We wrapped up Second Form Latin this week with our 8th grader and had a questions about a few of the translation exercises.
1. Worksheet 11 #2, "Hostium pecumiam facile invenimus." Answer key has "We easily discovered the enemies' money." In another discussion a few months ago, Jon C. suggested that the translation of "hostis" into English is a little vague because English can use "the enemy" to mean (in Jon's words) "one lonely scoundrel or a whole host of bad guys." In this case, might we also translate to "We easily discovered the enemy's money"? Or is the use of hostium a dead giveaway that it should be "enemies'"?
2. Worksheet 12 #10, "Victoria sociis Romanorum ab imperatore nuntiabatur." Answer key has "The victory was being announced by the general to the allies of the Romans." Because sociis could be ablative, might we also translate as "The victory by the Romans' allies was reported by the commander."?
3 Worksheet 13 #5, "Orator clamore omnium civium impeditur." Answer key has "The speaker is hindered by the shouting of the citizens." We were wondering about the use of "by the shouting," which may be an artifact of our not having the full range of fluidity in the translation. In 2nd Form, "clamor -oris" is given as "shout, cry"; is there a general principle about a noun like "the shout" also translating to "shouting" (other examples being a/the cry > crying, a/the cheer >cheering)? We can see, of course, that "clamore" in this case, being singular, is a slightly awkward when translated as "by the shout of the citizens," and that "shouting" would be more naturally (or "by the shouts," but in that case the Latin should have clamoribus).
Thanks again! We've certainly loved our second full helping of Latin and are looking forward to Third Form (after a summer doing the review workbook and making ourselves an extended vocabulary list)!
.Kraig
1. Worksheet 11 #2, "Hostium pecumiam facile invenimus." Answer key has "We easily discovered the enemies' money." In another discussion a few months ago, Jon C. suggested that the translation of "hostis" into English is a little vague because English can use "the enemy" to mean (in Jon's words) "one lonely scoundrel or a whole host of bad guys." In this case, might we also translate to "We easily discovered the enemy's money"? Or is the use of hostium a dead giveaway that it should be "enemies'"?
2. Worksheet 12 #10, "Victoria sociis Romanorum ab imperatore nuntiabatur." Answer key has "The victory was being announced by the general to the allies of the Romans." Because sociis could be ablative, might we also translate as "The victory by the Romans' allies was reported by the commander."?
3 Worksheet 13 #5, "Orator clamore omnium civium impeditur." Answer key has "The speaker is hindered by the shouting of the citizens." We were wondering about the use of "by the shouting," which may be an artifact of our not having the full range of fluidity in the translation. In 2nd Form, "clamor -oris" is given as "shout, cry"; is there a general principle about a noun like "the shout" also translating to "shouting" (other examples being a/the cry > crying, a/the cheer >cheering)? We can see, of course, that "clamore" in this case, being singular, is a slightly awkward when translated as "by the shout of the citizens," and that "shouting" would be more naturally (or "by the shouts," but in that case the Latin should have clamoribus).
Thanks again! We've certainly loved our second full helping of Latin and are looking forward to Third Form (after a summer doing the review workbook and making ourselves an extended vocabulary list)!
.Kraig
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