11.05.24: Iōsēphus et Titus servī sunt; notes on the video [1]

This video shows some of the absolute basics of the language that were covered a long time back in the group; as always, you can scroll back or go to the other site. The video itself also has explanations at the end.

In a dialogue that lasts just under two minutes, there is a lot of very useful information and so, I’ll summarise the key points to take from it in two posts:

[1] Nouns of the 1st and 2nd declension

ancilla, -ae [1/f]: maidservant

domina, -ae [1/f]: mistress

familia, -ae [1/f]: family

fīlia, -ae [1/f]: daughter

__________

dominus, -ī [2/m] master

fīlius, -ī [2/m]: son

numerus, -ī [2/m]: number

servus, -ī [2/m]: slave

līberī, -ōrum [2/m/pl]: children

[2] Verb

sum, esse: be

[3] 1st / 2nd declension adjectives and possessive adjectives:

cēterus, -a, -um: the rest

magnus, -a, -um: large; great

parvus, -a, -um: small

multus, -a, -um: much (pl. many)

paucus, -a, -um: few

meus, mea, meum: my

tuus, tua, tuum: your

[4] Case usage

[i] Nominative

Dominus meus est Iūlius. │ Julius is my master.

Aaemīlia domina mea est. │Aemilia is my mistress.

Vīgintī nōn est parvus numerus. │ Twenty isn’t a small number.

And the two speakers deliberately express them in different ways to show the flexibility of the word order.

singular > plural

servus

> multī servī │ many slaves

> cēterī servī │the other slaves

> quot servī? │how many slaves?

ūnus fīlius > duo fīliī: two sons

paucī līberī: few children

ancilla > decem ancillae: ten maidservants

Quot servī et quot ancillae* …? │ How many slaves and how many maidservants …?

decem servī decemque ancillae* │ten slaves and ten maidservants

*They make a small pronunciation error here:

Latin, like English, has stressed syllables e.g. háppy, ínteresting, impórtant, begín; the last one – be-GIN has a stress on the final syllable. In Latin, however, a word is not stressed on the final syllable e.g.

valē /ˈu̯a.leː/

servus /ˈser.u̯us/

ancillae /anˈkil.lae̯/

quoque /ˈkʷo.kʷe/

duo /ˈdu.o/

[ii] Genitive

Iūlius > familia ¦ Iūliī [literally: the family ¦ of Julius]: Julius’ family

dominus meus > familia ¦ dominī meī [literally: the family ¦ of my master]: my master’s family

līberī > numerus ¦ līberōrum │ the number ¦ of children

servus > numerus ¦ servōrum │ the number ¦ of slaves

[iii] Ablative

familia tua > Quot servī sunt ¦ in familiā tuā? │ How many slaves are ¦ in your family?

And here are both cases working together in two of the questions.

Quot sunt līberī ¦ in familiā ¦ Cornēliī? │ How many children are ¦ in the family ¦ of Cornelius?

Quot servī et quot ancillae sunt ¦ in familiā ¦ dominī tuī? │ How many slaves and how many maidservants are ¦ in the family ¦ of your master?

[iii] Vocative: his name is Titus but when Iosephus addresses him directly -us > -e

Valē, Tite │ Goodbye, Titus.