M&F Unit 1 Pg35 #19

[mariek]

<br />I haven't made much progress with Latin these last two weeks so I only have one small question. I couldn't work out #19 on Pg35 of M&F. The second part of the sentence boggles me with it's use of the DAT or ABL. After much revision, this is what I've come up with:<br /><br />Feminae est forma, fama nautae; feminis est forma, fama nautis.<br /><br />Beauty is women, report/opinion of the sailors; beauty is to the women, report from the sailors.<br />

[bingley]

I think this is the same sentence but with singular and plural datives: <br /><br />Beauty is for a woman, fame for a sailor; beauty is for women, fame for sailors.

[mingshey]

I'm no good at latin, but from a pure guesswork on the words methinks it's something like:<br /><br />Beauty is to a woman (what) fame is to a sailor; beauty of women(of other country?) is rumor from the sailors.<br /><br />I must be conjecturing too far...<br /><br />P.S.<br />eh, ... please refute me. ;D

[mariek]

<br />I think this is the same sentence but with singular and plural datives: <br /><br />Beauty is for a woman, fame for a sailor; beauty is for women, fame for sailors.<br />

<br /><br />Thanks, Bingley. So feminae and nautae are Dative! I never considered that possibility. What an odd sentence to have to translate. It's definitely the curve ball out of that set. <br />

[Elucubrator]

<br /><br />Feminae est forma, fama nautae; feminis est forma, fama nautis.<br /><br /><br />

<br /><br />Remember that in Latin, est can also mean "there is", hence:<br /><br />For the woman there is beauty, for the sailor fame; for the women there is beauty, for the sailors fame. <br /><br />This is really no different from "the woman has beauty, the sailor fame; the women have beauty, the sailors fame."<br /><br />MF will explain this in Unit 5, on page 88. Look up "dative of the possessor."<br /><br />Better English would say, "the women are beautiful, the sailors famous." <br /><br />An odd sentence, which at face value seems retarded, but perhaps it is an advertisement for some ancient trash romance novel? Perhaps a collection of stories in which (in)famous sailors carry off beautiful women. A commonplace in the ancient world. LOL ;D <br /><br /><br />-S.

[mariek]

<br />MF will explain this in Unit 5, on page 88. Look up "dative of the possessor."

<br /><br />Ah... pg 88. I see! This makes me wonder why they decided to throw in this more advanced sentence early on in Unit 1. It still seems like a very strange sentence. The second part is rather redundant.<br /><br />