Language desk
< November 21	<< Oct \| November \| Dec >>	November 23 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Language Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

November 22[edit]

Latin word[edit]

What is the Latin word for: men, women, people? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 172.163.0.92 (talk) 12:59, 22 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

For men and women (human beings) you can use homines, which is the nominitive (and vocative and accusative) plural of homo. Xn4 13:29, 22 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

There is more on that: vir is man, giving viri (= "men", nominative plural) and viros (= "men", accusative plural). For women there is femina, with nom. pl. feminae, acc. pl. feminas, as well as mulier, with nom. pl. and acc. pl. mulieres. I've checked that in my dictionary, but I'm basically a beginner in Latin. Nominative means it is the subject of the sentence; accusative case is used for the direct object. For indirect objects you usually use the dative case, but there is also the ablative. I'm curious about why you are asking. Is this for a speech where you want to try a more interesting variant on "ladies and gentlemen"? That might come out as "feminae atque viri," but I've no idea what the Romans themselves would have said. That might be an interesting digression for someone else. 203.221.127.189 (talk) 14:24, 22 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not sure if you're looking for a single word? If so, apart from homines there's also populus (as in Senatus Populusque Romanus), which means 'people' in the sense of nation or populace. Xn4 14:35, 22 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

What if it might be used in a sentence:

I am gathering information about certain ancient Roman and Greek men.

I am gathering information about certain ancient Roman and Greek women .

I am gathering information about certain ancient Roman and Greek people.

How would that be written in Latin? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 172.132.46.102 (talk) 15:38, 22 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Indicia lego de quibusdam viris/milieribus/hominibus Romanis et Graecis priscis.

In this context, if you mean "people" (= "several persons"), you can omit the word hominibus, because it would be implied by default. Disclaimer: I'm not a native Latin speaker. --Lambiam 18:35, 22 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Technically, no one is a native speaker of Latin, since the Roman Empire isn't around any more. bibliomaniac 1 5 00:45, 23 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

It's possible. Imagine Atticus Pierrepoint and his wife Marjory, both Professors of Latin, who love the language so much that they speak exclusively Latin at home, and their children know no other language until they go to school. Technically, they would be native Latin speakers. It's a stretch, I know .... -- JackofOz (talk) 00:57, 23 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

A stretch, but it also sounds suspiciously like a thought experiment. And since thought experiments by their very nature are hypothetical (impracticable etc.), does not this prove that "no one is a native speaker of Latin"? Bessel Dekker (talk) 03:15, 23 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Some children of Esperantists have allegedly been raised this way to speak Esperanto as their first language at home -- but usually when the mother and father have different native languages. Also Eliezer Ben-Yehuda raising Itamar Ben-Avi to speak Hebrew at home played a role in reviving the Hebrew language in modern times. And there are small number of people who consistently claim to be native speakers of Sanskrit on language censuses in India... AnonMoos (talk) 11:09, 23 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Oh, so that's what it's called. Fair cop. I was just keeping my mind open to the possibility of the impossible. Mind you, lots of "impracticable" hypothetical scenarios have turned to happen, so you never know ... :) -- JackofOz (talk) 04:07, 23 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Very true, and when saying "impracticable" I referred to the experiment, not the practice itself. (There was this anthropologist who, when they had just had their first baby, suggested to his wife raising her [the child] together with a monkey, "to see what would happen". The mother's reaction rendered the experiment rather impracticable.)

It is also absolutely true that "no one is a native speaker of Latin" is different from "no one could be a native speaker of Latin". (A lot seems to depend upon our mothers.) Bessel Dekker (talk) 04:23, 23 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Tell that to all these people: Category:User la-N —Keenan Pepper 16:03, 24 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Who knows, maybe someday the Roman Catholic Church will abolish the requirement that its clergy be celibate, and then there will be children growing up in the Vatican City speaking Latin as their native language! 12:02, 23 November 2007 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.145.19.66 (talk)

Thanksgiving[edit]

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone on the Language Reference Desk. Omidinist (talk) 14:53, 22 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]