Latin Moment #4: O Sanctissima

    Hello everyone. For about six years now I have been signing in the Children's Chorus of Greater Dallas. I am in the youth choir as a first Tenor. On a side note from what I am here to talk about, the word "Tenor" is actually from the Latin 'Tenor" which means "a holder". Now, there is also the verb we learned in Latin 2, "Teneo, Tenere, Tenui, Tentus" which means "to hold". As a Tenor in my choir, the word in music means a holder of the melody in a song.

     I don't think this is a coincidence as many terms in music are from Italian forms. (For instance forte, loud, and fortissimo, loudest, are from Italian and Latin origin). Anyway, most music does have many Latin related adjectives that you can decipher without knowing anything about sheet music because they usually look like the superlative, or just the adjective in general (again forte, fortissimo, piano, pianissimo).

     Here is a link to a site that has music terms that come from Italian and Latin. I have found some myself, but you all should try looking because it is very interesting: https://goo.gl/GcSvs5

     More seriously my choir, CCDG, is performing at the Meyerson on the 13th of December, and We will be performing with Greater Dallas Youth Orchestra performing some awesome songs! One part of a song we sing is actually from a Roman Catholic hymn called "O Sanctissima" this hymn, sung in Latin is a prayer to the Blessed Virgin Mary, who was the mother of Jesus in the Christian faith.

     I won't translate the whole thing, but there are some lines that have grammar we have learned recently. The first line "O sanctissma, O piissima" translates with the superlative form of the adjectives Sancta, Pia to "O most holy, O most loving". The third to last line "Audi nos, O Maria" has a verb that is in the Imperative "Audi". The whole line translates "Hear us, O Mary".

     Down below I will have a translation of the whole hymn, but I just wanted to share a cool Latin moment with everyone, and I hope you all have great holidays.

"O Sanctissima":

-Will Baschab,
12/10/2017

Latin Everyday 12/8

One of the words I heard in a speech by Mr. Bertha today was about Harvard. The words on Harvard's logo is "Veritas". The word means truth, which can be discerned by vero, like its vero, and words like verify come from it. I believe that I was able to discern the meaning because I was able to make a connection between a word and the point of the chapel, honor and honesty, ironic by all means to the plot being described in Mr. Bertha's chapel.

Trip to the Westminster Abbey

Two summers ago I went to London with some family friends, while there we went to the Westminster Abby. It was full of amazing a beautiful things, and it had lots of funeral monuments. I realized that practically every one of the funeral monuments had latin writing in them. Some where short and simple while others were really long and descriptive. I just find it very interesting that Latin was used all over Europe at one point, and it is cool to see all the things that were left behind. Here is one of the writings.

My trip to the mall.

I was with my family at North Park, shopping for new clothes, when my mother walked into the Neiman Marcus store. She said just a minute, and she walked into the store. Annoyed that I had to wait, I looked at the big Neiman Marcus logo. That last word caught my attention as it reminded me of Marcus, an Ecce Romani character. It made me rethink of all the crazy latin stories we translated and learned like Marcus to the Rescue, and Chapter 51 in Ecce Romani II where Marcus assumed the toga virilis.

With Any Luck I Won’t Fail

In my late, but enjoyable, quest to “read”(Audible) all of the Harry Potter books I ran upon a allusion and Latin refrence. During the 6th book there is a potion which is called “Felix Felicis.” The allusion is both words, in the 70’s the mascot Felix the Cat was very popular and he had the quality of being lucky. The Latin connection is because of the second word of the name, “Felicis” which is very, very close to “Feles” which is “cat” in Latin.

12/12 Blog Post

During chapel today one of the songs was Emanuel and apart of the title are the words venim, venim. I immediately knew that this was latin, but I could not remember what was the definition.  Later on I went to my dictionary and I could not find the definition. This shocked me and showed me the importance of knowing the definition. Also during chapel when we were singing this song, I learned that because of Latin, the pronunciation of Israel can differ during the song. I found that this is  even more interesting because Latin has so many effects that we do not even notice.

Blog #3

ABout a week ago we started to read the Odyssey and in that book it has references to Greek Gods and Goddesses. But before we even started the book we did a research project on the different Gods and Goddesses that were going to be in the book. While doing that it made me think of Roman Gods and Goddesses.

Latin Everyday

I saw latin in the english language. It only makes sense because almost all languages influenced each other, and because the origins of latin and english are relatively close compared to other languages. Latin came from Ancient Rome and English came from Anglo-Frisians, a west german group. The word "anglo" changed into "England" and their language became "English".

Latin Blog #3

While making a sandwich in my kitchen, I gathered all my ingredients. Suddenly, when I got to the mayo, I thought of our Latin class. This gave me the idea to make a new recipe for a sandwich called the B4 Latin. I listed my items in Latin and named them after our class. It was very tasty.

Blog Post #3

The scent of Cheeto puffs entered my mind as I was listening to Downtown by Macklemore, as I was browsing the internet when the cheesy an crunchy taste made my tongue feel good. This reminded me about the story of Julius Cesar, and how he got betrayed by Cassus and Brutus. This made me reflect on how fun Latin history is, and I hope to continue learning it.

Latin everyday post

In English class we were reading a piece of writing. I was fairly bored and then I heard a latin name I recognized. The name was Cornelius! I looked around the class and I noticed that another latin student was in the class and he obviously recognized this as well. We both immediately looked at each other and giggled. At this moment I was proud to be in Latin. Later that week we went over to my Grandma's house in Bluff Dale, Texas. There she used to run an antique shop for a while. When I told her that the word antique comes from the latin word antiqua she was very impressed. Because of my journey's in latin I have been able to impress my grandmother and have cool moments with my friends!

Historia Civilis

While looking at Latin tutorials I started looking at various different Youtube channels. After some time I started watching some videos from Historia Civilis. This channel does a bunch of different things. First, it recreates different battles from history. For instance, it tracks Caesar's campaign against the Gauls. It also describes in detail how the Romans voted and how the different classes were divided. This channel is a good jumping off point to learn about many different classical ideas.

Latin Blog 10/30

I was reading an article about Rome women and I saw that Plato's mother was named Perictione.  Plato was a Greek philosopher and his statue reminds me of something related to a Roman monument that could have to do with some Latin.  The name "Plato" sounds like Pluto as well.  Pluto is the Roman name for the God of the underworld.  His name is Hades.  I remember studying Greek gods in Latin class.

Latin Everyday - SMU Architecture

Earlier this month, I went to a lecture at SMU for a class. We went to one of the buildings that was part of the Cox School of Business, and I noticed that the architecture was similar to ancient Rome. On the building, I noticed Doric columns. I also saw Doric and Ionic columns in other areas of the campus.

Jackson Blog post

In Latin class, we have just finished the fakebook project. My Fakebook person was Cleopatra. She was very interesting and very popular back in the times of ancient Rome. While doing this project my figured out that my mom had done a project of Cleopatra in her schooling years. She shared with me some things that her Cleopatra project helped her learn. I was very surprised to hear that she had done a similar project. I really think that this project helped me understand what it is like in the times of the ancient Romans.

I was watching vice on my phone, and I saw an article on mutant medicines and I saw a few words in latin that I didnt understand. I only knew they were in latin because when I looked them up it said that their origin was latin. (this is true just so you know) One of the words I looked up was  ganglioneuralgia

finland

There is a news station in Finland on the radio that broadcasts only in latin. It is called Nuntii Latini. While researching "Finland", I happened upon a startling discovery. It appears that Finland probably doesn't exist. The world population is a bit more than 7 billion right now. The Finnish population makes up for about 0.09% of that population. The census agency that put together this statistic is accurate within 1%. That means that all of their figures can be 1% off from the actual truth. Since Finland makes up for less than one tenth of one percent, a 1% difference erases it entirely. Since 0.09 is less than 1/10 of 1, it is not only feasible, but it is statistically likely for Finland to not exist at all. In conclusion, Finland does not exist, and neither does the radio station Nuntii Latini.

Latin Everyday #Whatever this is

Though I have already written about this previously, I have new knowledge of Caesar's Legion in Fallout New Vegas, as I have played more and more. My previous post was not too descriptive, but I now know more about the Legion and can better link them to the Roman Empire. Caesar's Legion began as a single tribe somewhere in the central Untied States, just as Rome did in Italy, but tribe by tribe they conquered the wasteland, using the men for soldiers and women for slaves. The Legion is lead by one single man, Caesar, who has a council of his top countrymen to aid him on his decisions, but he is very well educated, which is hard to come by in the Mojave. Just as the Legion is parallel with the Roman Empire in their history, the way they act is as well. Everyone is proud to be a Legionare, they all praise Caesar to end dialogue, if you're not in the Legion they address you as scum, and if you are they address you as Ave. There are many connection to Latin here, even those whom Caesar wants to use are given a necklace called the Mark of Caesar. Along with what I've described, the Legion also uses strictly melee weapons like swords.

Latin everyday 3

In physics today I was reading about Aristotle a Greek philosopher that came up with the laws of gravity. At the bottom of the page, there were some ancient statues of Aristotle and this reminded me of the statues that roman senators got of themselves.

Aristotle 

Roman senator

Latin in papers

For English II Honors, we had to write an analytical paper about a novel that we recently finished called Siddhartha. My friends and I were editing each other's papers for clarity and analysis. While editing one of my peer's essays, I saw that she used a Latin word to define one of her concepts. The word was persona, which is described as the socially and personally acceptable mask that the individual present to others and, to some degree, to him or herself.

The Triumvirate

My friend Simin and I were on a website for wealth management. (Don't ask) We saw that the company was run by three men and there was a picture of them on the front page. This reminded me of the Roman Triumvirate with Caesar, Pompey, and Marcus.

Prestonwood game

On our last volleyball game, the JV volleyball team played Preston wood. As we started warming up I noticed their motto said Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam. After the game, Donae and I looked at our Ecco Romani and found the meaning. In english the motto translate to "For the greater glory of god".

Latin in Universities

While going on many different college tours, I have found that many universities have latin somewhere in the brochures. Many use latin for their school mottos such as Tulane University, University of Texas, and even Harvard University. Tulane's motto is "non sibi sed suis", which means "not for one's self, but for one's own", University of Texas's motto is "disciplina praesidium civitatis" which means "education is the guardian of society", and Harvard's motto is "veritas" simply meaning "truth". Latin is even used for some of the names of schools. Villanova University is named in latin. Villanova means "new town" in Latin.

Latin Everyday 3

In English Class right now, we are reading The Odyssey, by Homer. It is a book based on The Gods and mythology, but it uses the Greek Names of Gods. Most of the Greek Gods are the same as the Roman Gods, but Roman Gods have different names. Roman Gods are named after planets. For Example: Greek - Zeus, Roman - Jupiter.

Austin Odyssey

For English, we have been given the assignment of reading the Odyssey an ancient epic. The book is the sequel to the Illiad and both were originally in Greek. They are a few more books following the same story written by Romans later on.  The Odyssey was also very popular in Rome. The story though was first told orally before it was written down by Homer.

Odyssey

I was assigned to read the book Odyssey for my english class, and I wasn't all that too excited to read it because my sister told me it was horrible. I started to read it and didn't really understand all of the gods in the book so I started to look them up and I learned about so many that I didn't even know were gods. Like Athena, I know she is a god, she can shape shift. I had no idea she could do that until I read the book. I have learned different terms for all of the gods such as, grey eyed goddess is Athena. I also learned how to pronounce a lot of different names in the book. Latin has definitely given me a lot of background information in this book and it helped me a lot!

- Lizzie Kelley

Its Latin Everyday

So I was out getting ice cream after school, as you do. I ordered a scoop of cookies and cream and as I passed over the money I noticed something on the bill. It was Latin! There was a phrase by the Illuminati pyramid and it read: “Novus Ordo Seclorum". When I got home I opened my Latin book and translated it to: "a new order of the ages". It's so cool that latin can be found in anything and everything.

The Odyssey

In English 1 we are reading the Greek epic The Odyssey. In this book it talks about the Trojan War. In this war a warrior named Aeneas fought on the side of the Trojans. When the war was lost Aeneas fled with his men and landed in Italy. Aeneas and his men became what was later Rome. Aeneas is also the protagonist of Roman epic The Aeneid.

Luke Hanft

Matrix

So in Algebra 2, we are learning about matrix's and how to solve them. One of the thing that you need to know when solving a matrix is to tell the difference between a column and a row. I was having trouble telling them apart. One of the tricks that Mrs. Denison told me was to think the columns look like a Roman column. That they go up and down and they hold up buildings. Ever since she told me that I haven't gotten confused since.

Blog Post #3

So, in Geometry we were discussing complementary and supplementary angles in our class. I had this enlightenment kind-of idea, it really sparked in my mind. I remembered that comparatives and superlatives are to compare to and be superior to. More and most, which I realized has a similar effect as well.  For example, if two angles' measures equal 90, then they are complementary, further stating that they are more, and same for supplementary with the value of 180. Com- and Sup-, thee two prefixes connect these two ideas from across the plane of subjects. Language really does have a way with communicating the same idea through different means and different subjects for that matter. This was a discovery on my end, and I would like to continue making such enlightening discoveries as the year progress and my Latin knowledge and comprehension increases beyond the expectation.

Latin Everyday #3

About a week ago our team had a volleyball game at Prestonwood Christian Academy. While we were waiting to warm up I noticed some writing on the walls. As I got closer I noticed they were in Latin. The writing said Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam. Which translates as "To the greater glory of God". When I saw this I was with Sydney Holland who is also in Latin so we decided to translate it. But our translation came out a little different as "Glory to the greater God".

Latin everyday 3

In this show the supernatural I was casually watching it one night when a episode about the vestal virgins came on. It was about these people that  pledged to say virgins then lost it have been going missing. It was super odd because I was watching it and it sounded oddly familiar the monster that was taking the people had them in this underground cave where they were slowly going to die of hunger. I was watching it and I was thinking that sounds just like the Vestal Virgins and what happens to them when they break their vow. Then they found out later in the episode that it actually was Vesta the goddess of the hearth that was kidnapping people and burying them alive. I just found it really funny how I figured out it was Vesta before the people in the show could. It just shows that we use latin in new odd ways.

Latin Moment #3: The Martian

     So recently I have been re-reading The Martian by Andy Weir. This book, in short is about Mark Watney, an astronaut who gets stranded on mars by himself after a serve weather storm. Mark, who was the botanist and mechanical engineer on his crew, uses his skills in order to survive the dangerous challenges Mars presents him. I recommend this book to anyone interested in space, but I think everyone would enjoy the book. I could talk about The Martian all day, of course, but I'm going to share the Latin moments I found within the story.

     First off, Mars the planet was named by the Romans aside from the Moon and Sun. It was named after the god of war, Mars, who was an important god to roman soldiers. Mars, the god, also rode a chariot pulled by two horses named Phobos and Deimos. The two small moons that orbit Mars are also called Phobos and Deimos. In the book, Mark Watney uses the small moon Phobos as a way to tell which direction. He comments how the name Phobos means fear, and how he is being guided metaphorically by fear.

Mars, the god, on his Chariot being pulled by the horses, Phobos and Deimos:

Mars, the planet, and its two moons, Phobos and Deimos:

     The next Latin moment I encountered in the book was when Mark refers to entering and exiting of his base as Ingresses and Egresses. Recently, I learned in Latin that the word ingress means 'to enter', but I also found out later that the word egress means 'to go out'. Because I knew the Latin, the concepts of ingress and egress in the book made sense.

     My last Latin moment in the book, was when Mark Watney explains where his base is on Mars' surface. The base is located on Acidalia Planitia, a very flat region of Mars located between the Tharsis volcanic region, and another region called Arabia Terra. the first word, Acidalia is a Latin word that describes something with the quality of the god, Venus. The second word, Planitia means 'low plain'. I think that the words together mean that Acidalia Planitia is a low plain with qualities like Venus the god. It might also have qualities like the planet Venus, because Acidalia Planitia is right next to a volcanic region. Because it is super flat, Acidalia Planitia aids Mark Watney when he explores in his rover. He is able to get father to his destination because the region is so flat.

Acidalia Planitia:

     Well, those were my Latin moments, and I know I wrote a lot, but I really enjoyed The Martian as a book, and there were many moments I found Latin references.

- Will Baschab

Blog Post #3

I have been reading a new book(It's called Salt to the Sea, it is pretty good, highly recommend it.) and in one of the chapters one of the characters, Emilia, says "Per aspera ad, astra." Though the author gave the translation, I immediately sight translated and the phrase mean: through hardship to the stars. The character, Emilia, said that her father use to say it  to her whenever she complained something was difficult. I think this phrase is interesting because the book is about WWII, and Emilia is in the thick of monstrosity of the war. It is almost depressing but also inspiring in a way to see her be slightly optimistic that things could perhaps get better. It is also nice to see authors use latin, because it is a really pretty written language and it adds an extra element to the story.

Blog post #3

In English 1 at Parish Episcopal School,  We have been reading and annotating the epic poem The Odyssey and have been learning about its author Homer and the events that preceded it in the Trojan War. The Greek epic poem was a major contribution to Roman mythology because it features many Roman gods and goddesses. We have only reached Book 3 of the poem so far; however, it already features the many ways our society has evolved since ancient times. One example: in the novel, Odysseus's son has plans to kill the suiters who have infested his home and eaten his inheritance. The out right brutality that this implies is unheard of in the 21st century but was quite common in ancient Greece.