Language Learners' Library

Accusative! Someone buys accusative.

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Coincidentally, my Japanese teacher taught us just last week that there is no distinction in Japanese between rat and mouse, nor between alligator and crocodile or clock and watch. It seems she’s faced some disbelief /negative reaction about this from past students!
One thing I find very interesting about languages is the things that are distinguished in one but not another. It’s these cultural insights that intrigue me about languages.

Sorry that I can’t keep up with this thread daily!

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This is awesome. It is a game changer!
Thanks a lot for the tip.

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Latin mūs could also mean both mouse or rat.

Well, today I’m mainly going to add more sentences into my Anki deck. I’m also going to start solving the cards I’ve already got.

If about four other people say they’re interested I’ll also set up the Language Learners’ Lounge.

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Language Challenge: The Banquet

Prepare a feast menu!

Epula Romāna

Pulmentum
Vīnum Pompei ōrum
Panis et olīvae
Locustae in melle

Starter Course
Pompeiian wine
Bread and olives
Locusts in honey

Coena Piscium
Vīnum Cos ōrum
Polypī frixus cum sāl
Scomber cum citrī
Ostreae in allēce cum ālia

Fish Course
Choan wine
Fried octopus with salt
Mackerel with citron
Oysters in fish sauce with garlic

Coena Agrōrum
Vīnum Hispāni ae
Glirēs frixus et asparagī
Jus carōtārum cum sinapis
Sturnī in tortō

Field Course
Spanish wine
Roast dormice with asparagus
Carrot soup with mustard
Starlings in a pie

Coena Carnis
Vīnum Graecum
Bubula frixus et carōtae
Cygnus frixus et fabae
Hirundinēs in anatibus in aprō cum pōmī

Meat Course
Greek wine
Roast beef and carrots
Roast swan and beans
Starlings in ducks in a boar, with apples

Coena Dulcis
Vīnum Ceretanum
Pira calda in vīnum cum gingiber
Cerasa et ūvae in catīllī

Sweet Course
Ceretanese wine
Hot pears in wine with ginger
Bowls of cherries and grapes

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Non scio certissime, sed “granum” mihi bene videtur. Grana sunt multa singula grana, granum est multitudo totium granorum.

Editio: Debes et scribere aut ‘milites sunt in taberna’ aut ‘miles est in taberna’. In tua Epula scribis ‘vinum hispania’ et similiter; hoc mihi videtur (seems) falsum. Hic (here) oportet (one ought) dicere aut ‘vinum hispaniae’ cum genitivo, aut ‘vinum ex hispania’ cum praepositione.

Editio secunda: bonum ist et adiectivum ‘vinum hispanicum’.

Editio tertia: perutile (highly useful) et (also) hic nexus interretialis (weblink): https://www.hs-augsburg.de/~harsch/Chronologia/Lspost04/Apicius/api_re00.html

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Thank you for that help! :3

I’m not quite sure what you’re saying about the grain since I can’t find totium in the dictionary, but I can see that you advised granum.

I haven’t yet relearnt the difference between est and sunt. That’ll be top priority. If you’re saying that sentences of A is in B should be A est in B rather than est A in B then I’ve got to edit more of my Anki sentences :slight_smile:

Hispania I messed up, I meant to put it in the dative. Thanks for specifying that ex is necessary there, presumably with the dative. Thanks for showing me the other phrasings as well.

(Apologies for not replying in Latin, but I’m not at that level yet hehe)

I’m going to correct my banquet mistakes in bold .

image

What’s in my inventory?

I gladius, ???, rutrum, sarculum, lampas, ampulla, ama, lāna
II humus, saxum, lignum, folia, carbō, ferrum, aes, aurum
III adamās, crēta, later, pulvis, hyalus, silex, sēmina, fungus
IV pōmum, panis, cōdex, fūcus, clāvis, calix, filum, flōs

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剣 , 斧 , シャベル , what is it?
https://gamepedia.cursecdn.com/minecraft_gamepedia/4/4d/Iron_Hoe.png
https://gamepedia.cursecdn.com/minecraft_gamepedia/a/a2/Iron_Pickaxe.png
not standard texture?

ERROR

Whether you say ‘A est in B’ (it’s an A that’s it’s in B) or ‘Est A in B’ (there’s an A in B) or ‘A in B est’ (A is in B) doesn’t really matter. The verb has a tendency to take the final position, but ‘weak’ words have the tendency to be second place. The first and last position of a sentence contain what’s important to the speaker.

Est/sunt is of course singular/plural. Ex takes always the ablative! The dative is a rather rare case, actually, and right now I’m not sure if there are any prepositions with dative. Ablative is very common, it’s the case of the adverbial modification. It’s three basic meanings are Sociative, Instrumental, and Origin.

Prepositions of direction take accusative, prepositions of jocation and origin take ablative. In horto - in the garden. in hortum - into the garden, ex horto - from the garden.

An axe is ‘securis’.

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Nyaha! It’s a new day, so I’ve decided that means:

  • Word of the day
  • A simple sentence
  • A complex sentence
  • A vocabulary workout
  • Free writing
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The Word of the Day is city

Language Word
Latin urbs
Japanese 市 (shi), 町 (machi)
Chinese 城市 chéngshì
Esperanto urbo
German Stadt
French ville

The Simple Sentence is We are sailing to the city.

Language Sentence
Latin Nōs in urbem nāvigant. Correction on multiple points: In oppidum nāvigāmus.
Japanese 私たちは港市に向かっています。(watashitachi wa kooshi ni mukattaimasu.) [see more]
German Wir segeln zu der Stadt.
French Nous naviguons à la ville.

The Complex Sentence is In the city, many dangers await the unwary; and the honest man must always be alert.

The Vocabulary Workout is to translate these five nouns about cities: house, shop, tavern, street, bridge; these five verbs: buy, sell, drink (alcohol), gamble, beg; and these five adjectives: noisy, foul-smelling, crowded, wealthy, drunk

Language Sentence
Latin domus, pergula, taberna, via, pons; comparō, vendō, pōtō, braviō, mendicō; clāmōsa, pūtida, celebris, opulenta, ēbria

Free writing: Write a paragraph about the attractions of the Capital.

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Do you mind me correcting you when you post these things every day? I’m really really impressed that you decided to learn latin and stick to that, and you’re expanding your vocabulary really quickly. κῦδος. I can also write private messages if you prefer, or I’ll leave you alone, if you wish.

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No, I love it and I’m grateful :3 Also, there’s a difference between being able to look up a word like opulenta in a dictionary and being able to remember and decline it at will :stuck_out_tongue: I can’t fully inflect even a single word by memory yet.

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Alright! With Nos in urbem navigant, you got the verb wrong. I’ll let you figure out why. Also, you only use personal pronouns to put emphasis on it. WE went to town, while the others stayed on the country. Btw, there’s urbs, and there’s oppidum. Urbs is a major city, or just Rome. Oppidum is any fortified settlement. Archaeologists speak of oppida when they find Celtic settlements in Europe. Beginner’s books usually teach oppidum first because it’s o-Declension, but urbs is of course what Romans would use when talking about the only city worth talking about.

Translate into English:

Marcus in foro stat. Corneliam adspectat. Sed ea cessat. Ecce, Titum videt. Clamat: ‘Heu, Tite! Ubi est Cornelia?’ Titus respondet: ‘Cornelia domi est, aegrotat. Me tibi misit, ut referam eam aegrotare.’ ‘Gratiam ago, Tite,’ dicit Marcus, ‘Age, eamus in Colosseum. Cum Cornelia irem in thermas, sed tecum eo libenter ad circenses.’

I won’t do the strokes on the vowels, as they won’t be there when you read a real text. In this paragraph here, you will also find two subjunctive form of “to go” (present and imperfect) and one of “to report”. There’s one perfect form of “to send”, and a locative form.

Edit: Actually, nos in urbem navigant is a valid sentence, but it means something different.

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Gotcha about the pronouns, I do recall reading that before. It’s the same in Japanese iirc.

I see that I clumsily conjugated nāvigō wrong. Nāvigant is the present-tense active indicative third person plural. I needed the first person plural nāvigāmus. This was force of habit since all my verb sentences in Anki so far are in the third person. My actual choice of verb isn’t wrong as well, I hope.

So, I guess my sentence should have read simply Oppidum nāvigāmus. I assume that Nōs in urbem nāvigant means “They are sailing us to Rome”, lol.

(You’ve gotta give me a bit of time for that exercise :P)

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In urbem/oppidum navigamus would be quite correct, yes. You’re also right about “They are sailing us to Rome/the city”. I wouldn’t worry too much about the opposition of oppidum vs. urbs. Urbs can mean Rome, like when Cicero says “I was out ouf town for the past six months”, but it can also be any other important city, such as Alexandria, or Carthago. While oppidum gives a statement about a town’s structures (i.e., it’s got walls. “There are 28 oppida within the area of the Helvetii and 64 vici (villages)”), urbs gives a statement about its importance (i.e. it’s a capital or metropolis; which implies that the speaker knows the settlement in question). Other settlements are municipium, colonia, civitas, depending on the legal status of their inhabitants within the Roman state and what kind of buildings one might expect there. A civitas is likely to have a bishop in christian times, for example. The whole thing is a bit like the english city/town-distinction wich is very unintuitive to non-anglos.

The pure accusative without preposition do indicate direction is either poetic or restricted to the proper names of cities and the words domus, rus (countryside), and maybe urbs You will find that in your grammar. Oppidum navigamus sound like you are sailors and your cargo is literally the city fortifications and buildings.

Here’s an online grammar that should work quite well for you. Look up the Accusative in the section Syntax.

Yeah, take time for the translation.

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Marcus in standing in the market. He is looking for Cornelia. But she has been delayed. Look, he sees Titus. He calls out “Oh, Titus! Where is Cornelia?”
Titus responds “Cornelia is at home sick. I pass you this message, so that I can respond to her whilst she is unwell.”
“Thank you, Titus,” says Marcus. “Let’s go to the Colosseum. Cornelia should have been taking hot baths, but I will gladly go to the games with you.”

Well, I got a story that made sense to me at least.

image

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Very good! But not quite. Look again at Me tibi misit and so on. The subject to misit is Cornelia herself. The last sentence is a statement about what Marcus would do if he were with Cornelia, but now that Titus is here, he’ll change plans.

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