their sons and daughters

Latin Learning Latin
1


I have a question about translating “their sons and daughters” in this passage (BLD Ex107 PtII Pg46) :

The Germans, with (their) sons and daughters, are hastening with horses and wagons.
Germani cum suis filiis et suis filiis equis et carris properant.

Well, that’s how I translated it into Latin. It seems redundant to have “suis filiis” twice. It just happened that way because: their sons => suis filiis (ABL Plur of suus filius); their daughters => suis filiis (ABL Plur of sua filia).

Is it possible to rephrase the Latin sentence, making it shorter:

Germani cum suis filiis equis carris properant.

Or does this lose some meaning?

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I would use:

Germani cum filiis filiabusque equis et curris properant.

filiabus is an alternative form for the dat & abl plu of the first declension, mainly used with filia and dea (yes, to avoid the confusion of ‘filiis et filiis’).
With the alternative forms for the dat & abl plu of deus (diis and dis) you often see (according to my grammar that is): dis deabusque.

you can leave suis out of the sentence, as it is quite clear that the Germans hurry around with their own children, not someone else’s. You only use a possessive pronoun if it is necessary to clear up whose whatevers you’re talking about.

Ingrid

3

[quote author=ingrid70 link=board=3;threadid=316;start=0#2139 date=1059425392]
Germani cum filiis filiabusque equis et curris properant.

filiabus is an alternative form for the dat & abl plu of the first declension, mainly used with filia and dea (yes, to avoid the confusion of ‘filiis et filiis’).[/quote]

Now that you mention it, I vaguely recall reading something about dea and filia. I can’t believe I forgot about that!