I studied philosophy as an undergraduate at York and as a postgraduate at Cambridge. I’ve always had genuine interest in history and literature. I’m very much interested in language from a philosophical perspective: how it relates to thought and the world. However, I am not by any means a natural linguist. Apart from some school level German and one year of Latin, my only language is English. I see this as analogous to my relationship with music. I love many forms of music from classical to world music, jazz, folk and rock. Yet I don’t really have a musical ear.
My interest in Textkit has a primarily practical purpose. I’m in the middle of writing a comic, fantasy novel. Two of its characters are in an adversarial relationship, often trying to score points off each other by quoting or speaking in Latin. For the most part this consists in their demonstrating a knowledge of some of the more arcane Latin epigrams, (‘barba non facit philosophum,’ ‘aquila non capit muscas,’) However, there are occasions when I really need a bespoke Latin expression to suit their situation. For example, one of the characters whose standard English is of a British upper middle class 1920’s vintage says, ‘Don’t worry, darling, I know exactly what I’m doing…’ I really would like to have him say this first in Latin. It could then be translated later at the inquest.
I wonder, then, if there are any of your members who would be interested and kind enough to help in occasional, short, ad hoc translations of this kind? If not, perhaps you might be able to suggest where I might get such help.
Many thanks
Britannic