| The Gonk | 25 Feb 2011 8:06 a.m. PST |
I'm buying a new keychain bottle opener. My last cheapie lasted over 15 years, so I'm going to get a $20 USD deluxe engraved model this time around! My thought was to engrave a play on SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS, but with beer. Using Diocletion's price fixing information, I'm pretty sure the word I want is CERVISIA, Gaulic wheat beer. As a big fan of German Weizen beer, it seems appropriate. The question is, what is the correct conjugation? SIC SEMPER CERVISIA? SIC SEMPER CERVISIAE? |
| MahanMan | 25 Feb 2011 9:20 a.m. PST |
Feminine gender noun. Inasmuch as you are using the imperative (thus always to beer), I suggest you follow the rules laid out here: YouTube link |
aecurtis  | 25 Feb 2011 10:00 a.m. PST |
Yes, "cervisia" is a first declension noun. The imperative mood is for verbs. Its partner for nouns, the vocative case, is not called for here: one is not directly addressing the beer. The Gonk correctly uses the dative case of "cervisia": "cervisiae". Allen |
 John the OFM  | 25 Feb 2011 10:15 a.m. PST |
The nuns never taught us the vocative… |
| aecurtis | 25 Feb 2011 11:04 a.m. PST |
It doesn't take much teaching. It is ususally the same as the nominative, and the Bard schools us in the most common exception. link Allen |
| Jay Arnold | 25 Feb 2011 12:31 p.m. PST |
Add an "-e" to the end of masculine nouns and that's as much vocative as I remember. See also Catullus, Carmina 16, line 2. Warning: Naughty Latin after the link:
link Actually, my recollection is much too incorrect. Too much Carling Black Label in college. Not enough Oxford Latin. Oh well, I still remember the naughty bits. |
| The Gonk | 25 Feb 2011 2:02 p.m. PST |
I don't know squat about Latin…so, looks like CERVISIAE? |
| StarfuryXL5 | 25 Feb 2011 10:47 p.m. PST |
Looks like.
Warning: Naughty Latin after the link: Don't pull any punches, Catullus, tell us what you really think. |
| (Leftee) | 28 Feb 2011 8:56 p.m. PST |
'Oh beer of mine, always looking at you!' Would be the vocative then? [Not the Genesee Case]. |
| Last Hussar | 06 Mar 2011 3:59 p.m. PST |
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