Recently I received helpful assistance to a particular sentence. I think a re-analysis is at hand.
Sentence in the English and in the Latin:
What is your name, little girl?
–Quid est nomen tibi, puella parva?
Proposed alternative from a fellow Latinist:
–Quid est nomen tuum, puella parva? (makes sense)
Question: Would not the neuter noun ‘nomen’ be an object (accus.), and it being referred to by the dative ‘tibi’ which means ‘to you’ or ‘you’? Correct or not?[/face]
Both sentences are correct, but the first one which is not something we would be likely to say in English is a more likely structure, just by Latin idiom. In no case is there an accusative however, since the verb “to be” does not take an accusative.
Often by Latin idiom the dative expresses possession, as in greek. But personally I would say “quod nomen?” (not to say any one else should, but that’s in case I ever travel back in time to Rome)
This is probably irrelevant, but in Spanish the question is “how are you called?”, rather than “what is your name?”. Does anyone here know when that idiom was introduced?