A Scholarly Question

[oakenguy]

Folks who are fluent in Latin, could I please get a translation of these phrases?

*Daddy liked elves

*Lick Not the Elf

*Education Is a Shield

('Education is a Shield' translates to "Thuto Ke Thebe" in Malagasy, which is totally kickass. I have a suspicion that a LOT of school mottoes would rock in Malagasy. Plus, lemurs on the athletic fields.* But that's just me.)

All this may or may not be fallout from my new larping team getting together yesterday for twelve hours of brainstorming, garb-making and getting the newbie up to speed, which was totally awesome. All of which took place in an eco-village named Camelot which may or may not be what Skinner's 'Walden Two' would have looked like if 90% of the community had belonged to the SCA, and the remaining 10% were roaming screeching packs of semi-feral children.

All of which may or may not have been even cooler than Saturday, when D and I got to hang out with vozeatscake and her family including her chickens Nancy, Nancy, Nancy, Houdini, Nancy and Bo, exploring some of the neater bits of Providence--giant park! disturbing bouncy-train! very cool Asian restaurant that served both lort (baby egg rolls) and loat (a soup)!

All in all, what an awesome weekend. :)



*Whenever I picture Madagascar I imagine lemurs being as common as pigeons and taking up the same ecological niche. Well, except the whole 'building nests underneath bridges'. That would be silly**.


**That's the capybaras.

Comments

[clionona.livejournal.com]

Lick Not the Elf

BUT LEGOLAS IS SOOOOO YUMMY!!! XD

[redfishie.livejournal.com]

I think that may be the problem- if you start licking him, then everyone else will too - and there will be nothing left. :(

[lemur-catta.livejournal.com]

We're also more discerning about which statues we poop on.

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

What are you trying to convey with the word order in "Lick Not The Elf"?

[tpau]

how manyt licks DOES it take to get to the elf's hard center?

[oakenguy.livejournal.com]

I can't speak for the others (this particular one was suggested while I was out of the room), but if I had to guess I'd say the word order implies a sort of portentiousness. "Lick not the elf, lest doom befall you" as opposed to "Don't lick the elf, you don't know where he's been".

the internet is an awesome and scary place

[redfishie.livejournal.com]

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_would_you_say_elf_in_latin

[redfishie.livejournal.com]

It's similar in cadence to the scottish clan motto of "Touch not the Cat bot gloves" - which basically means don't touch the cat when its claws are showing or when they're riled up as its a bad idea.

[palusbuteo.livejournal.com]

Aegis tutela provido (cum) nuntis ("(A) shield (of) protective power provided (with) intelligence")

eruditus providi protego ("education provides protection")

Ad scutum protegens nuntius est ("(the/my) scutum (shield) (is the) educated protection")

- says the non-Latin scholar who plays a Roman soldier. :P

Re: the internet is an awesome and scary place

[redfishie.livejournal.com]

The latin verb for "touch" is tangere. Its conjugation is

tangō, tangere, tetigī, tāctus (to touch, to hit)

per http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_conjugation

Now Latin words are conjugated in families. The Latin work for lick is linguere, I'm not sure its in the same family, but it could be.

Oh and
noli-me-tangere is a warning against interfering or against touching a person or thing

So maybe something like

noli-nympha-linguere or noli-dryas-linguere ?

But I'm not a Latin scholar.

[ayelle.livejournal.com]

That's my husband's clan motto!