back to article That stirring LOHAN motto: Anyone know a native Latin speaker?

We asked for it, and we got: in spades. In response to our call for a stirring motto for the proposed Low Orbit Helium Assisted Navigator (LOHAN) embroidered mission patch, we were buried under suggestions from all corners of Regosphere diaspora. A proposed LOHAN mission patch Indeed, so great was the response that it's …

Page:

  1. Frederic Bloggs

    to the pub

    Like the 'ad astra et ad taverna' but it's clearly in the wrong order and not very latin really. How about "ad tabernam ad astra"?

    1. imanidiot Silver badge

      Re: to the pub

      I think its supposed to be a derivative from the "our Father" prayer. More correct then would be: "Sicut inter sidera et in taberna". Between the stars as (it is) in the pub. It seems incorrect because there is a bit of sentence missing, where the implied "it is" comes from. I don't really know how to fix that without making it a rather lengthy sentence. Plus my latin is a little rusty. I last translated anything about 7 years ago.

      Edit: also, it should be taberna at least. I think Caupona would be better suited in meaning (inn, tavern, canteen. More fitting of the meaning of a pub) but less recognizable by those not learned on the dark arts of Latin.

    2. Pellinor

      Re: to the pub

      "Per taberna ad astra"?

    3. EddieD

      Re: to the pub

      I'd have thought "Ex taberna ad astra" as "From the Pub to the stars"

      I'll ask some of the classical scholars here, but I doubt they'll be too cooperative - very serious bunch the classicists.

      1. DJO Silver badge

        Re: to the pub

        "it's clearly in the wrong order and not very latin really."

        Yeah, sorry about that but I learnt what little latin I do have from the Asterix books which when I think about it might not have been the most accurate source.

        1. Frumious Bandersnatch

          Re: to the pub

          Yeah, sorry about that but I learnt what little latin I do have from the Asterix books which when I think about it might not have been the most accurate source.

          In the same vein, how about "the sky will not fall today". A bit elliptic/tangential (being more Gaul than Roman), but it has a nice rousing feel, even if it's tinged with a sense of potential doom/failure. No idea what it is in Latin.

          On second thoughts: "hic sunt Playmonaut!" (for a mix of Greek/Latin/Plastic)

      2. Irony Deficient

        Re: to the pub

        EddieD, ex (or ab) would only be used with a noun beginning with a vowel; in this example, e taberna (“out of the pub”) or a taberna (“from the pub”) would be preferred.

      3. Irony Deficient

        Re: to the pub

        EddieD, as a follow-up to my previous reply, I did a spot check of one of Cicero’s books. There, he much preferred ex over e for nouns beginning with consonants — I had thought that that was a feature more characteristic of mediæval Latin — and consistently used ab with nouns beginning with an H. (There was one inconsistency: a natura was used thrice, and ab natura was used once.) So, I’ll correct myself by stating that ex taberna should be fine in a motto.

  2. joeldillon

    'ad tabernam' I think - accusative case.

    (Though taberna is more like 'shop' - perhaps ad popinam?)

    1. Frederic Bloggs

      And? :-)

      Doing more research would suggest "cupona"(am) (as I am still quite liking the accusative). But "taberna" is still more universally understood and isn't actually wrong. After all "tavern", "taverna" etc still exist.

    2. Vincent Ballard

      And it would be more idiomatic to use -que than et: ad astra tabernamque.

  3. Pete 2 Silver badge

    Verbiage

    Just about the only feature of Latin I can remember is that almost always, the verb comes at the end of the sentence.

    If the sentence, like Yoda-speak, becomes? Well: too bad, that is.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Someone with a firm grasp of Latin grammar

    Stephen Fry, perchance?

    You could always try asking.

    1. Fink-Nottle

      Re: Someone with a firm grasp of Latin grammar

      Does he go around saying 'hujus, hujus, hujus' as if he were proud of it?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Someone with a firm grasp of Latin grammar

        >Does he go around saying 'hujus, hujus, hujus'

        I've no idea, maybe you should ask Jeeves.

        1. Isendel Steel

          Re: Someone with a firm grasp of Latin grammar

          Would be the same as asking Mr Fry - as he was Jeeves to Laurie's Wooster

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Facepalm

            Re: Someone with a firm grasp of Latin grammar @Isendel Steel

            >Would be the same as asking Mr Fry - as he was Jeeves to Laurie's Wooster

            I despair that someone felt the need to explain that. Maybe you'd care to explain how Fink-Nottle fits in to all this as well.

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Someone with a firm grasp of Latin grammar

          >I've no idea, maybe you should ask Jeeves.

          Or perhaps the Latin master at St. Custards?

        3. Daniel von Asmuth
          Facepalm

          Google translate!

          "What goes up, must come down" ---> "Quod ascendit, deveniatur."

          There are only two native speakers: Pontifices Franciscus et Benedictus XVI.

          1. Marvin the Martian
            Headmaster

            Re: Google translate!

            Native? Their mother tongues were German and Spanish IIRC.

  5. JimmyPage Silver badge
    Headmaster

    Word order ?

    From my recollection, Latin has no word order - you know what each word is doing by it's declension.

    One of the first computer programs I wrote was in 1981, and it decline Latin verbs. (Apple BASIC string handling was cool).

    1. Brian Griffiths
      Headmaster

      Re: Word order ?

      <pedantry>

      Nouns decline, verbs conjugate

      </pedantry>

      I'll go now...

      1. JimmyPage Silver badge

        Re: Word order ?

        Upvoted for your pedantry ... and for reminding me the program declined nouns.

        E pluribus unum ?

        Civile si ergo. Fortibuses in aro. No vile, deus trux. Watis inum ? Caux an dux.

    2. Irony Deficient

      Re: Word order ?

      JimmyPage, because of the inflections, Latin’s word order is far more flexible that that of English, but it’s still quite possible to create Yoda-Latin.

  6. deadlockvictim

    We, who are about to fly, salute thee

    I haven't done Latin for 25 years, so I open to correction on my future participles:

    We, who are about to fly, salute thee!

    Volaturi te salutant

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: We, who are about to fly, salute thee

      Talking of salutes ... how about "ascendo tuum, amicus"?

  7. Phil O'Sophical Silver badge
    Thumb Up

    "XL WD"

    Brilliant.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    It's Lohan, so...

    veni, vidi, concubuit ?

    or should that be Vidi concubuit veni?

  9. Robert E A Harvey

    Hows about

    "ut in ore infinitum" - to the edge of infinity

    1. Uncle Slacky Silver badge

      Re: Hows about

      Wouldn't "to infinity and beyond" be better?

      Google Translate reckons it's "Ut infinitum et ultra", BTW.

  10. Kit-Fox

    Straight from the heart of the playmobil pilot & ref to a mr Pratchett, i think we should go with the following;

    We who are about to die, dont want to

    Morituri Nolumus Mori

  11. John Savard

    Word order?

    The one I understood was "Ad astra et ad tavernem". Yes, it doesn't follow the pattern of "Ad astra per aspera", but that's because it means somethig different (and hence it isn't breaking Latin word order) - "To the stars through hope" versus a more anticlimactic "To the stars, and to the pub".

    It isn't intended to claim that going to the pub makes a material contribution to getting to the stars.

  12. Pellinor

    "Lorem Ipsum dolor sit amet"?

    Or, from the same artist (abridged):

    "ut labore et dolore quaerat voluptatem" ("From labour and pain he seeks pleasure" - I think...)

    1. breakfast Silver badge

      Actually the classic placeholder text would make a funny motto.

  13. Pellinor

    "Quid agit puga agere?"?

    Possibly with an "ipsum" in there, but I think it scans better without.

  14. tony2heads
    Coat

    surely it is all over by now.

    Elvis abiit ad aedificationem

    icon - its a cloak

  15. Kevin Johnston

    and this is why...

    I always regretted not learning Latin. Bad enough that I couldn't understand some of the jokes in the Astrix books but now I can't understand my favourite Tech-site.....

    I would add though that the clip from Life of Brian in the Sub-head was a real obstacle on my German A1 classes when trying to decline verbs

    1. dotdavid

      Re: and this is why...

      Agreed. I would have liked a basic translation next to each :-(

    2. Swarthy
      Pirate

      Re: and this is why...

      "Latin's a dead language

      Dead as dead can be.

      First it killed the Romans

      And now it's killing me."

      1. JimmyPage Silver badge
        Thumb Up

        @Swarthy

        One of the Jennings books (a *real* pedant would know which one) by the peerless Anthony Buckridge.

  16. James 36

    "the romans they go the house ?????

    whats that supposed to mean"

    what about

    those about to fly salute you (I don't know latin)

    1. cordwainer 1

      Hi James 36...

      Since I don't think anyone else has explained, to understand the joke behind "the romans they go the house", you have to be familiar with Monty Python's "Life of Brian" - where the centurian is correcting the Latin grammar of some graffiti.

  17. Thesheep
    Coat

    I'll get my toga virilis...

    Latine loqui potest?

  18. markw:

    Why Latin?

    Why not an English motto.

    Or if you must have a dead language why not one closer to home such as Welsh or Cornish?

    1. deadlockvictim

      Re: Why Latin?

      There are a million of so Welsh speakers, aren't there?

      I'm not sure they'd be happy to have their language classified as dead.

      Maybe you had Manx in mind.

      1. markw:

        Re: Why Latin?

        Welsh is in a persistent vegetative state. As soon as life support is removed it will die out completely.

        I say that because it's true. However I also support all these minority UK languages and am perfectly happy for my tax money to be spent to keep them going.

        I also detest the homogenising effect of the internet and other modern media on regional accents and other regional differences. I also recognise that my detesting it will make no difference whatsoever and in the long term.

      2. Mike Banahan

        Re: dead Manx

        Strangely (or not) Manx is coming back from the dead. There's now a school on the island teaching purely in the medium of Manx, reviving it from numerous books and recordings of the last lot of native speakers prior to their expiring.

        You can argue how 'native' or 'Manx' it is, but this clip is illuminating:

        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uA7hlurc9EQ

        I'd say those kids are about as native speakers as you can get and if they carry on with it, the language is going to expand - there's a fair amount of interest in it on the island.

  19. Neil Barnes Silver badge
    Headmaster

    Veni vidi volarit

    I came, I saw, I flew.

    (I was kicked out of Latin after two weeks in 1972)

  20. Beornfrith

    Why not go for something a bit different instead of falling back on the clichéd use of Latin for these things? What's wrong with the language from that which our speech is derived, Old English?

    How about: "Se heofenas beacnian" (The heavens beckon)

    1. Beornfrith

      I just read this again and noticed I used the wrong word for 'the' in this case. It should read 'Ða heofenas beacnian' (where Ð is pronounced as 'th')

Page:

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon