• PugJesus@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
    271·
    6 days ago

    Explanation: In Classical Latin, you generally place the verb at the end of a sentence. Cicero was fond of making long, elaborate sentences filled with nested statements in his speeches, so he is somewhat notorious amongst Latin students for taking forever to get to the damn verb and make it clear what he’s actually talking about.

    • alaphic@lemmy.worldEnglish
      181·
      6 days ago

      Imagine a time where your orators of note speak in complex gibberish for reasons other than pure, unadulterated dementia…

      • Lvxferre [he/him]@mander.xyzMEnglish
        1·
        22 hours ago

        V2 is basically SOV with a twist, “if the clause is declarative and non-dependent move the last verb to the second position”. That explains why, in a string with 3 or more verbs, Latin and German would agree on almost all of them - except one. While SVO languages invert the whole chain; e.g.

        • [Latin, SOV, default] Ego tangum ballare[1] discere[2] uolo[3].
        • [German, V2] Ich will[3] Tango tanzen[1] lernen[2].
        • [English, SOV] I want[3] to learn[2] to dance[1] tango.
        • [Italian, SOV] Io voglio[3] imparare[2] a ballare[1] il tango.

        Focus on the verbs I’ve numbered [1] and [2] - both Latin and German would use them in this order, while English and Italian go [2] then [1] instead.

        (inb4: I added the “ego” and “io” just for the sake of sentence formation, it sounds weirdly emphatic. I also had to backport “tango” as “tangus”)

  • jbrains@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    2·
    6 days ago

    Something something German lecturer after two hours twelve verbs at the end finally understood the whole lecture.