Did we? I missed it I think
Exactly, that’s a closer translation. The から implies that the looking is done with the window as point of origin.
Vocab Workout
| English | N. Sg. | N. pl. | G. sg. | Dec. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| floor | solum | -a | -i | n2 |
| wall | murus | -i | -i | m2 |
| roof | tectum | -a | -i | n2 |
| window | fenestra | -ae | -ae | f1 |
| door | porta | -ae | -ae | f1 |
| pillar | pila | -ae | -ae | f1 |
| porch | porticus | -cus | -cus | f4 |
| cellar | cella | -ae | -ae | f1 |
| chimney | cheminus* | -i | -i | m2 |
| fountain | fons | -tes | -tis | m3 |
| carpet | tapes | -etes | -etis | m3 |
| tiles | later | -eres | -iris | m3 |
| mosaic | emblema | -ata | -atis | n3 |
| painting | pictura | -ae | -ae | f1 |
| decoration | ornamentum | -a | -i | n2 |
| table | mensa | -ae | -ae | f1 |
| chair | sedes | -es | -is | f3 |
| stool | sella | -ae | -ae | f1 |
| couch | lectus | -i | -i | m2 |
| bed | cubile | -ia is | n3 |
(*) I improvised this from French cheminee
Grammar Workout
I’m just going to approach this naively.
| Sentence | Nom. | Acc. | Pos. | Verb | Cop. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hold your ground! | Tellūrem | vestrī | defendite! | ||
| We are their prisoners. | Nōs | captīvōs | hōrum | sum. | |
| Our city is defended. | Urbem | nōstrī | defendī. | ||
| My feet are sore. | Pedēs | meī | condolescunt. | ||
| His schemes are wicked. | Māchinās | huius | malefaciunt. | ||
| I heard her voice. | Vōcem | huius | auduī. | ||
| Your food is excellent. | Cibum | tuum | praestat. |
TIL Latin has no third-person pronouns and they botch around it. Like how Chinese doesn’t have real tense marking.
PS. A single tear is literally rolling down my cheek right now
Speaking of prepositions: In general European, they evolved out of adverbs. In homeric Greek, this can easily be shown. Think of an English verb like ‘to look out’. You can easily imagine how that can evolve into ‘to outlook’, but also into ‘to look’ with ‘out’ becoming an independent preposition.
1 Like
Make it caminata (french che, cha<latin ca; french -ée < -ata) and you’ve got yourself a late-latin/proto-romance word to describe the way the smoke takes from the hearth to the outside. In Rumantsch, la caminada/chaminada/chamineda/tgaminada is a storage room for foodstuff: you would hang your bacon into the smoke to make it preservable.
1 Like
Good, here we go. In bold those I had to look up (i.e. practically everything from ye olde times*).
It took me ages, but I have included a lot of fun facts in between 
Food
| bread | fruit | soup | beef | pork |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| パン | 果物 くだもの |
汁 しる |
牛肉 ぎゅうにく |
豚肉 ぶたにく |
| chicken | vegetables | cake | fish | honey |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 鶏肉 とりにく |
野菜 やさい |
ケーキ | 魚 さかな |
蜂蜜 はちみつ |
Drink
| water | wine | beer | cider | whisky |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 水 みず |
ワイン | ビール | シードル | ウイスキー |
| juice | lemonade | tea | coffee | milk |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ジュース | レモネード | お茶 おちゃ |
コーヒー | 牛乳 ぎゅうにゅう |
Notes:
- Cider is not サイダー (saidaa), which is used for non-alcoholic carbonated fruit drinks. Instead they borrowed the French pronounciation シードル (shiidoru) for the alcoholic cider.
- 牛乳 is literally cow milk. They use ミルク (miruku) for other kinds of milk.
Entertainment
| music | dancer | jester | juggler | circus |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 音楽 おんがく |
踊り手 おどりて |
道化方 どうけかた |
ジャグラー | サーカス |
| tavern | brothel | stadium | theatre | play |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 居酒屋 / 旅館 いざかや / りょかん |
売春宿 ばいしゅんやど |
スタジアム | 劇場 げきじょう |
演劇 えんげき |
Notes:
- 居酒屋 (izakaya) are a common type of bar where you can get small dishes, it’s the main kind of establishment where people will go for a drink in Japan. 旅館 (ryokan) are a type of inn where travellers sleep, often in traditional Japanese style, quite luxurious, with delicious dinner, breakfast and hot spring included.
- 売春 means prostitute, but the kanji individually mean “to sell” and “spring”. The word spring is apparently used as a euphemism of entertainment, since it’s generally considered the nicest season in Japan. In old times, prostitutes would not only hire their body, but offer general company and entertainment as well.
Geography
| city | town | port | road | river |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 都会 / 都市 とかい / とし |
街 まち |
港 みなと |
道 みち |
川 かわ |
| mountain | hill | coast | plain | island |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 山 やま |
坂 / 丘 さか / おか |
海岸 かいがん |
平野 へいや |
島 しま |
Transport
| horse | ox | cart | litter | bicycle |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 馬 うま |
牛 うし |
荷車 にぐるま |
ごみ | 自転車 じてんしゃ |
| car | train | plane | ship | ferry |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 自動車 / 車 じどうしゃ / くるま |
電車 でんしゃ |
飛行機 ひこうき |
船 ふね |
フェリー |
Notes:
- 牛 means “cow” or “cattle” in general. The Japanese don’t really distinguish between cows, bulls and oxes for working animals.
- The kanji for 荷車 mean “luggage car”, for 電車 mean “electric car”, for 自転車 mean “self rotating car”, for 自動車 mean “self moving car” and for 飛行機 mean “fly-go machine”
The Sea
| wave | seawater | gull | albatross | anchovy |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 波 なみ |
海水 かいすい |
カモメ | アホウドリ | アンチョビー |
| tuna | squid | mussel | clam | coral |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| マグロ | イカ | 紫貽貝 むらさきいがい |
貝 | さんご |
Notes:
- Although originally written in kanji as 信天鳥, meaning “believe”, “heaven” and “bird”, the アホウ part also means “idiot” in Japan, so in a way, albatrosses are literally called “stupid birds”. In fact, it seems that it’s more often written with the kanji for “idiot” nowadays, since that’s what my autocorrect suggests first.
- Haven’t really seen mussels in Japan, but they have a lot of different kind of tasty shellfish (貝, kai), most notably hokkigai, akagai, and torigai
Hierarchy
| emperor | king | nobleman | priest | merchant |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 天皇 てんのう |
王様 おうさま |
貴族 きぞく |
坊さん / 僧 ぼうさん / そう |
商人 |
| servant | slave | criminal | prisoner | leper |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 使用人 しようにん |
奴隷 どれい |
犯人 はんにん |
囚人 しゅうじん |
ハンセン病患者 ハンセンびょうかんじゃ |
Notes:
- The main reason I know what a nobleman is in Japanese, is because of a well-known izakaya chain called 鳥貴族: the Chicken Aristocrats. They mostly sell skewered grilled chicken.
- Leprosy is known in Japan by its other name: Hansen’s disease.
Profession
| butcher | baker | builder | cook | soldier |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 肉屋 にくや |
パン屋 パンや |
建築業者 けんちくぎょうしゃ |
料理人 りょうりにん |
兵士 へいし |
| author | actor | scholar | painter | sculptor |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 作者 さくしゃ |
演者 えんじゃ |
学者 がくしゃ |
画家 がか |
彫刻家 ちょうこくか |
Notes:
- Painter (画家 / がか / gaka) is perhaps known better when adding 漫 in front: cartoon painter, also known as mangaka, a person who draws manga (cartoons). Additional tidbit, in Japan any kind of cartoons / comics are known as manga, and any kind of animation is known as anime, including international ones.
Treasure
| sapphire | emerald | ruby | amethyst | diamond |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| サファイア | エメラルド | ルビー | アメシスト | ダイアモンド |
| opal | jet | ivory | platinum | gold |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| オパール | 黒玉 くろぎょく |
象牙 ぞうげ |
白金 はっきん |
金 きん |
Notes:
- Mostly very boring, either the English name was borrowed, or in case of jet it’s literally “black jewel” and ivory meaning literally “elephant tusk”… Platinum has a nice name as “white gold”, though.
Education
| teacher | student | desk | pencil | pen |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 先生 せんせい |
学生 がくせい |
机 つくえ |
鉛筆 えんぴつ |
ペン |
| ink | chalk | lecture | exercise | knowledge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| インク / 墨 すみ |
チョーク | 講義 こうぎ |
問題 もんだい |
知識 ちしき |
Notes:
- 墨 is ink used for painting and caligraphy (also it’s the sumi in sumi-e, which means “ink painting”), インク is for the ink that goes into pens.
- There was a famous Japanese manufacturer of high quality chalk, loved by mathematicians. Sadly they stopped production…
- 問題 is the kind of exercise in a schoolbook. For physical exercise you use 運動 (うんどう)
*Did you know that the “ye” is actually pronounced as “the”? It stems from the letter thorn þ, which was used in some Germanic languages for the th sound (and still is in Icelandic). The handwritten form of þ resembles the letter y a bit, which is why it became customary to write a y as well. Also, the e from the was written above the y.
3 Likes
Yep, I knew. It’s a cool tidbit. Although, as I remember, the greater cause was that there was no thorn on the German printing presses.
2 Likes
I’d recommend this kind Japanese gentlemen. He speaks rather slowly and cleanly. And not as snarky as Western go teachers.
2 Likes
I am going to write every single one of these down. It is going to take me so long 
I have a bunch of stuff I have to take care of today, but I will try and write them all down before the end of the day:)
2 Likes
Just to confirm, the gender variations in the pronouns refer to the gender of the noun they apply to, right, and not the gender of the person?
In Latin, that’s one and the same, I think. Every noun denoting a living thing is either feminine or masculine, all other things are one of the three. In good grammars, there’s usually a section explaining which noun endings are likely to be of which gender. It’s not like in English, even though Noam Chomsky makes everybody believe that!
That’s not what I meant: my question was dumber than that 
I mean that in the sentence
“My (man) house (feminine)”
I’m not sure whether my should take the masculine, of the pronoun, or the feminine of the possessed.
But now I realised that it obviously does the former like a normal genitive noun.
Ah yes, the possessive pronoun (not to be confused with the personal pronoun in the genitive) is an adjective and as such in agreement with the possessed word. Even in the third person. In English, you have her house and his house. In Latin not, it’s domus sua for both (if referring to the clauses’ subject).
Sorry for lengthy answers. My girlfriend has already pointed out, that I can’t just say yes and no.
2 Likes
You’re mixing up stuff again.
1 Like
Ah. I thought the possessive pronoun was the same thing as putting the personal pronoun in the genitive… there are so many inflections after all, you can forgive a man for getting confused 
1 Like
The personal pronoun of the first and second person (I, thou, we, you) as well as the reflexive personal pronoun (se, sibi etc.) in Latin has no gender.
The genitive of the personal pronoun (of me, of thee, of us, of you) is generally not used to denote possession, but, for example, when a verb need its object in the genitive (and not the accusative). Exception: You use the genitive of the pronoun is, ea, id, which is eius for possessors, that are not identical with the subject of the respective clause.
The possessive pronoun (my, thy, our, your), on the other hand, is an adjective.
1 Like
Elsewhere, maybe, but not in Latin.
My suggestion for you is to take your time to translate an easy text from one of your textbooks, preferably one where the passive, the AcI, and the Ablativus Absolutus are not yet introduced. I can give you one, if you haven’t got one yourself. The important thing will be to carefully put the words together, according to their case-number-gender-agreement yadda yadda.
1 Like
What’s Acl standing for here? And I don’t even know what the ablativus absolutus is, so no worries there
accusativus cum infinitivo. It’s in fact exactly what you do, when you say in English “see the dog run” vide canem currere that’s identical to “see the fact, that the dog is running”. But Latin uses it for far more things. I can say censeo Carthaginem delendam esse which translates to “I think, that Carthago is to be destroyed.” or Titus credit Marcum et Corneliam modestos esse “Titus believes, that Marcus and Cornelia are decent people”. It corresponds almost in all cases to a that-clause.
1 Like