Tattoo My God, my country, my honor.

[Zico]

Based on the motto of the danish king Christian X

 

[Issacus Divus]

Maybe Deus meus, mea patria, meus honos.

 

[Pacifica]

I thought there might be an original Latin version but, if Wikipedia is correct, "Since the time of Frederick VI, Danish monarchs have only used mottos in the Danish language".

Here's the original Danish, by the way:

"Min Gud, mit land, min ære"

It sounds so much like Old English!

I was wondering what sort of "honor" is meant here. Does it mean the honor/office of a king, or does it mean a more moral sort of honor (the quality of being morally honorable)? If it's the former, honos fits the bill, but if it's the latter it might be better translated with a different word.

Stylistic thing: I think it would look better if the noun and possessive were in the same order in order in all three parts.

 

[Issacus Divus]

Stylistic thing: I think it would look better if the noun and possessive were in the same order in order in all three parts.

So do I. I just don’t like saying Meus in front of Deus much, but I know it doesn’t matter.

 

[Pacifica]

So do I. I just don’t like saying Meus in front of Deus much, but I know it doesn’t matter.

I agree it sounds a little funny, perhaps because we read it in the reverse order all the time. Maybe you should put the possessive at the end in all three parts.

 

[Bitmap]

"Min Gud, min land, min ære"

It sounds so much like Old English!

Or German.

 

[Pacifica]

Or German.

Yeah, naturally. But a tad closer to OE, I think.

OE:

Min God, min land, min ar*.

*Means honos rather than the more moral sense, I think.

German:

Mein Gott, mein Land, meine Ehre (?)

 

[Bitmap]

Ja.

 

[Issacus Divus]

I agree it sounds a little funny, perhaps because we read it in the reverse order all the time. Maybe you should put the possessive at the end in all three parts.

I thought of doing that.

Yeah, naturally. But a tad closer to OE, I think.

OE:

Min God, min land, min ar*.

*Means honos rather than the more moral sense, I think.

Mein Gott, mein Land, meine Ehre (?)

Oh, weird. IS is heiður. I would’ve thought that the Danish word would be closer...

 

[Issacus Divus]

Nvm, cognate is eir for IS.

 

[Pacifica]

"Min Gud, mit land, min ære"

I first wrote "min land", assuming "mit" was a typo, but apparently I was wrong, since it appears with "mit" everywhere on Google and "mit" is found for "my" in other Danish kings' mottoes. I guess there's a rule that "min" becomes "mit" before certain letters.

 

[Pacifica]

Or perhaps "mit" is the neuter form.

 

[Bitmap]

Or perhaps "mit" is the neuter form.

Yes, it looks like 'mit' is neuter singular, 'min' is non-neuter singular and 'mine' is plural.

 

[Pacifica]

Interesting how different that "mit" is from OE and German. Quite unexpected.

Well, I guess the difference between West and North Germanic has to show somewhere.

 

[Bitmap]

Swedish and Norwegian do it similarly.

 

[Pacifica]

So, definitely a North Germanic thing.

I wonder if that t has anything to do with the d in id, istud and illud. And quod and quid and the t in what.

 

[Bitmap]

Germanic demonstratives also end in t (or s in German) in the neuter

 

[Pacifica]

Germanic demonstratives also end in t

Well, "that" does.

 

[Bitmap]

I mean things like dit, dat, het ... dies, das, es in German, but the s is the result of a consonant shift.

 

[Issacus Divus]

I first wrote "min land", assuming "mit" was a typo, but apparently I was wrong, since it appears with "mit" everywhere on Google and "mit" is found for "my" in other Danish kings' mottoes. I guess there's a rule that "min" becomes "mit" before certain letters.

Since IS still has mitt, at first I thought Danish just had it simplified.