Translate It!

[atma]

So, I figured since we've got the occasional word of the week posts going, might as well do something else that could get esoteric. Here you can post a short little blurb in a different language and people can try their hand at translating it. So here we go with some artsy-fartsy Latin.

Articulum carpe hunc carmen magnum scribere atque.

[Ainulin]

Hmm.. I know how to SAY it...


The articulate carp hung Carmen many writing antiques.

I know scribere should be write, or writing. Carpe means pick up or gather. Articulum should be to speak or say. Carmen is song. Magnum could be large. Hunc is this or here. And... atque is even or too.
Soo together...

Speak together this song; magnificently write also.

[atma]

I'll spot you a few things since you were brave enough to try:
1. Word order in Latin isn't fixed. Since it's an inflectional language words can pretty much be placed wherever the speaker wants as long as they're inflected correctly, so it doesn't have to be subject-verb-object like it is in English
2. Carpe is the present active imperative of carpo, carpere, carpi, carpus and means basically a command to gather. However poetically the verb can mean seize, hence why "carpe deim" means seize the day.
3. Articulum is the accusative singular form of articulus, which means "a moment (in time)"
4. Atque is a fancy way of saying "and." Strictly speaking there is no difference between atque and et. Atque's just a more fancy and poetic way of saying it.

[Ainulin]

Hmm... well I have no idea. I used google for some words, so I'm not completely suprised that I was wrong.

Guess 2:
Seize the moment and this song will be magnificently written.

[atma]

Not a bad guess, and not too far off the mark.

"Seize this moment and write a great song."

Hunc is the accusative masculine singular form of hic, and as it's a demonstrative adjective it has to agree with the noun it modifies in case, number and gender. Articulum is the only noun it agrees with so it's "this moment." Carmen is the nominative singular form of, well, carmen and magnum is the nominative singular neuter form of magnus-a-um so it can only go with carmen thus "a great song." Scribere is the infinitive form of scribeo, scribere, scripsi, scriptus which simply means "to write" however when used poetically it can substitute the imperative command to write, which would be scribi. Atque serves the purpose of separating the two clauses, showing which verbs go with which clause. Admittedly it should go between the two, but poetics typically puts conjunctions at the end of sentences. Latin's a pain in the backside sometimes.

[bonefletcher]

Latin sucks.

Ich habe dieses Semester in der Fachhochschule Datenbanken, Betriebssysteme, Java und Statistik gelernt.

It's german, good luck.

[atma]

I'll take a stab at it.

"This semester at university I've learned databases, (something I don't have a guess at) systems, java and statistics."

How close am I?

[bonefletcher]

You got it "right". Fachhochschule = University of applied science, but its like the same as regular university and everything else is correct too, just try to figure out 'Betriebssysteme'

[arrazzan]

I am somehow loosing track cuz this sounds too much educationy

[Ainulin]

Company systems

[atma]

I've actually never seen "Betriebssysteme" before. To be honest I'm impressed I got as much as I did, given that I learned German and never actually spoke it for 10 years. So, yeah, yay for remembering things. XD

[bonefletcher]

'Betriebssysteme' = Operating systems.

I actually got a 2 (I guess its B in america) in the test which I would never have expected.

[Ainulin]

Er.. I used google. Again.
I'm not really good with languages. I took Italian for a while, but I only was ever average at it. The language I'm best at is English.

[bonefletcher]

The language I am best with is German obviously, with English as close second and french far away from them at place 3.

[Ainulin]

Here's one. I don't know if it's easy or hard, but it's latin:

Ceteris paribus.



(It might be peribus. I can't read my handwriting. >.<)