Pursuit of Happiness within Knowledge

I attend Brock University and these are the things I learn.

[studentlifenetwork]

Canada’s Luckiest Student 3 has officially launched. Since it’s the third time around, we’re starting with three awesome prizes that will have one Canadian student thanking their lucky stars.  Check them out: http://canadasluckieststudent.com . Prizes are coming fast and furious, so keep an eye on your inbox. As always, it’s the prize that just keeps getting better.

[latinartstudent]

Its that time, its the season of EXAAAAAAAMS

Why do I use really bad 70/80's song lyrics as titles for things xP

Any houzzle...

Exam season is upon us here at Brock University. Next month is officially the end of the Winter term. DUNDUNDUN. My latin Exam is in 4 weeks. Yikes. So as I create my review charts and queue cards, as well as fun translation exercises my friends and I will come up with... I'll be sharing them for those that wish to see Latin handiwork at a glance. By posting them online, it makes me review them just that little bit more, and maybe they'll stick this time! (I have terrible memorizing abilities- it's almost painful. My agenda looks like a Filofax)  Who knows, maybe ya'll (2nd person plural) will learn something. ;)

[latinartstudent]

Here's your sign...

I really hope someone gets the joke reference in the title. Redneck comedy tour anyone? Anyone? Bueller? (oops, there I go again. Pop. Culture references!)

I have rambled on a few blogs a few times about people not having languages translated properly on tattoos they get. C'mon! There's a big difference between having the kanji for 'brave' on your hip and 'soup'. I managed to find a few great gems within the Latin realm that display people's lack of understanding of languages. Syntax people. Syntax.

Let's use this one as an example.

Contemno victus, diligo silenti etc. is what seems to be on the inside of this guy's arms.  It is supposed to read 'I hate the living; I love the dead and the rest.'  Not even close.  It actually reads, "I, having been conquered, despise; I love for the silent and the rest."

Victus is not 'the living' (that would be vivus) and as the direct object (accusative) it would be vivos.

silenti can mean 'the dead' but it needs to be plural to mean 'the dead' and accusative (direct object again) which would be silentes.

A good Latin version would have been something like: Vivos contemno, silentes (or mortuos) diligo.

Tada. I'll be here all week ;)

[latinartstudent]

Sci-Fi goodies!!!

For those that love the SCI-Fi realm of the fantastical… Here’s something our Prof impressed the hell outta us with. These took me probably close to an hour to get right, well... I hope their right lol!

“Beam me up, Scotty!”= ”Me transmitte sursum, Scotty!”

“Diu Vivas Floreas”= live long and prosper

[latinartstudent]

Movie Quotes translated.

Some movies quotes I feel would be better if they were in Latin. Why? Because I'm a Studio Art major who loves Latin. That's right. BOTH SIDES OF MA BRAIN! (It's a Brock joke. Sorry Non-Brock University kids)

All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost;  “Omne, quod est aurum, non fulget, Non omnes vagantes aberrant” J.R.R Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.

“Non decet somnia cogitare et oblivisci vitae.”

-J.K Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

There’s no place like home.

“Nullus est locus simlis domui.”

- The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,  L. Frank Baum

In my favorite 'horror' film of 2012, Cabin in the Woods (to me it's more of a gory comedy...) there's a line that had me almost in stitches, in particular after I began my Latin classes. It goes like this...

>“Wait, there’s something in the Latin...”

>"Okay, I'm drawing a line in the fucking sand here. Do not read the Latin."

I don't need to translate this  for you folks. Latin is the harbinger of doom every time. When in a spooky place do yourselves a favor. Don't read the Latin. At least, don't do it out loud, lest you resurrect a Army of Darkness.

Leave that for the pros folks.

[latinartstudent]

Smart people use Latin, folks.

STAR WARS. LATIN. THERE'S A CORRELATION!

Yoda, the greatest Jedi that ever lived and smartest thing alove. Uses Latin syntax/ word order when speaking, something you will never see in any movie ever.  Star wars is great example of Joseph Campbell's 'Heroes' Journey'. In here, Yoda plays the part of the guru. The guru architype of Star Wars and therefore all of Geekdom... Uses Latin word order.

Angry about it I may once have been

Quickly escape we must. Must is the participle, utilizing the main verb.

There is an article here that also covers this. Here's a quote from it:

"Yoda's syntax: you could see him as using SVO (or SVX) but favoring, almost to excess, certain special constructions that English allows only as stylistic variations in special discourse contexts. In English you can take not only an adjunct but also a predicative complement or a nonfinite catenative complement and prepose them (pop them at the front of the clause) for a special effect."

As well if you take a look at Tolkien's LOTR series. Elrond, the eldest of elves speaks in an archaic syntax and uses vocabulary derived from Latin. The hobbits use a more 'common' or 'modern' English and don't use a very academic sentence structure. The Wizard is the buffer between ancients and the modern commoners. He speaks with more clauses and periphrastic sentences than the others and especially when in the presence of the elven races or wizards.

TAKE THAT GEEKS! 

Latin superior language it is.

[latinartstudent]

5 posts!

All about Latin. It's been 6 weeks. Hopefully I can have 2 a week for the next few months.

[latinartstudent]

How Latin can be poetic...

There's two forms of English people, the English we read and write and speak and the one we translate with. When you translate something into English, without the English grammar or syntax you sometimes get illogical sentences. Not with Latin :) Latin uses words in a different order. The verb is last in the sentence and you have to figure out the person, place, thing, adjectives, adverbs and clauses all before you know what's actually being done hahaha... I'll try to explain, so try to follow kids.

Here's the sentence we are going to  translate :

HE HIMSELF WAS OVERPOWERED BY UNCERTAIN FEAR BECAUSE HE DESIRED NEITHER TRUTH NOR LIBERTY.

The sentence in correct (with syntax) Latin is thus:

IS SUI A INCERTO METU OPRIMEBAT QUOD NEQUE VERTATEM NEQUE LIBERTATEM DESIDERVAI

now. Here's where I find the poetry and most people look at me like I'm an absolute wacko grammar weenie.....

The sentence in Latin is in a different WORD ORDER than the original English sentence, it's now in what i call Latinglish. Which is what happens when you translate Latin to English using the Latin word order. Isn't that fascinating!!!! 

So, when taking this original sentence into proper Latin then back to English maintaining he Latin syntax to the English words... Here's something that sounds lovely.

HE HIMSELF, BY UNCERTAIN FEAR, WAS OVERPOWERED BECAUSE NEITHER TRUTH NOR LIBERTY HE DESIRED.

 compare it to the original English.... HE HIMSELF WAS OVERPOWERED BY UNCERTAIN FEAR BECAUSE HE DESIRED NEITHER TRUTH NOR LIBERTY.

Latin makes things poetic when you translate it back to our tongue..

[latinartstudent]

Latin within Popular Culture

Old graves also contain a lot of latin. Especially if it’s the grave of someone from very religious backgrounds. We see things like ” In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti” which means ‘in the name of the father, the son and the holy spirit.’

In one...

[latinartstudent]

Dead Language?!

As I may have mentioned before, I'm In a LATIN class at my University. This excites me.

My teacher is the bomb diggity. She references Doctor Who and turns pigs into pirates. It's rather, VERY, awesome.  Earlier this week we went over about 36 different ways to explain someone being deleted. It was attack of the Cybermen! (I actually titled that day's notes as attack of the Cybermen. You should see the looks my spouse gives me.)

Now, cool thing about the word DELEO (delere, delevi, delectum) besides the fact that it's a 3rd conjugation verb... IS that It means destroy, delete and annihilate. So when were going over the numerous ways to say you are being deleted,  I am deleting, they will be deleted and such.... You can translate the words so it fits both Daleks and Cybermen! Delete or exterminate!

You may think I'm 'geeking' out... But the clever people enjoy my use of ancient knowledge, haha! If Doctor Who isn't your cuppa pop. culture... Try this on for size, folks!

In the movie Cabin in the Woods, a very popular film by Joss Whedon,  Latin is the harbinger of death.  The main character, Dana, reads a latin verse that brings forth their doom from the diary of the previous Cabin-dwellers haunting spirits... "Dolor supervivo caro. Dolor sublimus caro. Dolor ignio animus." It means: Pain outlives the flesh. Pain raises the flesh. Pain ignites the spirit.

Because there's a difference between "Zombies." and  "Zombie Redneck Torture Family." Entirely separate thing. It's like the difference between an elephant and an elephant seal.  *nods*

Another film that uses Latin as the doom-bringer in similarity to that of the classic horror movie Event Horizon with Lawrence Fishburne. Seriously great Sci-fi thriller flic. The medical professional,  D.J., is a little rusty on his Latin. In translating the recording with all the screaming on it, he says "liberate me" is "save me", which is correct. However.... *geek alert* Later, he corrects himself by saying the recording was actually "liberate tutte me" or "save yourself", which is incorrect.  "Tutta/Tutte" means "lots of", or "all of". "Save yourself" would be "salvum te" (save yourselves)  or "Libera te" ( save yourself/ free yourself).

"liberate tutte me" would be along the lines of 'save lots.many of me'- which would be inconsistent with the rest of the translation. Which  is supposed to be save yourselves from hell. "liberate tute me ex inferis"  a grammatically exact translation of "save yourself from Hell"

I will admit, hearing the latin hissed in whisper over the comm. system they had while the eerie music is playing, it was chilling. Knowing what the Latin meant was even cooler than the movie. I seriously geeked out and had a momentary lapse and whispered the continuity error of the latin. Yup... I was 'that guy' the one who should be expelled to a special hell. *I have a special hell in my mind reserved for people who ruin the magic of movies for others* It doesn't come over night though.The most challenging part of Latin is memorization. You have to be able to on the fly in your head recognize the type of word and the suffix it's given then be able to recall what all the pieces mean. My professor mentioned she had a student who used to record her voice repeating the Latin suffixes and indentifyers over audio and play it back to herself so she was able to grind in her brain the latin memorization work. I have a feeling I will be creating audio files and syncing them to my ipod and music folder of my cellphone.

We have a test on Tuesday... Let's see how I do. I did really well on last week's homework but bombed last week's test. This week's homework was kinda crappy too. I just got too confused and forgot to break everything down before you start translating it.  There's a very particular method to translating latin... Maybe I'll go over that in another entry when I feel more confident about it :)

[latinartstudent]

It's that Bat-time folks!

Latin within Popular Culture

Old graves also contain a lot of latin. Especially if it's the grave of someone from very religious backgrounds. We see things like " In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti" which means 'in the name of the father, the son and the holy spirit.'

In one of my favorite T.V shows Castle the female lead visits her mother's grave and the words "vincit omnia veritas" carved. This means truth conquers all. It reflects on the fact that the mother's murder was unsolved and the daughter (female lead of the show) has spent her life and risked her law enforcer career to find the truth that will solve her murder and conquer the evil doers that got away with it.

"In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti" is also spoken in the movie Boondock Saints. It's their famous kill phrase.The 'saints' also each have tattoos on their hand of the words veritas (truth) and aequitas (justice) on their trigger fingers. Their work is seen (to themselves) as the true work of divine justice. Those who sin must perish in holy fire. Amen.

Another movie that uses Latin would be the marvelous classic featuring Robin Williams. Dead Poet’s Society, where the classical prep school hell is revealed. The famous words ‘carpe diem’ were recited and used, and now, in popular culture… On every wrist, lower back and bicep as a tattoo that lost it’s true integrity. Now this is seen as popular to the ‘you only live once’ fad that took over what would have been perfectly mold-able minds. Now the archaic, intelligent and classical knowledge is represented without magnitude. Carpe Diem was used to communicate to the class that they had to stop worrying about what their parents thought of their future... Don’t give an answer you know the teacher will like- give an answer that uses your own thoughts and opinions. It’s not a crime to have one of your own. In fact, by using your own opinions, seeking validation to your arguments and pursuing who you are not who they want you to be- you are creating a more morally grounded, happier and truer person. You are the only one who can decide who you are, only you can act upon your choices. Seize the day- be yourself, seek knowledge that fascinates you, arm yourself with well-researched opinions, thought out decisions and split decisions alike. Use what you have and who you are to create the most unique, original and successful person that you want to and can be.

This phrase is now lost on ‘YOLO’ backsides and men with veil attempts to ‘seem smart’ with a tattoo that is polar opposite to what they are wearing it for.

Do yourself a favor, bro, don’t tattoo a language you don’t study and fully understand. Stick to your native tongue. Actually, it’s smarter to do that than look like a poser with a language you don’t know how to read tattooed forever on your ‘sweet pipes’... It ain’t that cute.  It’s embarrassing for those that actual study it.

It’s like getting a Kanji for ‘courage’ but when you travel to Japan you realize you had no idea that, without context, the symbol actually means ‘soup’. I just point and laugh. I might be a ‘nerd’ but I know what I’m talking about.

[latinartstudent]

The pursuit of dead languages an how cool it can be!

At Brock University we are all about both sides of the brain. Mixing fun with knowledge!!! Mmmm, tasty tasty knowledge.

Now University is a place of classic academia and what I call ‘old school’ knowledge, the stuff that most people don’t realize is still available. Something that you see in movies from long long ago. Like a nun walking a line of boys while they repeat the pluperfect tenses of pronouns… or the chantings of monks that smack their heads with boards…. That stuff that makes the ‘brainiacs’ so damn impressive…

When I graduate I want this. I want something no one would think to have, something archaic and powerful that will give me a secret smile when I walk through museums or browse classic literature.

To me, it’s LATIN.

 Yes, the dead language that started it all. Hold in your snickers and giggles folks. This stuff is heavy.

Did you know that over 60 percent of the common languages use latin as its origin, this is called etymology. Check it out for!

The word AMICUS in latin is the basis for the following:

Italian: amico Spanish: amigo French: ami Portuguese: amigo

a derivative of the latin work AMICUS is the english word amicable! To be friendly or pleasant.

I’ve been studying this since September and it’s marvellous how many words we use that were actually the translation to a latin word. It has improved my understanding of English and French. Which are the languages spoken in my family.

But be warned, the study of latin is not for the faint of heart. I have pulled my hair and panicked over this stuff, studying for days then just brain farting at tests. Every word in Latin has many forms and each form must be written and translated as its own. I can get really mess an complicated.  So complicated that I decided to write a blog. Well, my prof (the awesome and cool lady she is) suggested it. Being able to find current applications for latin and the exploration of it in popular culture will aid in the understanding and practical use of the language.

Over the next while I will be finding Latin in weird places an sharing it with you, my handful of viewers! Everything from popular culture, ancient findings that can be translated, common day items that contain latin roots or words.

Seriously, it’s cool stuff and challenging as hell. I hope as I share what I’ve learned you will gain an appreciation for this stuff an realize that Academia isn’t always about getting a degree and getting a job, it’s about expanding your mind, creating neurological pathways in your brain as you connect dots you never knew existed. Seriously. It’s awesome. You’ll FEEL your brain grow. 

also- my ‘d’, ‘c’ and ‘t’ keys are malfunctioning on this keyboard…. So please bare with me.