Army motto - please help

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Linda
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Army motto - please help

Post by Linda »

What does this mean

Professionalis omnum anteires

and is it grammatically correct?

thnx

Linda
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Post by Linda »

No one knows what it means? My friend is working as a border control solider between russia and norway, and that is the motto of his unit, but no one seems to know what it means.

Alright, so here are my toughts...

professionalis - the is ending should make it either ablative or dative, so with/by/to/from the proffesionals ?
omnum - meaning all, could be masculine accusative or neuter accusative or nominative
anteires - to excel? from anteeo -ire -ii maybe?

So by (means of) the proffesionals everyone/all excels?

IS that what it means?

thanks

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benissimus
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Post by benissimus »

professionalis would be a third declension adjective, most likely nominative singular (could also be genitive singular or even accusative plural). omnum, perhaps for omnium, genitive plural. anteires can only be imperfect subjunctive 2nd person active singular.

I'm not sure what it is supposed to mean and it is sort of odd (i.e. not classical), which is probably why no one responded until now. Assuming it has been related to you correctly and typed accurately, it literally says "professional of all you would surpass". Perhaps the intent is to say "as an expert of all things, you would excel".
flebile nescio quid queritur lyra, flebile lingua murmurat exanimis, respondent flebile ripae

whiteoctave
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Post by whiteoctave »

your last suggestion, B, is certainly right. anteires as jussive subj., professionalis as proleptic adj. and omnium (n.pl.) as defining genititive of it.

~D

cweb255
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Post by cweb255 »

The jussive can often be translated as "shall." So, "As a professional of all, you shall overcome."

Chris

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Post by adz000 »

I'm confused about the tense of anteires.

Woodcock's New Latin Syntax #110:
The imperfect tense of the jussive subjunctive expresses what was to be done, or what ought to have been done, in the past. Firstly it expresses what was the speaker's will in the past, and implies that his orders have not been obeyed. For instance, if I order someone to do something, and find out that he has not done it, I say to him later: hoc faceres, 'You were to do this (but you did not)'. But I might use the same words to him, if he had been ordered by someone else, and not by me. The imperfect subjunctive then expresses, not the speaker's will, but his opinion as to what was the past duty or obligation of the subject and hoc faceres means the same as hoc facere debebas.
The implication for the unit surely isn't that they should have been professional, but are not. Also the omnium, if this is what is intended, tacked on to professionalis sounds lame. In a motto like this where brevity is key you would want the expression to be tighter, like omnibus anteires or omnia anteires or omnes anteires or even omnIs anteires. I think the writer probably had in mind omne and wrote omnum by false analogy.

Benissimus has got to be right in suggesting that this is non-classical, and I'd go one step further and suggest that it's probably not grammatical either. Of course it's odd then that the writer would have come up with an imperfect subjunctive of an irregular verb, but he/she could have had his/her eye on other sayings while composing this. If I were forced to parse the subjunctive, my best guess is that it's the subjunctive of the ideal 2nd person singular ("one would surpass...") that has been made imperfect for an extra touch of politesse.

Linda, do you think you could double check that you have the quotation exactly as it is written?

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benissimus
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Post by benissimus »

cweb255 wrote:The jussive can often be translated as "shall." So, "As a professional of all, you shall overcome."

Chris
I agree that the present jussive could be translated so, but I doubt in the imperfect. Perhaps the usage in this motto was influenced by the perfect subjunctive used in commands. I still think it is odd and perhaps wrong or mistranscribed, hence my very conservative and not entirely smooth use of "would".
flebile nescio quid queritur lyra, flebile lingua murmurat exanimis, respondent flebile ripae

Linda
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Post by Linda »

adz000 wrote:
Linda, do you think you could double check that you have the quotation exactly as it is written?
yes, I gave you the exact motto (this is from the Norwegian military btw, so what do they know)

cweb255
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Post by cweb255 »

Ah, benissimus, didn't catch that imperfect at first. You're right, though it's just an awkward phrase.

Ioannes
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Post by Ioannes »

I believe the army motto is "Profesionalis Anteires Omnes", Linda.
Hope that helped.

http://www.mil.no/haren/gsv/start/kompa ... /skogfoss/

Ioannes

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