You know you're a Latin junkie when...

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Etaoin Shrdlu

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If Bill Bryson can get away with his books on language, full of unsourced claims for the very good reason that they're inaccurate, your expectations may exceed reality.
 
 

rothbard

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If Bill Bryson can get away with his books on language, full of unsourced claims for the very good reason that they're inaccurate, your expectations may exceed reality.
I think you are right, I am probably too old. I just had a look on Amazon at "SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome" and found that it does not contain a single reference.
 

Callaina

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I think you are right, I am probably too old. I just had a look on Amazon at "SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome" and found that it does not contain a single reference.
Did you see the "Further Reading" section? It contains sources for every chapter (sure, they're not organized by footnote/endnote, but she gives a brief description of where she found what piece of information).
 
 

rothbard

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Did you see the "Further Reading" section? It contains sources for every chapter (sure, they're not organized by footnote/endnote, but she gives a brief description of where she found what piece of information).
Thanks, I must have missed it.
 
 

Dantius

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Well, this is not really exactly what this thread is, but I couldn't find a better place, so:

You know you're a LatinDiscussion.com junkie when... whenever someone in real life does something wrong/strange or anything like that, you have to exert a small amount of mental effort to avoid saying "Banned for...[whatever they did wrong]".

This happens to me a lot where I start thinking of a "ban" during real life interactions, but it doesn't go anywhere (I don't actually say "banned for...", luckily)
 

Serenus

Civis Illustris

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You know you're a Latin junkie when certain Spanish poets, including some 20th century ones, start making sense without the use of a dictionary. No need to look up words like níveo, corusco or áureo if you know niveus, coruscus, aureus...
 
 

Dantius

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in orbe lacteo
You know you're a Latin junkie when this sentence:
adeo turbati erant dextrae alae pedites equitesque ut quosdam consul manu ipse reprenderit uerteritque in hostem.

makes you laugh more than any "TRY NOT TO SMILE OR LAUGH CHALLENGE (99% FAIL)!!!" video on YouTube.
 
 

Godmy

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Are you perhaps suggesting that the multitūdō hominum of the sort of those aforementioned Youtube viewers wouldn't laugh at the first glimpse of this Latin... utterance?! :confused: Next you'll be telling me that you can't make a laughing challenge Youtube video out of Cicero's folk etymologies on the personal pronouns with the cum preposition! :eek:
 
 

Terry S.

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Terry S. dixit:
Bonan fortunam!​
You know you're a Latin/Greek junkie when your first reaction upon seeing this typo is, "Oh, a Greek accusative."
I didn't notice that (clearly!) when I posted, but now that you've drawn it to my attention, I know exactly what kind of typo it is. 'Bonan' is an Esperanto accusative, and it rather annoys me to see how it has crept into my Latin thinking. I must be wary of that happening again. :(
 

Callaina

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So my joking statement was actually true, LOL, just with the wrong language.
 
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Etaoin Shrdlu

Guest

There are accusatives in Esperanto, when they've simplified everything else?
 
 

Terry S.

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The accusative is probably the most contentious grammatical issue in Esperanto. I'm not aware of any reform project that has retained it. e.g. Ido. Zamenhof believed that it gave a useful flexibility to word order, especially for poetry. In addition to marking the direct object, it also has the meaning of 'motion towards' and can even be attached to adverbs when sense permits.
 

Callaina

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There are accusatives in Esperanto, when they've simplified everything else?
I think every language (at least IE/IE-based ones) has accusatives. You probably mean declined accusatives. ;)
 

Aurifex

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I think every language (at least IE/IE-based ones) has accusatives. You probably mean declined accusatives. ;)
Is it meaningful to talk about there being accusatives of English nouns when the only inflections are singular, plural and possessive? Case is certainly an alien concept in Chinese.
 

Callaina

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Is it meaningful to talk about there being accusatives of English nouns when the only inflections are singular, plural and possessive?
Good question. Well, some cases (e.g. dative) are generally indicated by prepositions in English, whereas genitives are indicated by a marker of possession; and though everyone might not actively make the "who"/"whom" distinction in their own speaking or writing, most native speakers can understand it when they see it. So I think one could make a good argument for the idea that the case system still exists (on some level) in English, albeit much reduced.
 
 

Imperfacundus

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Its existence in personal pronouns is indisputable, but the pattern is more subject case/oblique case than anything corresponding to Latin. The oblique forms cover a lot more than Latin's accusative does.
 
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