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+--- Thread: Translation...this should be easy! (/showthread.php?tid=16246)
Translation...this should be easy! - Magnus - 12-29-2009
Looking at "Know your enemy"...how does that translate into latin?
Re: Translation...this should be easy! - Kosios - 12-29-2009
"Nosce hostem tuum" or "Hostem tuum nosce" (the order of the words can vary without changing the meaning) if you are talking to one person; if you are talking to two or more "Hostem vestrum noscite".
"Enemy" can also be translated with "inimicum", with a little difference of meaning; but if you are talking about war, "hostem" is ok.
Re: Translation...this should be easy! - Jona Lendering - 12-29-2009
I think that "nosce inimicum" has the disadvantage of creating a hiatus, which sounds unpleasant. Personally, I'd use nosce hostem or hostem nosce, because two words of two syllables create a nice, balanced structure, with the same crispy beauty of expressions like carpe diem, absit omen, or cave canem.
Re: Translation...this should be easy! - Magnus - 12-29-2009
Thanks guys!
Re: Translation...this should be easy! - Gaius Julius Caesar - 12-31-2009
Quote:I think that "nosce inimicum" has the disadvantage of creating a hiatus, which sounds unpleasant. Personally, I'd use nosce hostem or hostem nosce, because two words of two syllables create a nice, balanced structure, with the same crispy beauty of expressions like carpe diem, absit omen, or cave canem.
I like the sound of that tthough....I wonder if it is just me, but the roll on of inimicum has a ring to it!
Re: Translation...this should be easy! - Jona Lendering - 12-31-2009
Quote:I like the sound of that tthough....I wonder if it is just me, but the roll on of inimicum has a ring to it!The point is not inimicum, but the combination with nosce, which creates a hiatus (two clashing vowels). That does not offer a nice pronunciation -it will probably change into nosc' inimicum- and the ancients usually avoided it.
Re: Translation...this should be easy! - Gaius Julius Caesar - 12-31-2009
So is nosce pronounced nos-keh or nosk? I still find it sounds normal to have this together but then I'm not a real roman I guess.....(nor have I learned proper pronunciation.... :oops: )
Re: Translation...this should be easy! - caiusbeerquitius - 12-31-2009
noskeh
Re: Translation...this should be easy! - Gaius Julius Caesar - 12-31-2009
Thanks. Guess I'm betraying my barbarian roots, but this still sounds good to me! :lol:
My apologies!
Re: Translation...this should be easy! - MARCvSVIBIvSMAvRINvS - 01-14-2010
What about: Inimicum nosce ??
M.VIB.M.