On writing reports and logs

[Gaius Curtius Philo]

So maybe a solution would be to either put the genitive or an adjactive of a person's province maybe? So maybe Egypt, TX could be rendered (just for the sake of an example I can think of, though I think anyone would UNDERSTAND the person is not talking about actual Egypt) Ægyptus Texiensis?

And what about places that are names of people or surnames of people? Would Wallis, TX be Vallis simply? Would Brainerd, MN be simply Brainertium?

[Lucia Horatia Adamas]

L. Horatia Adamas L. Curtio Philoni fautoribus linguae Latinae omnibus S.P.D.

The Americas do not have any shortage of places with surnames of their founders; buildings with 'Trump' on them are not in short supply, but as far as I am aware, he has yet to found a city (give it time…). We also have many places whose names are derived from Native American ones. Dealing with the Latinization of these is something of a hot topic, but my praeceptor recommended leaving these alone and treating them as indeclinable unless the personal name ones can be easily Latinized. That and many other elements of nomenclature and Latinization are dealt with in the Sermo Latinus courses, which so far as I am aware are still taught at the Schola Latina Universalis, although several other courses they used to offer are no longer available there; I expect to teach one of those in the Fall in a different venue. Those who already are quite competent in Latin (Seneca, Lupus, et al.) really should look into taking these spoken-Latin courses, or at the very least obtaining the text. The French / Latin version, Le Latin sans Peine, by Clément Desessard, reportedly is available online, as are the sound files which accompany it. Otherwise it and the Italian / Latin and German / Latin versions can be purchased from the publisher, Assimil, or from Amazon, and there is a new French / Latin version simply called 'Le Latin,' but one must beware of another text by the same name and publisher with a different author, one who is utterly incompetent. None of the above is cheap…the recent French one (with CDs and MP3) was about $125). However, they are very, very good.

For differentiation, yes, adding an adjective or defining genitive should work.

Vale, et valete!

[Gaius Curtius Philo]

Salve Augustissima Grammatica amica,

How does one deal with non-declinable nouns? How does one tell what position they take grammatically in a phrase without declension?

Vale bene,
Philo

[Lucia Horatia Adamas]

L. Horatia Adamas C. Curtio Philoni laudatori omnibusque fautoribus linguae Latinae S.P.D.

There are existing nouns in Latin which are indeclinable, such as 'necesse,' and fourth declension neuters, all four of them (cornu, genu, pecu, veru) have the same ending in four of the five normal cases of the singular; only the genitive differs. The Romans seem to have managed, although generally the tail wags the dog in Latin, and indicates a word's function in a sentence.

Vale, amice, et valete! Cenatum eo.

[Gaius Curtius Philo]

[Lucia Horatia Adamas]

L. Horatia Adamas C. Curtio Philoni amico laudatorio omnibusque S.P.D.

Essentially, yes, but 'Lacus' is in the fourth declension, and has an anomalous dative and ablative plural: lacubus. Thus the nominative (and accusative) plural is 'lacús,' with a long u, and the genitive singular is also 'lacús.' 'Of Lake Pequot' therefore is 'Lacús Pequot,' 'to / for Lake Pequot' is 'Lacui Pequot,' etc. 'Lakes Pequot' would be 'Lacús Pequot.' Are they plural? In any case, there is no form 'laci' for this word…the closest is the dative singular, 'lacui.'

Yes, the context should help with the identification, but (trust me) it is not perfect, especially not in Latin poetry, where words meant to be taken together can be several lines apart.

Cura(te) ut valea(ti)s!

[Gaius Curtius Philo]

Salve Horatia!

I see! So Lacus follows a similar pattern to Magistratus and Senatus. The name of the place is Pequot Lakes in the plural. So if I lived there and were to date something for today it would then be:

Datum Lacuum Pequot a.d. X Kal. Iun. L. Curtio L. Aurelio cos.

Correct?

And is there any way for me to write the week day in this dating format in an abreviated fashion? I have, ad hoc, been using celestial symbols for the days of the week just as a shorthand for personal use. So ♀ for Friday, ☿ for Wednesday, ♄ for Saturday etc, using the astronomical symbols of the planets associated with the week days. Although this shorthand has been useful for my uses, I am curious to know if there is a more TRADITIONAL form of rendering the days of the week in a date. Would you know of any?

Vale bene,
Philo

[Lucia Horatia Adamas]

L. Horatia Adamas C. Curtio Philoni omnibusque S.P.D.

Yes, 'lacus' is in the small fourth declension, along with a number of words used in Roman government, including 'senatus' and 'magistratus,' along with 'census' and several others.

Methinks 'Lacubus Pequot' would be better, though neither of my grammars gives a locative for any fourth declension word other than 'domus.'

Hmmm…how did you get those astronomical symbols into this forum system? It happens that there are nice Latin names for the days of the week (understand 'dies' with the following): Lunae, Martis, Mercuri, Jovis, Veneris, Saturni, Solis (or Dominica). Except for the adjective 'Dominica,' these are genitives, so 'on Monday' is 'Lunae die.' I don't find any example of combining the day of the week and the numerical date, but 'in May' would be 'mense Majo.' The construction would be the same with the other months. Lessons 32 and 33 in the text I recommended earlier, now called 'Le Latin,' but still by Clément Desessard (not the other author of a text with the same title, I. Ducos-Filippi), provide this and additional information on this topic. I encourage all those who are interested in learning the Latin for modern concepts to consider the Sermo Latinus courses, which are free except for the cost of the text and quality time spent learning.

Someday I might get to answer some posts in the Collegium Philosophicum…and finish writing a final exam.

Valeas, valeatis!

[Gaius Curtius Philo]

Salve Horatia!

I googled the symbols, copied them and then pasted them here. And I was looking it up and found this:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominical_letter

Seems like a good solution. So since the first Sunday of the year started on January 1st this is an A year. Thus all AA are Sundays. With that in mind, today would then be:

Datum Litoris Magni a.d. IX Kal. Iun. L. Curtio L. Aurelio cos. D (D meaning Wednesday)

[Lucia Horatia Adamas]

L. Horatia Adamas C. Curtio Philoni omnibusque S.P.D.

It's not necessary to add the nundinal letter (A for this year, which is deemed inauspicious). So far as I am aware, these are noted on calendars, but not when someone writes a document / letter. Letters are not otherwise assigned to the days of the week; the Romans did not have names for the days of the week; they just counted them from the three fixed dates of every month.

Litore…the locative of third declension nouns is the same as the ablative. However, when modified by an adjective, such as 'magnus,' the locative is not used. There does not seem to be any separate locative for adjectives, and only a few groups of nouns have them. Here the simple ablative, or ablative with 'in,' seems to be the correct choice. Nouns in apposition with locatives are put into the ablative...

Vale, et valete!