Wednesday, March 5, 2025

08.03.25: Vincent and the winds [1]: video, transcript, translation and notes

Salvē. │ Hello.

Audīsne hunc strepitum horridum? │ Do you hear this dreadful noise?

Est diēs ventōsus, procellōsus. │ It’s a windy, stormy day.

Ventī vehementer flant. │ The winds are blowing strongly (violently).

Quid est ventus? │ What is the wind?

Est unda āeris quae ¦ hūc illūc ¦ movētur. │ It’s a wave of air which ¦ is moved ¦ here and there [literally: to here and to there = older English hither and thither]

Et unde venit? │ And where does it come from?

Orīgō seu prīncipium ¦ mōtuum ¦ ventōrum est sōl. │ But the origin or beginning ¦ of the movements ¦ of the winds is the sun. [seu = sīve = or]

Notes

[i] 4th declension nouns:

mōtus, -ūs [4/m]: movement

strepitus, -ūs [4/m]: noise; din

If you’re new to Latin, this is something you need to look out for. Most nouns ending in -us belong to a huge group called the 2nd declension with their own set of endings. However, the -us ending alone does not tell you that: strepitus and motus look like 2nd declension nouns, but they’re not – they belong to the 4th declension and have a different set of endings.

When a Latin word is given in, for example, a dictionary or a vocabulary list, it will be listed with [i] its nominative singular form and [ii] its genitive singular. It is the genitive singular that tells you the declension the noun belongs to.

Compare:

[1] ventus [nominative singular], ventī [genitive singular], usually abbreviated to ventus, -ī: a second declension noun and it is the genitive that is telling you that

[2] strepitus [nominative singular], strepitūs [genitive singular] > strepitus, -ūs: a fourth declenion noun and, again, it is the genitive giving you that information

https://www.facebook.com/groups/latinforstarters/permalink/470682685543005

[ii] Expressions about the weather in Latin have been done to death! The links to all posts about the weather are here:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/latinforstarters/posts/478446208099986/

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