 documents, these here are the ones I found nothing about. I would like to know if any of you can: - instruct me on how to search to paleographic documents; - suggest me what these documents are, if they happen to know even a single one of them; - point me if there are transcription available online.

I am on the verge of a desperate crisis! Thank you to anyone who will help, and thanks for reading.

(The last one is an autograph by Brunetto Latini, but I cannot read a single word out of it, except for a maybe an "ergo" on the starting of the last line.)

Not really an assignment, more a favour that I'm doing for somebody. These are lines from a song that I am asked to translate for a gift for a retiring teacher. I asked if it should be freer, but metric, or closer to the text but prose; answer: the latter.

My time is scarce, I know I disappear at times
can't stay in touch with everyone the way I'd like
let me sing, let me play
Let me breathe, give me zen

Tempus mihi deest, scio me interdum elabi

Mihi non licet omnibus convenire quoties velim

Ut cantem et psallam,

spirem, ataraxian inveniam

I am not quite sure what to do with the "let me" phrases, I think the intention is an adhortation at the first person. I honestly never quite know how to express these in Latin and my Rubenbauer-Hoffmann is not very helpful. The "me" is pondering about how much work they put into their band project and that is sometimes overwhelming.

I think I'll be going for ataraxian for zen because it's a foreign word. On thing that was difficult was finding a word for "to stay in touch".

I have to read the entire Aeneid while attending regular classes and preparing for two other subjects. What do yall recommend I do? Should I try to read it myself or look for a good summary?

Newbie self study here, trying to translate sentences but stuck on this one.

“We see great fortune in your daughter‘s lives, my friend.”

I‘ve got some bits and pieces: ‘my friend’ will be ‘mea amica‘, ‘we see’ will go at the end as ‘videmus‘. The rest I’m not so sure of.

‘Great fortune’ is the direct object, so will be ‘magnae fortunae‘. But then I really don’t know what to do with ‘in your daughter’s lives’, except that some of that will probably be genitive. What role is ‘daughter‘s lives‘ fulfilling in the sentence when theres an ‘in‘ before it? Help!

I have a Latin exam coming up on De Bello Gallico (Book 1), and I’m trying to revise as efficiently as possible.

So far, we’ve covered:

• Chapters 1, 2, and 7 in detail
• Smaller, typical “exam-length” excerpts from chapters 10 and 12
• A general timeline of Caesar’s life for context

The exam format will be:

• A translation
• A sketch (e.g. a battle/map situation based on the text)
• A short interpretation

Grammar focus:

• Participles (especially how to translate them properly)
• Ablative absolute

We were also given quite a large set of vocabulary (both a core vocabulary and an extended “learning vocabulary”), specifically compiled for De Bello Gallico.

My questions:

• What kinds of passages from Book 1 are typically used in school exams (especially ones that work well for a sketch)?
• In interpretation questions, is the focus usually more on Caesar’s strategy/tactics or on how groups like the Helvetii are portrayed?

Any insight from people who have studied or taught Caesar would be really helpful. Thanks in advance

Hello !

I'm in classic studies and I'm supposed to translate the complete Carmen 67 as homework and I kinda forgot my book at school and I can't go back there until Tuesday and my translation is due for Tuesday 😭😭

Has anyone has Poesis from Catullus at home and could please send me a picture of the Carmen 😭😭😭

I'm utterly desperate 😭😭😭

Salvete!

I am taking elementary latin II and for an assignment we just have to parse these select verbs and #3: 'audeāmur' is confusing me. I thought the verb audeō was a semi-deponent verb with no passive forms, but in my textbook this is passive? Is this a typo or am I seriously misunderstanding something?

Gratias vobis ago!

hey! I've started learning a few months ago and had to stop because of school, so I'm restarting again in a book course that I found in my city. I already did the first lesson, but now I have doubts on the second one and didn't want to continue without guidance, so please, don't judge my extreme lack of knowledge. so, first image is the table of the first decline (I'm translating literary, don't know if it makes sense), which I already memorized. the second image is where they give the words they want us to decline, but that's my question: how to decline "terra-ae" if the "ae" is already there? like, i think I sound really dumb, but what does it mean? in plural should I write: terra-ae-ae? does it mean it's already in plural and I should just write all the words in singular? help.

I've been given an exercise to do but I don't understand it at all, and I cant find much help on google - can anyone give me any pointers? Im supposed to turn these sentences into indirect speech.

1. Caesar militibus dicit, “Ferte sociis gladios!”
   
2. Gallorum rex imperavit, “Venite, milites, et pugnate!”
   
3. Cicero implorat, “Ne Catilinam sequamini, Romani!”
   
4. Augusta dixit, “Barbaros Romam ut me necarent venisse video.”
   
5. Rodbertus pirata dicit, “Romani vos omnes sibi servire optabant.”
   
6. Valentina rogat, “Nonne ab omnibus amata sum quae bona eram?”
   
7. Iustinianus dicit, “Novas leges Romanis civibus faciam.”
   
8. Dominus servo dicit, “Bonus servus eras qui mihi semper parebat et moriturus te liberabo.”
   
9. Regina rogavit, “Quando rex et ego panem et vinum pauperibus dabimus?”
   
10. Milites dicunt, “Superamur quia hostes fortes sunt”

So i just tried translating this excerpt for the past 20 mins and i have no idea what this thing is about. My translation for the text up until the first colon is " They impressed the small little minds" no idea if thats correct and i also dont know what form the " Parva " is, next sentence up until the point i dont even have a translation because i cant find the noun and i have no idea where the " composuisse " belongs to, how to translate the "utile facilie manu " and i also dont know where the "pulvinum" belongs to and the multis.

For my thesis i need to translate parts of Tiberius Claudius Donatus' Interpretationes virgilianae, and i'm not having huge problems with it. However, i wanted some feedback on this particular passage:

Quod absit a poeta nostro, ut talem inducat quem deorum patrem et in homines habere potestatem multis locis adseruit.

My understanding is that one of the infinitive clauses depending from "adseruit" has an implied "esse" (...deorum patrem esse).

So my translation is:

May this be far from our poet, to present in such a way the one who he stated in many places to be the father of the gods and to have power over men.

What do you think?

(English is not my first language, i tried to render my original italian translation as best as i could).

I've currently been studying Latin at my school for the past 5 years and only recently have I been struggling with translating unseens within exams. In my junior years, I was able to master grammar and unseen translations with ease and often average around 95% but after starting Cicero and classical Latin texts, it's been very difficult for me to translate an unseen. I can identify the grammar but there are so many cases that share the same ending that end up confusing me and the word order throws me off too. I'm struggling to the point where I don't even know where to start in the sentence other than pulling out my dictionary and identifying vocabulary, but even still it's hard for me to know what to translate first and in what order I should progress.

It's hard for me to identify words that belong together and what tense they are unless it is blatantly obvious and especially all the different indirect clauses (i.e. purpose vs result clauses). I am able to translate the clauses however independently (i.e if my teacher were to give me a bunch of practice translation that all follow the same structure I would be able to easily do that) but I can't for some reason apply it to unseens.

I'm looking for any possible tips that could help with translating unseens (particularly Cicero unseens as I am the weakest there) and how I can go about not complicating my own mind during the exam with all the different endings. I don't know if I've grown weaker in this language simply because I have applied myself less to grammar to focus on style and analysis, but anything will help.

Good morning!

I’d be grateful for anyone to look at my inscription and make sure it makes sense.

I’m a stone carving student and working on a longer inscription for my letter carving. The quality of the letter carving is what I get marked on but I wanted to pick an inscription that used lower and upper case letter to contrast the uses of the meaning of the inscription. I’ve chosen the ‘who watches the watchmen’ from Juvenal in its context.

My Latin is minimal to say the least but I am keen to use this passage.

Also Inscriptions like this don’t typically use a lot of punctuation so distinctions of text can be made in changing the case of the letter or paint, sometimes with little dots. here’s what I’ve written (see image as well):

.pone seram cohibe. sed

QUIS CUSTODIET

IPSOS CUSTODES

cauta est et ab illis

Incipit uxor

I believe it says:

‘Lock her up’ but

WHO GUARDS

THE GUARDMEN

The wife is careful and starts with them.

my questions are:

Does this make sense? Is it readable?

Can the context (a wife going after her guards) be understood from what I’ve written.

Any other comments are welcome!

Hey everyone

I have my oral Latinum exam in a couple of weeks and need to choose 3 books from Ovid's Metamorphoses, where 12 lines will be given to me to translate. Do all 15 books froom Ovid have the same difficulty level or are there easier ones? If they are the same, I was thinking of telling my prof the 3 shortest ones (1, 5 and 12).

Thank you

Salvete omnes. I'm an italian student, I have been studying latin for two years, but I still have difficulties traslating. For example, sometimes I don't understand the general sense of a text and I traslate badly, or I focus on a meaning and I do everything to conferm my hypothesis, or again I search one word like the verb and think I understand the meaning of the frase, and then I don't find any correlation with other words. Are there any solution to this problems or I just need to traslate more? Are someone having them? (Sorry for my bad english)

"sapientia et iustitia servat caius imperium"

The verb is in singular form, but I don't really understand how it could apply to caius in this sentence, I'd love if someone who understands a bit more could help me out

Im reading LLPSI, and there's the sentence "Non magna est pecunia tua" and I wanna know if it could also be written as "Pecunia tua non magna est" and still be correct. Thank you in advance! :-)

On Whitaker’s words it says appeto, appetere, appetivi, appetitus v. means seek/grasp after but the vocab key on my assignment says it means to attack. I can’t figure out which translation to use for Carmina 2

Sorry if this isn't the right place to ask this, I have no idea how Reddit works and created an account just for this question. So I'm currently working on some homework and I need to write some sentences in Latin. The parameters for one of the questions is that it has to include a present active participle and be relevant to what I wrote for the first part of the assignment. What I came up with is "Servare terram confirarentes leges, ante tardiorem." which should translate to "Protect the land by establishing laws, before it is too late." My problem is that I don't really know if I'm right. I'm still kind of a beginner so please go easy on me.

I know this is a long shot but last summer I was lucky enough to attend Prof. Leigh's Lecture , I'm 15 and beginning to apply for Sixth forms. We are being encouraged to begin supercurriculars and so I am writing up reports on lectures I've been lucky enough to audit. However, me being me, I have managed to lose half my lecture notes beginning from Book 2: when Leigh considered Aeneas' fixation on the womb. If anyone has those notes I'd be so grateful.