you're welcome

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tadwelessar
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you're welcome

Post by tadwelessar »

Does anyone know how to say "you're welcome" in Latin?
Of course in the sense of
A:"Thanks"
B:"You're Welcome"

The odds are that form isn't in any text we have however. :cry:
We can try to invent a form based on modern romance languages (i.e. Italian, Spanish and French). In this three languages we say:
- di niente / de nada / de rien
- non c'è di che / no hay de que / no french translation
I think we should work on the latter.
What do you think about that?

Emma_85
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Post by Emma_85 »

Hmm... no I don't. Maybe they didn't have such a thing, you don't in British English.

Episcopus
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Post by Episcopus »

The british do say 'you're welcome', but amongst the youth of today it is usually used in a case such as this:

(Bill punches Cecil for no apparent reason.)

Bill: ahaaaaah!
Cecil: ugh...thanks...
Bill: You're welcome!

Emma_85
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Post by Emma_85 »

Yeah, but only because they were watching american TV series. Anyway you'd better ignore my posts today, as right now I'm drunk :P .

Episcopus
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Post by Episcopus »

:shock:

Are you a mother? And off it? And what the enfer are you talking of?

Emma_85
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Post by Emma_85 »

Who, me?

vinobrien
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Post by vinobrien »

If any Roman says "gratias ago tibi", you reply "nihil laboris est" or "aliud cura". Mind you, none of them has ever said thank you to me...
:shock:

bingley
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Post by bingley »

Did the Romans say anything in reply to gratias ago? Citation please. If they didn't, we don't need to translate 'you're welcome'.

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klewlis
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Post by klewlis »

bingley wrote:Did the Romans say anything in reply to gratias ago? Citation please. If they didn't, we don't need to translate 'you're welcome'.
- what if they did and we don't have any extant examples?
- what if we want to use phrases that they did not necessarily use?

:)

tadwelessar
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Post by tadwelessar »

I'd like to reply to vinobrien.
how can you say the romans said "aliud cura" or "nihil laboris est"?
Last edited by tadwelessar on Wed Oct 22, 2003 8:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Episcopus
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Post by Episcopus »

Yes "nihil laboris est" sounds sweet and has the "nichts zu danken" (i think) feel...or ça ne me fait rien... :)

Emma_85
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Post by Emma_85 »

Yes, the Germans to day 'nichts zu danken', but more often it's just 'bitte'.

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benissimus
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Post by benissimus »

klewlis wrote:
1 - what if they did and we don't have any extant examples?
2 - what if we want to use phrases that they did not necessarily use?

:)
1 - I find it hard to believe that a common figure of speech would not have survived in any of the remaining Latin texts, especially the personal letters, common plays, and dialogues.

2 - Yes, we do seem to do that a lot, don't we?
flebile nescio quid queritur lyra, flebile lingua murmurat exanimis, respondent flebile ripae

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benissimus
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Post by benissimus »

Ok, I found this in my idioms book:
aufer mihi ista

...it seems like the Romans were either very modest or else refused to accept thanks :P
flebile nescio quid queritur lyra, flebile lingua murmurat exanimis, respondent flebile ripae

vinobrien
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Post by vinobrien »

In reply to doctissimo Tadwelessare, nihil laboris est is used by just about every conversational Latin guide but I can find no primary text so we can presume one or more of the following:
a. I have not read the entire corpus of Latin literature
b. it's somewhere in Erasmus
c. it's something medieval
c. it is the accepted neo-Latin phrase

For aliud cura, try Terence's Phormio

De. quid mihi dicent aut quam causam reperient? demiror.
Ge. atqui reperiam: aliud cura.

Now, was "binobrien" bad typing or wishful thinking?

tadwelessar
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Post by tadwelessar »

sorry, bad typing, I'm going to correct it

tadwelessar
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Post by tadwelessar »

I'm going to post a poll on this subject

amans
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Re: you're welcome

Post by amans »

tadwelessar wrote:The odds are that form isn't in any text we have however. :cry:
We can try to invent a form based on modern romance languages (i.e. Italian, Spanish and French). In this three languages we say:
- di niente / de nada / de rien
- non c'è di che / no hay de que / no french translation
Actually, you could say "il n'y a pas de quoi" in French.

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