09.05.24: review; Initium [3]

In āere volant avēs; in marī sunt piscēs. Vidēsne quoque magna illa mōnstra quae in marī natantia lītorī appropinquant? Haec nōmināmus bālaenās, quae dum natant aquam in āera ēiciunt. Nōnnūllī hominēs quoque in marī natāre temptant. Ipsā in terrā multae et pulcherrimae crēscunt arborēs. Quid enim arbore pulchrius esse potest? Nōnne Vergilius poēta dīcit:

Fraxinus in silvīs pulcherrima, pīnus in hortīs,

pōpulus in fluviīs, abiēs in montibus altīs

[Ecloga VII.65-66]

Most beautiful ash tree in the forests, pine tree in the gardens

Poplar by the streams, fir on the high mountains

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Vocabulary

abiēs, abietis [3/f]: fir tree

bālaena, -ae [1/f]: whale

nōminō, nōmināre [1]: name; give a name to

nōnnūllus, -ae, -um: some; several; a few

Notes

[1] the vast majority of 2nd declension nouns in -us are masculine, but a few are feminine including the names of certain trees

frāxinus, -ī [2/f] ash tree

pīnus, -ī [2/f]: pine tree

pōpulus, -ī [2/f]: poplar tree [populus, -ī (2/m) means people]

[2] ipse, ipsa, ipsum: himself, herself, itself; If we say “He’ll do it himself” we’re creating emphasis:

ipsā in terrā │ on the land itself

[3] As you go on in Latin, features will crop up that just need noting:

Vidēsne quoque magna illa mōnstra quae … lītorī appropinquant? │ Do you also see those great monsters which … are approaching the shore?

Sometimes, verbs don’t do what you expect:

appropinquō, appropinquāre [1]: approach, but in Latin that verb takes the dative case i.e. literally they are coming near to the shore.

[4] Small point: the letter /e/ with the two dots above it in the original text - āëre is called a diaeresis; you see it in, for example, French naïf and Noël and is used to indicate that the two vowels are pronounced separately. Therefore, āëre is pronounced a-e-re and not /ai/ as in puellae. It wasn’t used in Classical Latin and, nowadays, it’s rare to find it in textbooks, but some of the older ones e.g. this one from 1916, did sometimes use it.

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The birds are flying in the air; fish are in the sea. Do you also see those great monsters which, swimming in the sea, are approaching the shore? We call these whales, which, while they are swimming, throw water up into the air. Sometimes people also try to swim in the sea. Many very beautiful trees grow on the land itself. For what can be more beautiful than a tree? Does not the poet Virgil say: