MetaFilter posts tagged with latin

So let go of your balls

swift — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 18:44:34 -0800

The origin of the word testimony probably has nothing to do with Romans taking oaths while holding their testicles, though interpreting the Bible in a certain way might make you think so.

The Lithuanian Press Ban, 1864-1904

mdonley — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 12:17:27 -0800

From 1864 to 1904, the Russian Empire tried to quelch the nationalism of Lithuanians by ordering all Lithuanian texts to be printed with Cyrillic characters instead of in the Latin-derived Lithuanian or Polish alphabets. But they didn't count on the Knygnešiai - the Booksmugglers. Working in Lithuanian-speaking areas of East Prussia, now the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad and parts of the Polish voivodeship of Warmia and Masuria, and with texts printed locally and sometimes from as far away as the United States, many thousands of people over the decades worked to transmit books, leaflets, journals, and other written works over the heavily guarded border, risking imprisonment and exile to Siberia; over three thousand people were caught. A harrowing recollection of what it was like to dodge the military patrols can be found here. The movement also was assisted by a network of clandestine "village" lessons in the language outside the school system, organized through local churches and civic organizations. The Lithuanian National Movement, active before independence, used the language to resist Russification and, later, promote the cause for an independent state. When Lithuania became independent again in the early 1990s, the back of the 5-lita banknote featured an image of a sculpture of a woman teaching a child to read Lithuanian in defiance of the press ban. The anti-Lithuanian language effort had been part of Tsar Alexander II's Russification campaign across all of the lands Russia had absorbed through the partitions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. After the Uprising of 1863, St. Petersburg attempted to create a divide between the Polonized Catholic nobility, the szlachta, and the Lithuanian-speaking rural populations in order to allow Russian language and culture to supplant the Catholic, Latin heritage left behind by the Commonwealth. Today, Lithuanian is spoken by between four and five million people, has made a cameo appearance on CSI: New York, and, like everyone these days, has a podcast. Lithuanian has also been the focus of much attention in linguistics circles for its links to Proto-Indo-European (PIE), the theoretical progenitor to all the Indo-European languages. Some early texts in Lithuanian can be found at the University of Texas at Austin's Linguistics Research Center here. Check out some Indo-European roots yourself with this Google Books preview of the American Heritage Dictionary of Indo-European Roots. And this year, Vilnius hosts the European Capital of Culture title together with Linz, Austria. It's a quick hop from most of Europe and an amazing destination for anyone into the culture and history of the region.

Fridge magnets in seven scripts

joeclark — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 13:47:26 -0800

Fridge magnets in seven scripts – Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Cyrillic, Korean, Arabic, Devanagari. “Memo: Pick up bread at store”

The Map-Happy Chaplain

Rykey — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 13:15:08 -0800

John Henry Wilbrandt Stuckenberg emigrated from Germany to the United States, where he was eventually a Chaplain in the American Civil War. He also really liked maps; in the course of traveling over his lifetime, he collected hundreds of maps, some dating back to the 16th century. [Most maps in Latin]

Festejo

Rubbstone — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 15:07:56 -0800

Festejo? ... Festejo! The group in the last video is Peru Negro who were dubbed the cultural ambassadors of black Peru more of there work:First Half, Second Half of the New york show The performer in the first video is Eva Ayllon more of her work: El Guarangito I would be remiss if I didn't point you of the person who first caught my eye in peruvian music Susana Baca be sure to check out her excellent version of Negra Presentousa PS Zapateo 1 2 3 4 5

The Tertullian Project

Kattullus — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 21:58:11 -0800

If the Tiber rises so high it floods the walls, or the Nile so low it doesn't flood the fields, if the earth opens, or the heavens don't, if there is famine, if there is plague, instantly the howl goes up, "The Christians to the lion!" What, all of them? To a single lion? So wrote Tertullian. In the huge intellectual project that was the foundation of the Christian Church he was the great wit, most powerful rhetor and finest writer. Starting out as a pagan delighting in adultery and gladiator combat he became a great champion of martyrdom, defender of Christianity against its malefactors and heretics. His most famous contribution to our culture is undoubtedly the doctrine of the trinity. Towards the end of his life he threw his lot with a small group of hardcore ascetics called Montanists and was denounced as a heretic. Ending his life among the defeated of ecclesiastical history he was forgotten for a millennium until rediscovered during the Renaissance. The Tertullian Project collects all his extant writing and information about his lost texts as well as biographical information, selected quotations and much more.

Ancient, Medieval and Classic Works

Kattullus — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 12:19:35 -0800

In Parentheses is a collection of many ancient, medieval and classic texts from all over the world, many of whom are hard to find anywhere, let alone on the internet. There are translations from Greek, Old Norse, Medieval Irish, Japanese, Incan, Old French, Medieval Latin and many more! As well as all that they have papers in medieval studies and vaguely decadent and orientalism series. Adding to that there's a linguistics section with wordlists and language flash cards in languages such as Icelandic, Quechua, Basque, Classical Armenian and a whole bunch more. [flashcard links go to pdf files]

South/Latin American composers after 1900

invitapriore — Sun, 03 Jun 2007 11:37:01 -0800

While the first pioneering forays into atonality and free chromaticism were starting to occur in Western European music, the talents of Latin and South America were discovering the Romantic beauty of re-interpreting the past. [much, much more inside!]

Old News

IndigoJones — Sun, 04 Feb 2007 15:00:14 -0800

Sadly, the good professor is putting his project on hold for a while, but he's keeping the old stuff around. Well, there's always Latin. The Finns have been mentioned before, the Bremens not. But for sheer opulence, this site takes the prize.

Dona eis requiem. Latin mass to return?

SansPoint — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 12:31:20 -0800

Pope Benedict XVI wants to bring back the latin mass. This could be the start of a return to the old Catholic traditionalism and the undoing of Vatican II.

Nihongo Bongo!

carter — Mon, 09 Oct 2006 13:40:26 -0800

Nihongo Bongo! - Latin music by Japanese artists from the 40s, 50s and 60s. "Mambo, rumba, cha cha cha, bossa nova, calypso, you name it... it was big in Japan. The exodus of Japanese migrants to Brazil ensured a lasting connection with South American culture as many Japanese artists toured Brazil."

from analog to digital

nickyskye — Mon, 14 Aug 2006 10:42:03 -0800

Sex in prehispanic times. Cuba Chronicles. The arrow of time. Brazilian homosexual culture. The sword and the cross. Very similar. Bestiarium. Mini-descriptions of the many varied exhibits. Essays in English and Spanish by the artists with their images from ZoneZero.

The South Bronx: A Legacy in Song

Miko — Thu, 18 May 2006 08:04:46 -0800

Music from Morrisania: Dr. Mark Naison, urban historian at Fordham University and principal investigator of the Bronx African-American history project, leads a musical tour of one South Bronx neighborhood from the 1950s to the present, describing how hot summers, open windows and a fertile mixing of ethnic groups influenced landmarks in American musical history -- from Tito Puente to "Watermelon Man" to KRS-One.

Nueva Orleans

ColdChef — Tue, 09 May 2006 10:35:05 -0800

Nueva Orleans Before Katrina, Hispanics accounted for 3 percent of New Orleans’ population, with just 1,900 Mexicans showing up in the 2004 Census. No one knows for certain how many new ones have arrived, but estimates put the number between 10,000 and 50,000.

Pachakutic on schedule for 2012

airguitar — Thu, 13 Apr 2006 08:57:43 -0800

Latin America Turning Left? From the top: Lula da Silva *, Lopez Obrador, Nestor Kirchner, Hugo Chavez *, Alvaro Uribe, Michelle Bachelet *, Ollanta Humala, Alfredo Palacio, Oscar Berger, Leonel Fernandez, Oscar Arias, Tony Saca, Tabare Vazquez, Martín Torrijos, Evo Morales * Manuel Zelaya, Nicanor Duarte, Daniel Ortega, Rene Preval *.

Latin Podcasting

leo — Thu, 24 Nov 2005 12:30:21 -0800

Latin Podcasting is now available featuring recordings of neo-Latin colloquia saved as mp3 files. From Willard McCarty on the Humanist Discussion List: "So far there's only the Prima Salutatio of 3 minutes 21 seconds, but more is promised." They've already registered the project with the iTunes Podcast Directory and Bloglines. Future plans include adding captions.

Greek wav files

IndigoJones — Sat, 01 Oct 2005 11:32:45 -0800

Greek as it was spoke. Mrs. Jones thinks they sound like a cross between French and Chinese. You decide. Alternatively, Latin wav files, mostly poetry. Or, for those into the bestseller circuit, there’s this (narrator rolls the r’s a bit - Jim Dale he ain’t).

Great resources for self taught Latin.

BeerGrin — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 06:53:45 -0800

Free Latin grammars and Texts are available for budding Latin scholars as well as Law and Med students who want a jump on all the professional lingo. Forum Romanorum provides very readable texts on Roman culture, life and history. Finally this better than average latin quotes page is available for the Mefites who just want to be able to spout Latin quotes (or who want to know what Latin quote gasbags are going on about)

latera ecfututa

kenko — Mon, 11 Apr 2005 08:40:24 -0800

Can't hack Catullus in Latin? How about Brazilian Portuguese, Catalan, Chinese, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, French, German, Hungarian, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Rioplatense, Romanian, Russian, Scanned, Serbian, South African, Spanish, Swedish, or Welsh? You can also compare two languages side by side.

Nunc hic aut nunquam

ori — Thu, 07 Apr 2005 23:50:56 -0800

Doctor Ammondt. When Jukka Ammondt is not too busy teaching European Romantic Literature at Finland's Jyväskylä University, he enjoys recording rock'n'roll covers in Latin. For Dr. Ammondt's 1997 CD, "Rocking in Latin", he has covered, among others, Shake, Rattle and Roll (Quate, Crepa, Rota) and All Shook Up (Nunc Distrahor). More recently, Dr. Ammondt has released an EP in which he sings Sumerian, featuring a cover of the Elvis hit "Blue Suede Shoes" ("E-sír kusv-za-gìn-g-á", which roughly translates to "On my sandals of sky-blue leather do not step!"). Live, he wears a leather kilt, blue sandals and is "backed up by musicians dressed as Sumerian governors". He has received the Pope's Medal in 1994. Ammondt will release a single, Codex Fluitans, and dedicate it to the Pope on the day of his funeral. (Previous Metafilter mention here.)

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IndigoJones — Sun, 23 Jan 2005 18:37:23 -0800

Etiam non mortua sum!

Ludite pilam!

stopgap — Wed, 19 Jan 2005 00:07:06 -0800

Roman ball games and Roman board games. Complete with literary references, ancient artwork, and instructions for playing the games yourself. So let's all sing: Aufer me ad arenam (to the tune of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame").

Misplaced Sapphires

Fezboy! — Tue, 21 Sep 2004 10:17:34 -0800

Los Zafiros. A Cuban pop group that could rival the Beatles for song-craft, if not in popularity. Don't take my word for it though. Read Ry Cooder's interview, see the movie, read the movie review, or listen yourself [real|wmp].

How long, Catiline, will you continue to abuse our patience?

kenko — Sun, 11 Jul 2004 12:51:31 -0800

In 63 B.C., Cicero gave his first speech against Catiline. You can hear the opening paragraph read in Latin, or read a translation into English. Though Cicero was a consul denouncing a rebel, the famous opening sentence is now frequently used by those challenging authority (even if it's just the tyranny of Richard Stallman).

"I am of Ireland, and the Holy Land of Ireland..."

languagehat — Sun, 11 Apr 2004 16:20:39 -0800

CELT, the Corpus of Electronic Texts, "brings the wealth of Irish literary and historical culture to the Internet, for the use and benefit of everyone worldwide. It has a searchable online database consisting of contemporary and historical texts from many areas, including literature and the other arts." It has texts in Irish, Latin, Anglo-Norman French, and English, ranging from the annals of the fifth century to the Agreement reached in the Multi-Party Negotiations in Northern Ireland of 1998. "Great my glory/ I that bore Cuchulainn the valiant..."