Societas Via Romana - Discussion Archives

English is, as pointed out a Germanic language with a large Romance element of vocabulary, but it is a Germanic language. Of the 100 most common words used in our language 99 are Germanic, only the word "very" being Romance. I'm a little confused by this desire to amend the spelling ...

My understanding was that the macron is a modern invention and was never used by the Romans - it was adopted in textbooks for students of the language, especially with regard to poetry.

Salvete omnes

Excuse the subject matter, but what Latin word would you use if you wished to describe someone a "spammy"? Was there a Latin equivalent for this concept (I can't imagine there not being one!!)

Gratias ago

Valete

Have been asked, what would "Lost Lands" be in Latin? The person who asked me suggested "terra absentia" but I am not happy with the word absentia - that is medieval latin. Any classical latin suggestions?

Salvete omnes

How do you render "too" Latin, as in "his feet are too big!"

Gratias ago

Btw, Prime, could you please correct the title of this topic (or if you can't change it anymore, could our aediles ?) ? It should be SeptimIUS Severus (it is a mistake often made, don't worry ).

Apologies, but I am unable!

There's currently an argument on the BBC History message boards about whether Emporor Septimus Severus was black or not. Anyone got any thoughts, and does anyone know of any contemporary sources that may shed some light on this?

Gratias ago

Always happy to oblige, although I did make a bit of an error with my explanation. :oops: I said that in making the 'k' sound the tongue goes to behind the teeth, well this isn't exactly correct. The 'k' sound is produced in the velum area in the mouth further back at the top of the mouth. Other...

Gratias Omne! Im still confused as to where the S sound of C's come from that we have in the European languages.. C's were pronounced like K in the Germanic tounges as well, hence we have Kaiser and King and Knight(originally pronounced K-night). So if C's were pro. like K in both languages,where ...

[quote="Gnæus Dionysius Draco"]what I meant by atrocious names are things like "Gerardus", which is nothing more than a non-Latin name with -us sticked to it at the end. While at least Gerardus would sound a bit like older Latin, there are also combinations possible which include sounds an...

Thanks Draco - I was more interested in the grammar side to be honest. I was aware that the pronunciation differed and was generally influenced by the local dialect/language. For example the medieval latin in England differed to that of say Spain, and towards the latter half of the middle ages Lat...

Salvete omnes I've been reading about the Battle of Hastings recently and therefore have been looking at the Bayeux Tapestry and noticed that the Latin in use on the Tapestry differed slightly to Classical Latin, and got me thinking about how Mediaeval Latin did differ from the language of Cicero...

How is 'very' (as in to qualify an adjective) translated into Latin? Is the superlative used instead of an adverb?

Salve Draco Thanks for the little description on Dutch dialects - not too much info at all. As someone interested in linguistics, especially sociolinguistics (which includes dialectology) I find that very interesting. I found the formation of plurals of interest, that the more western parts of ...

Salve Draco I have found a website with the three tribal names - they are Ingvaeones, Irminones, and Istvaones. The website with some info on them is: http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Ingvaeonic Seems that they refer to tribes from the North Germany area so could be used in relatio...

Salve Draco Tibi gratias ago - I know what you mean about native anglophones not learning foreign languages well. Having been bought up in England a lot of my compatriots haven't a clue when they are abroad, embarrasingly so! It always annoys me to go to places like Spain and see fellow Brits e...

Salve Curio I would have thought that there wold have been some contact with the tribes that eventually settled England, as although traditionally people thought that the Anglo-Saxon tribes came from (modern) Denmark and northern Germany, these days it is pretty much well accepted in hostorical c...

Not so much a Latin question, but I do have a language question. Did the Romans ever write or show any interest in any other languages other than Latin and Greek? I understand that Aramaic and Hebrew were commented on by the Romans, as were Etruscan and the other Italic tongues in the Republic d...

I was wondering what evidence the Romans left us with regard to the Germanic tribes that would eventually come to invade and then settle in England (i.e. the Angles, Saxons, Frisians, and Jutes) around the 4th centry onwards? As the Rhine was the Empire's boundary for so long, there must have been ...

We know that (Classical) Latin of Cicero et al was a written ideal and not spoken as such as anyone's fist language (everyone spoke vulgar Latin, from which the modern Romance languages developed), but what of Ancient Greek? What was the status of Ancient Greek that we would learn today? Is that h...