Expert: Maria - 11/2/2009

Question
QUESTION: Can you help me make sure this is the correct Latin translation. I'm trying to translate "give me liberty or give me death" but was told just to try "liberty or death". I came upon "libertatem aut mortem" is this correct? Thank you

ANSWER: Hello,

The phrase "Give me liberty or give me death" translates correctly as follows:

-“Aut libertatem aut  mortem da mihi, quaeso”, if the command “Give” is addressed to only one person.

-”Aut libertatem aut mortem mihi date, quaeso”, if the command “Give” is addressed to  more than one person.

But, if you are looking for a translation of "Liberty or death”, you must say simply ”Aut libertas aut mors”, NOT  "Libertatem aut mortem” where the words “libertatem” and “mortem” are in the accusative case which in Latin can be used only as a direct object of a verb that there is not here.

To conclude, here are the correct Latin sentences:

-“Aut libertas aut mors” meaning "Liberty or death"

-“Aut libertatem aut  mortem da mihi, quaeso” as well as "Aut libertatem aut mortem mihi date, quaeso” meaning "Give me liberty or give me death" in the 2nd person singular or in the 2nd.person plural, as I've explained above.

Best regards,
Maria
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GRAMMATICAL ANALYSIS OF “Liberty or death”:

-Liberty = LIBERTAS (subject, nominative case)
-or =AUT...AUT (Latin repeats the “or”)
-death= MORS (subject, nominative case)
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GRAMMATICAL ANALYSIS OF  “"Give me liberty or give me death":

-Give = DA (2nd.person singular, imperative of DO, I give)  or DATE (2nd.person plural, imperative of DO, I give)  

-me = MIHI (dative of the personal pronoun, as the verb DO requires the dative case)

-liberty= LIBERTATEM (direct object, accusative of LIBERTAS, 3rd.declension)

-or = AUT…AUT  (Latin repeats the “or”)

-give  = omitted in Latin as it’s not necessary to repeat this verb.

-me = omitted in Latin as it’s not necessary to repeat this pronoun.

-death = MORTEM (direct object, accusative of MORS, 3rd.declension)

Note that I’ve added the interjection QUAESO as a polite expression of entreaty meaning ‘I beseech you', ‘I pray', ‘please’.

As you can see, Latin word order can be different from English. Latin  is in fact an inflected language where syntactical relationships are indicated by the endings of each term, not by the order of the words.


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: than kyou for your help, but i'm trying to capture the emotion of force, such as a command not a request or wish. so can i omit the quaeso and still have it be correct?

Answer
Since you are trying to capture the emotion of force, such as a command not a request or wish,  you can omit “quaeso”  and say correctly:

-“Aut libertatem aut  mortem da mihi”  / ”Aut libertatem aut mortem mihi date ”, according to what I’ve already said.

Best regards,
Maria