Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Latin 101

When I was a student, oh so many years ago, the only thing amusing about my foriegn language classes was learning odd things to say that no one outside the classroom would get without explanation. I found a few I remember learning(and some new ones). As old as I am, it is still a funny thing.

Nihil curo de ista tua stulta superstitione - I'm not interested in your dopey religious cult

Non sum pisces - I am not a fish

Corripe Cervisiam - Seize the beer!

Cogito ergo doleo - I think therefore I am depressed

Sola lingua bona est lingua mortua - The only good language is a dead language

Sit vis vobiscum - May the Force be with you.

Stultus est sicut stultus facit - Stupid is as stupid does

Te audire non possum. Musa sapientum fixa est in aure - I can't hear you. I have a banana in my ear


I suppose I need to stop messing around and get to work. Long day of playing catch up ahead...

9 comments:

Val said...

I loved latin. One of my favorites:

Semper Ubi Sub Ubi: Always wear under wear :-) Good advice.

I'm so immature.

a thorn in the pew said...

Good one! I did learn that one but forgot about it....someone's Roman mother probably said that.

gemoftheocean said...

Tu sei meno intelligente del un pescealino roso. [sp! on that one all the way around, it's been years!] - Italian

"You are less intelligent than a little red fish."

Maya Pristazhnaya shto-to zahromela.
[this should have cyrillic letters]
"My trace horse has gone lame." [that one's courtesy of Chekov, but it always amused me.]


Kanst du nicka fauna inna zumma?
[Can you catch flies in the summer]
Pa. Deutch

Porcum factum est. [Make a pig of yourself....] (Our latin teacher had grabbed a campus flyer which headed their pitch that way.)

Combien de sous sont ses saucissons-ci? Ces saucissons-ci sont six sous.

French tongue twister - how many sous are these sausages here? These sausages here are six sous.

Karen

a thorn in the pew said...

Did you have to practice the one in french? That hurt just reading it in my head!

gemoftheocean said...

:-D In high school I was friends with a girl who had French Canadian parents, she taught me that one. I can still do it really really fast. Her mother was amused when my friend taught it to me, because she'd taught it to her daughter.


The trick is to keep the "mask" of your teeth and tongue VERY forward, then it's not bad at all. Your teeth, as a matter of fact on that one don't move much at all but your tongue gets a hell of a workout.
A lot of the work is on the tip of the tongue too. It is a GREAT warm up before you have to speak publicly if you've been a bit lazy in speech.

As an American gal, we tend to keep our voices "centered" more to the back. I note, that the English seem to place sounds more forward in the mouth. (not as far forward as the French though) Least that's what they told us and we practiced in Intermediate acting.
[BTW, I'm not particularly good in any foreign language .. though French is my "best" *cough* having started it at 11.] Don't use it much now, but I wouldn't hesitate to wade in to travel around France if need be. My French is okay for "get 'er done" stuff but I'm not up to discussing Sartre in French. [Or English for that matter, but that's besides the point.]

gemoftheocean said...

Oh, heck, what am I doing DESCRIBING it -- with all this gee-whizbang stuff around the house you can hear it here.

Take two. Just at 3 seconds. If I'm limbered up I can cut down on that "combien de" part. Yes. I am a natural contralto. Had I realized that we are rarer than hen's teeth I'd have taken singing lessons at a young age and I could have made a fortune at the MET. No. I don't smoke. (Apparently at Julliard, sopranos are a dime a dozen, but if they find one good contralto a year and they are thrilled to pieces. At least that's what an acquaintance of mine who studied there said. Supposedly there are about 3000 sopranos vs. one contralto.) The disadvantage is I wreck any all female choir I've sung in. The advantage is "I don't need no stinkin' microphone" and I have absolutely no problem hailing a waiter's attention.

Cathy said...

I remember some French tongue twister about a green frog.
But that's ALL I remember.
;)

Lily said...

Semper Ubi Sub Ubi: Always wear under wear

That is one of my favorites too, partly because of the grammar (Always where under where) but I wrote a rebuttal to an article entitled 'Semper Ubi Sub Ubi' and got help with a translation for a title.

"Circumire ad Commandum" roughly translates to the opposite (snort) "Going Commando"

Yep, I'm so immature as well. LOL

a thorn in the pew said...

Ha...Lily, did you translate those yourself? That's funny.