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- "Estne Bostonia civitas?"
47 Comments
"Bostonia" almost sounds like "Bastonia" or even "Pastonia" here. Again, latinizing place names should also result in the pronunciation being Latin (as reconstructible as possible, of course)
10
City as in City-State...as when Florence and Venice and Rome were each powers unto themselves, ruling the city proper and the lands surrounding them, with wars, skirmishes and trading between them.
I don't think Latin has a word for what the states in America are, so the course uses urbs for city and civitas for state
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Agreed, and let's not the forget the Borgias, Julian II and the Papal States. Which, relatively speaking, are modern.
They have the word próvincia, which is where we get province, and is effectively the same as modern American states.
It's kind of the city and the region around it that is under the control of the city. This languagw is from a time and place where city-states were the norm, so they mean something different than we do when we say state.
That's correct. "C" should be pronounced as "K" and "V" should be pronounced as "W" or "U".
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This constant referencing of the U.S.A. when we are supposed to be learning Latin with classical pronunciation is very annoying.
I don't want to learn someone's idea of a made-up Latin-sounding word. That is not Latin.
It's just a few Latinizations of place names, the majority of which were probably Latinized 300+ years ago, because the Vatican keeps its records in Latin.
They're by no means faux Latin like that Dorime song.
On another note, while this course uses classical pronunciation, most of the team members who made it are from a group that encourages usage of Latin as if it is a living language - they host multiple events every year to further that goal. That means that you will come across words and names that didn't exist in 50 B.C. both in this course and in the Latin speaking community at large.
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For those who sre interested: there is a Finnish internet radio station that every day offers a news bulletin in Latin.
With the Ecclesiastical pronunciation it sounds like chivitas, which I find much more appealing.
What is the difference between "est" and "estne"? Is it because its a question?
Estne is at the start of a yes/no question, something meaning 'is it?' whereas est means something along the lines of 'it is' (given in the answer). I'm not explaining it properly, but that's the jist
-ne at the end of a word is one of a few word endings that can be slapped on the end of nearly any word. It basically transforms the sentence - "Bostonia civitas est" = "Boston is a state" (yes, I'm aware it's not) - to a question: "Estne Bostonia civitas?". Note that it's usually the first word, and it's usually a verb that gets the -ne.
Another, similar ending is -que, which can be slapped on the end of a noun and means "and". Senatus Populusque Romanus: The Roman Senate and Roman People.
I wasn't around to hear real Latin, but I'm pretty sure they didn't ask questions like that. Really over the top and jarring to listen to
'civitas' can mean 'country', 'nation', 'city' or 'city-state'. Here Duo is using it to just mean 'state' which is not necessarily wrong.
Estne Bostonia cívitás?
Note: Unsure if Bostonia has a long vowel or not. I imagine if it does, it would be on the second 'o' - as Bostónia.
Non si capisce: la parola "civitas" è letta come "tipica". In latino è necessario leggere bene le finali. Qui la esse non si sente.
No, the audio is just really bad. There are, generally speaking, no silent letters in Latin.
Bisogna leggere la "T" come tutte le altre consonanti. Questa è la regola del latino.
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Free tip: the suffix - ne is used in neutral questions, Num in questions when you expect a negative answer, and Nonne when you expect a positive answer.
Question: why isn't "is there a state of Boston?" accepted? Seems odd to me
It seems to me that the speaker adds a second 'a' sound to 'Bostonia'.
