Latin in Our Media

Gemini

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I know that somewhere out there, there is Latin slowly filtrating our media. Out in California there is a high school that has made two independent films completely in Latin. There is a German rap group that rap in Latin. I also know that some of the Harry Potter books are translated into Latin. My question is, what else is there? If anyone has a any other places that it appears in our media I am interested in hearing about it. Please help me find a few more. Thanks.
 

Gnarpsbaden

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Do you know what those two independent movies are called?
I'd love to see them. I learned English through watching films and tv-shows.
 

socratidion

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Gemini dixit:
I know that somewhere out there, there is Latin slowly filtrating our media. Out in California there is a high school that has made two independent films completely in Latin. There is a German rap group that rap in Latin. I also know that some of the Harry Potter books are translated into Latin. My question is, what else is there? If anyone has a any other places that it appears in our media I am interested in hearing about it. Please help me find a few more. Thanks.
My instinctive response was that there is probably a website somewhere that has all this info. And then I thought: oh yes, this website...

I rather enjoyed 'Asterix gladiator', and thought that the Latin was up to scratch.

There was a film about Saint Sebastian made by Derek Jarman, with all the dialogue in Latin, which I once happened to catch about five minutes of. The pronunciation irritated me, particularly 3rd conjugation infinitives with long vowels where there shouldn't be -- dic[e-long:2wafamx6][/e-long:2wafamx6]re for instance. It might sound like a small thing, but it shifts the accent, and makes it sound like a different word -- quite disorientating if you're trying to understand what's being said... Of the film itself I have no opinion worth airing.

In the big bookshop in the centre of town there is a whole shelf devoted to this kind of thing. Translations of Harry Potter, Winnie-the-Pooh, Alice in Wonderland; Latin jokes, Latin equivalents of modern phrases. I don't go into it very deeply, but from the little I've seen it looks creditably done.

What I do find disappointing is the way the print media use Latin, in a less formal way, as a byword for pretentious elitism and pedantry. But that's another story.
 
 

cinefactus

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socratidion dixit:
What I do find disappointing is the way the print media use Latin, in a less formal way, as a byword for pretentious elitism and pedantry. But that's another story.
Us, pedantic? Never ;)
 

Decimus Canus

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socratidion dixit:
There was a film about Saint Sebastian made by Derek Jarman, with all the dialogue in Latin, which I once happened to catch about five minutes of. The pronunciation irritated me, particularly 3rd conjugation infinitives with long vowels where there shouldn't be -- dic[e-long:1wb6beyr][/e-long:1wb6beyr]re for instance. It might sound like a small thing, but it shifts the accent, and makes it sound like a different word -- quite disorientating if you're trying to understand what's being said... Of the film itself I have no opinion worth airing.
It was also glaringly obvious which actors were British and which were European.
 

Decimus Canus

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Anyone interested in how Winnie the Pooh found his way into Latin might consider looking at The Valley of the Latin Bear online.

From Robert Graves' foreword: It begins at Rome during the war, where he agreed to give Pietro Ferraro, leader of the Venetian Resistance, lessons in conversational English. Ferraro, who spoke only Italian, needed arms from the Allies. Dr. Lenard's sole available textbook was A. A. Milne's nursery classic Winnie-the-Pooh; but it proved a great success. Some months later, Ferraro was complimented on his English by the British staff ...
 
B

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Decimus Canus dixit:
It was also glaringly obvious which actors were British and which were European.
the British are Europeans, too, whether they like it or not :>
 

socratidion

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Speaking as a British Europhile, I still think there's a need of a word to describe people who are part of Europe but who are not British. 'Continental' just about suffices in some contexts, but that connotes matters of style and design. I've usually taken the view that 'European' will have to do, and that anyone who objects is an old fusspot. But I think the world did change for the better when we stopped (e.g.) assuming that the pronoun 'he' was just the same as saying 'he or she'; so maybe I should change my ways. So what shall we go for: non-British European? Rest-of-European?
 

Decimus Canus

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Bitmap dixit:
Decimus Canus dixit:
It was also glaringly obvious which actors were British and which were European.
the British are Europeans, too, whether they like it or not :>
"Fog in Channel - Continent Cut Off"
 

Iohannes Aurum

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Read here: THREAD: #9723

It is about a best-selling computer game that features Latin (with professional voice acting).
 

C Crastinus

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Decimus Canus dixit:
Bitmap dixit:
Decimus Canus dixit:
It was also glaringly obvious which actors were British and which were European.
the British are Europeans, too, whether they like it or not :>
"Fog in Channel - Continent Cut Off"
:D I've always viewed the the Brits as being a bit separate from the rest of Europe, but my perception is probably skewed by the Anglo-centric version of history we Americans are taught as schoolchildren.

If there are any Tolkien fans present, I've recently discovered someone's translation of the beginning of the Silmarillion. I don't know Latin well enough yet to attest to its quality, but what I've read so far seems ok to me.
http://pantheon.yale.edu/~skl28/latin.html
 

Lucius Aelius

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C Crastinus dixit:
If there are any Tolkien fans present, I've recently discovered someone's translation of the beginning of the Silmarillion. I don't know Latin well enough yet to attest to its quality, but what I've read so far seems ok to me.
http://pantheon.yale.edu/~skl28/latin.html
I'm bouncing with nerdjoy right now.
 

Gemini

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Thank you all very much. I'm hunting down all I can in Latin. Partly for myself, like with English, reading and listening increases the vocabulary, and partly for hopefully future students. Hopefully reading, listening, or watching some thing they might prefer to class texts might draw more of an interest. I haven't played Civ 5 yet, I didn't realize it had Latin in it. Thank you socratidion for your suggestions. I'll have to look into both "Asterix Gladiator" and the St. Sebastian movie. And thank you, C Crastinus for your Tolkien nerdiness (it makes me happy). I wish I could read it all too, but hey, that's what I'm learning Latin for, right? I'm still hunting more sources down, Thanks again to every one.
 

Gregorius

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For those of you who aren't already aware of it, I have a Latin adaptation of "A Whole New World" from Disney's Aladdin that I'm rather proud of (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Wbv6ly9kXM). I also recently discovered a female classics student on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/user/O1ivette) who's adapted several Disney songs into Latin and classical Greek. It's uncanny, really. She's practically the female version of me! I envy her greatly, though, since her voice is just good enough to record decent demos. Me, I'm so bad that people often mistake my singing for mere speech, so I'm stuck relying on others who often respond with initial enthusiasm and then take ages to record anything, if they ever do at all. I tried to talk Olivette into singing a couple of my songs for me, but she insisted that she didn't want to force her mediocre talent onto my work. Quite frustrating, since she's a one-in-a-million shot in any case, but I didn't want to push it too far and risk putting off a potential ally.
 
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