"Quid est California? California est civitas Americana."
Translation:What is California? California is an American state.
19 Comments
People always ask "What is California?" When they should be asking "How is California?"
I think this is a totally normal question for non-Americans. If the person doesn't know whether it's a city, a region or a State, for example.
I disagree Nick. Imagine I talk about something you don't know, you never heard of it. Crapoustoskikayaya.
What is Crapoustoskikayaya? Is it a city?
You won't say "How is Crapoustoskikayaya", as you are not really sure it's a city, or a state, or something to eat.
What is.. London? It's a city.
What is... Craputskayaya? It's a city (an imaginary city)
What is... popopo? It's a kind of cake we eat in Craputskayaya, and it's delicious.
491
Civitas • the City-State social entity mutually bound together in life long allegiance with rights and responsibilities, social order, social body, government of fortified city and territory and armed citizenry, society • Rome, Carthage, Ephesus, Thrace, Sparta, Venice, Genoa, Florence
Civitas [ˈkiːwɪtaːs]
[ "est civitas eis data" - Roman city-state citizenship script to a Roman Soldier in the diploma upon his retirement in recognition of a career of faithful service thereby earning Roman citizenship for himself and his dependents ]
[ res publica ] • [ concilium coetusque hominum jure sociati ]
U.S. Constitution Articles: I Legis • II Exec • III Judic • IV The States
The meaning is the same, but it's not what is said in Latin.
California est civitas americana.
The best logical translation for "civitas americana" is American state.
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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.
It is "ts'" in German and Russian traditions and "ch" in Italian and Catholic Latin
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."
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. :-)
The Latin stalls here. No matter how many times the correct answer is submitted.
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.
