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- "Quid est California? Califor…
"Quid est California? California est civitas Americana."
Translation:What is California? California is an American state.
121 Comments
I rebel to this pronunciation, CIVITAS like the spanish I am.
Anyway thank you Duolingo and everyone for this course.
That would be “California civitas in America est”. You can only give the closest translation because Duo is secretly a computer, not a wise owl ;)
a conputer that will murder your family and friends if you missed a day
How very true, Amaryllis515864. Here's a Lingot for having the audacity to point out the obvious.
The meaning is the same, but it's not what is said in Latin.
California est civitas americana.
The translation for "civitas americana" is American state.
Americana = Adj. America = country.
The pause between sentences was so long, I'd already entered and submitted "Quid est California" by the time they started reading the second sentence. Annoying.
I got it wrong because I already entered "Quid est California" and hit enter before the last part played.
Ok, this particular course/track is kicking me in the rear.
"Where is California? California is a state in America."
I get that I mixed "quid" and "quis" up, but what about the second half? Is "Americana" a possessive adjective of "state" instead of the subject of a preposition modifying "state"? Does Latin even have prepositions?
Man, I haven't thought this hard about grammar words since high school! I feel slightly out of practice, yet oddly comfortable like an old bicycle. . .
California est civitas Americana = California is an American state. Americanus, -a, -um is an adjective modifying civitas. And yes, there are prepositions in Latin. :-)
1026
Kate, what are you signifying when you write ”Americanus, -a, -um”? It's obviously a modifier - but for what?
There are masculine (-us), feminine (-a), and neuter (-um) forms of the adjective. I wrote the "dictionary entry" for the form--what you would find if you looked it up. In this case, civitas is feminine, so you use Americana. But if you wanted to modify a masculine word (like pater), you would use Americanus.
- 359
I wonder the same thing. Is it because of the gender of the word civitas? How could we know about the gender of a word in Latin?
Yes, I think civitas is a feminine noun and therefore the adjective matching it is americana. This course doesn't actually tell you the genders of nouns, but you could probably find it in a dictionary.
Could "state" also be "status"? Or is that only non-political meanings, like one's physical state?
Good question. In classical Latin, status means either fixed (hence ‘static’) or ‘position’ (like the modern word ‘status’). In medieval Latin, the word also gets the modern meaning of ‘state’. So yes, in medieval Latin, this translation could be understood. Don’t forget to change the adjective accordingly, though.
Good point, in English, "state" is also something like "a fixed position" (but figuratively), and a country.
Status -> directly from Latin -> Status.
Status > old French Estat (modern: état) (position, condition; status, stature, station) and also "country"-> State
Status -> German Staat.
City, state, inhabitants of a city or state, a people, citizenship. Cives means citizen, which is where civitas comes from.
Please, read the comments on the page, it has already been explained several times by users.
In America = In America.
americana = adj = american (feminine)
kee-wee-tass
The answers above were both 2/3 correct ;) Make sure to fully pronounce every syllable.
The thing that really bother me in this sentence, more than the pronunciation, is that there is no much space between the 2 clauses, that, each time, I validate my answer before the end of the sentence.
C used to be pronounced like a K in Latin until it changed to the "Ka, tse, tsi, ko, ku" pronunciation, similar to the Italian pronunciation of c, so technically both would be correct.
- 359
I decided to ask that kind of question to Wiktionary. It answers with IPA symbols or sometimes with a recording: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/civitas#Pronunciation_2
/ˈkiː.wi.taːs/, [ˈkiː.wɪ.t̪aːs]
Personally, I disagree with the pronounciation taught here. I attended law school, learnt Latin, also fan of history and stuff. "C" shouldn't be always pronounced "k". Especially not before "i" or "ae". After all "Caesar" is not "Käsar". Although I know there is this kind of pronounciation but I find it sounds very weird. Erasmus one is better and more natural in my opinion. Also it was widely used in Europe until Latin disappeared.
Classical Latin, which they're trying to use for this course (with very mixed results imo), exclusively uses hard consonants. C's will always make a K sound.
/kae̯.sar/
(Classical)
ˈt͡ʃe.sar/
[ˈt͡ʃɛː.zar]
(Ecclesial)
That's weird, because I hear
Kaezar with a "z" soud like in "zebra" on Wikipedia, and they say it's classical.
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Caesar#Pronunciation_3
Why?
@ Hunniel : No, "Caesar" is not "Käsar"; it is "Kaisar" (to use German spelling -- "ai" like English "eye"). The pronunciation of legal Latin differs from that of Classical Latin even more than does the pronunciation of ecclesiastical Latin.
- 901
I'd like to add something here. Both pronunciation are, more or less, correct. However, I think Duolingo teaches us Classical Latin, not Medieval/Ecclesiastical Latin. In Classical Latin, "C" and "G" is always hard, and "V" is pronounced as "W". But the pronunciation shifted to more like Italian during the Medieval Era because of the influence of Italian--therefore Medieval Latin.
In my humble opinion, the pronunciation we should use is of Classical Latin, because it is the version that the Romans spoke.
This course is a mess, to be frank. It teaches classical pronunciation and medieval vocabulary.
Quomodo te habes = quid agis
Quid nomen tibi est = quod nomen tibi est
Cantare = canere (originally the frequentative verb)
Could you elaborate about the medieval vocabulary here?
Which one is medieval quomodo.../quid... for instance?
Amaryllis, I saw on the site that this course is in beta, so they're still working out the snags, as it were. I happen to like this course, even knowing that it is the beta version. I rarely study online using only one resource, that includes languages.
the pronunciation we should use is of Classical Latin, because it is the version that the Romans spoke
Quote from the Stackexchange site:
One common argument for classical pronunciation is that it's "the way Romans spoke Latin." While I appreciate (and usually try to make) historically informed choices, this argument only tells part of the story. Yes, it's the way Romans spoke Latin—until the 2nd or 3rd century A.D. At that point Latin started to turn into Late Latin, and what we think of now as ecclesiastical pronunciation started to enter the language. (There's a good summary of the shift on Unam Sanctam Catholicam, a website run by a lay apostolate about history and tradition in the Church.)
So yes, while classical pronunciation is indeed the way Romans spoke Latin, ecclesiastical pronunciation is also the way Romans spoke Latin. It's just that Cicero was dead by then, so people are less interested in the literature. :)
I humbly disagree. As most of the people who actually use Latin today are Catholic (I use it at least on a weekly basis on Sundays), I would prefer the pronunciation to be ecclesiastical. It would be nuce to at keast have the option.
A quote from Quintilian "Nam k quidem in nullis verbis utendum ❤❤❤❤ nisi quae significat etiam ut sola ponatur. Hoc eo non omisi quod quidam eam quotiens a sequatur necessariam credunt, cum sit c littera, quae ad omnis vocalis vim suam perferat." or in english " As for k my view is that it should not be used at all except in such words as may be indicated by the letter standing alone as an abbreviation. I mention the fact because some hold that k should be used whenever the next letter is an a, despite the existence of the letter c which maintains its force in conjunction with all the vowels."
It is "ts'" in German and Russian traditions and "ch" in Italian and Catholic Latin
How do you pronunce "Veni, vidi, vici"?
In your language I mean, as an expression spoken by non latinists in everyday life?
yes, but this is only pronounced this way nowadays, how do you know it's not right?
they probably would have said kay-zar for 'caesar'
We can only go on the arguments (based upon not only the scientific study of language change but also on what Classical Latin writers themselves had to say) expressed by historical linguists. With regard to your "probably", can you name any authorities able to back the claim that "ae" was ever pronounced /ei/ or intervocalic "s" as /z/?
yes... well, latin is an old language so it's not certainly pronounced the way you've been told, and we don't really know how it was pronounced but i say 'kee-wee-tus'
California civitas Americana est. Is it possible? Latin grammar is SOV subject object verb....
Yes, it's less common, as the verb here is a copula, but its also a valide sentence.
The word isn't really anywhere in the sentence, you can recognize it by looking at the case it's in. Locative or preposition-less ablative is for the question "where?", Ablativus Seperativus - also a preposition-less Ablative - for the question "where from?" and Accusative for "where to?" I hope I didn't forget anything :| (Edit: woops I confused the sentence, look at the solution, it isn't even supposed to be in the sentence)
What's with all this crap about California and New York? Many ancient Romans there?
People around the world coin new Latin words every day. It is used in science, religion, philosophy and law. It is an official language of the Vatican, also, and I expect they use it to talk about modern phenomena.
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I used contractions: "What's..." and "California's..." and was marked wrong. I reported it.
i give the same answer, only without ? because there is no there. and i can t go
- 599
This Oliver Hardy pronunciation is offensive. Not even a barbarian would say "Cal'fowna'a" for California.
Not to complain, but I do prefer the original audio... This speaker has a highly American accent, which can be helpful, but in my opinion it doesn't flow naturally.
Also, probably just a glitch, but the audio goes "qUId est" with this strangely loud microphone noise. Again, most likely nobody's fault, but it's a mildly distracting bug.
My answer was: What is California? California is a state in America. Not accepted. Why, is it a site mistake?
- 570
This is crazy! Why this obsession with references to American states/cities when Latin was spoken /written within the context of the Roman civilisation !!!
It's a pity that the speaker pronounces "California" in two different ways here: CaliFORnia and CaliforNIa.
I left the period missing and it marked my answer wrong I'm protesting and leaving a period out of this comment
- 901
Please read the other comments, it's been discussed before. To put it simply:
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California is an American state = California civitas americana est.
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California is a state of America = California civitas americae est.
She reads it so slowly I always answer the question when she's actually only halfway through because I think she's done and then I get it wrong
- 672
Press the speaker icon to make her read it at normal speed. There are two: one for normal speed, one for slow speed.
- 396
A glottal stop between i and a in "California" doesn't strike me as credible. "Californ - ih- a" cannot be correct, sorry.
I got the "typing" version of this sentence. Annoying because i know how to type California already, and now i have to do it twice for one answer? Sheesh, Latin is what i want to learn.
I put "Quid est California? California est civitates Americana." and it told me I had typed in English. I eventually put just "Quid" so I could go past.
What is the difference between 'Americana', 'Americanus', 'America' and so on and when/how do you use it?
- 1735
Adjectives, nouns, pronouns have declensions in Latin, that is different endings for the grammatical genders and numbers and also different endings for the function of the word in the sentence, that is, if the word is the subject, it goes in the nominative case, if it is direct object, it must go in the Accusative case, etc
The words in Latin have a lot of different endings, and that is the base of the Latin Grammar. It is very different from English.
AMERICA IS NOT ONLY UNITED STATES !!!! AMERICA IS A CONTINENT, SO THE CORRECTION IS "WHAT IS CALIFORNIA, CALIFORNIA IS A STATE OF THE UNITED STATES!!! PLEASE DUOLINGO !!
America is a continet, It is not just The united States, so the correct thing to do would be put " California is a state of The United States"
The Latin stalls here. No matter how many times the correct answer is submitted.
It's correct, but not the grammar. Americanus/-a/-um is either the adjective in nominative or the/an American in nominative.
The second part of my answer was "california is a state in america" and this was marked wrong.
- 901
See the answer above. "civitas Americana" means "American state"; "Americana" is an adjective. "(a) state in America" would be "civitas in America"
That is not the opinion of historical linguists. In Classical Latin pre- and intervocalic "u/v" stood for the semi-vowel (labiovelar approximant) /w/ -- as in, for example, vir /wir/ (man), ave /'awe/ (hail) .
