27 Comments
Does "nummis" refer to a specific kind of coin? Or did the Romans only use one type of coin?
Nummus is a generic term for coin (from which English gets the word numismatics), but Romans had names for different materials/values like as, sestertius, argenteus, and aureus.
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... and denarii :-)
Im not sure this sentence is very natural in English or Latin tbh. Have you ever specified a price in 'coins'?
- 156
I guess they didn't want to commit to a specific place (or time) that an actual currency would have implied. :) But yes, I find this usage slightly odd, too. Kinda feels like at a Renaissance Fair where they change the name of the current currency into something (mock) medieval.
- 156
OMG! Now what I want to buy for all my useless spare lingots are fancy Latin cookies... :D
A cookie costs four coins. I believe there was bread for five coins as well, perhaps a different sort or size.
We don't know the sizes of all these. :)
nummos would be the accusative, but in this case we need an ablative! I don't think the ablative has been covered in the lections yet, but we can't really ask "/what/ does the wine cost", instead it's "/how much/ does the wine cost". this is one but many uses of the ablative, but i don't remember which rules exactly apply to it, so i won't give you any. i'm sure the course will cover it!
The reconstructed classical pronunciation is driving me crazy. I wish Duolingo used the living form of the Latin Language.
Sorry, but calling it living is not accurate. The living versions of Latin kept diverging and evolving into Spanish, Italian, etc.
Ecclesiastical Latin is just a later snapshot of the same Classical Latin.
Both are ways to use a dead language. I don't say dead in a malicious way. I'm a Latin teacher and live the language every day, but that doesn't make it a living language.
Each pronunciation has its place. I read Martial with a Classical pronunciation and Saint Augustine with the Ecclesiastical. Using it the other way would be misrepresentation.
Do you mean ecclesiastical pronunciation? Restored Classical Pronunciation is a living form, used in many places around the world.
Here's a list of places it was used actively in summer 2018. Sorry I don't know of an updated list for this year. https://www.latinitium.com/blog/spoken-latin-2018
Here are a couple organizations in the English-speaking world that support living Latin: SALVI https://latin.org/wordpress/ Paideia https://www.paideiainstitute.org/ Univ. of Kentucky https://mcl.as.uky.edu/latin-institute
