Expert: Maria - 4/5/2011

Question
fao of  MARIA , CAN YOU PLEASE TELL ME HOW TO PRONOUNCE THE LATIN PHRASE  ,PHONETICALLY  ( OMNIA MEA  MECUM PORTO)  MY ATTEMPT WOULD BE    (HOMNEEEYA  MEEEAH   MEKUM     PORTO  ) CAN YOU PLEASE TELL ME IF THIS IS CORRECT , THANKS IN ANTICIPATION FOR YOUR HELP   MARK

Answer
Hello,

Here’s the correct pronunciation of each letter or syllable of  “Omnia  mecum porto mea ” we read in Cicero’s Paradoxa stoicorum ad M. Brutum, section 8:

-O is pronounced like the O in “home”. The accent stands on this vowel.
-M is pronounced like in English
-N is pronounced like in English
-I is pronounced like the Y in “yes”
-A is pronounced like the A in “father”


-M is pronounced like in English.
-E is pronounced like  the E in “bed”. The accent stands on this vowel.
-CUM is pronounced like  the term CUM meaning “Together with”/”plus”, often used in combination: "our attic-cum-studio". Listen to the audio pronunciation  at: http://www.answers.com/topic/cum-1



-PORT is pronounced like PORT in “seaport”. The accent stands on this syllable.
-O is pronounced like the O in “seaport”


-M is pronounced like in English.
-E is pronounced like the E in "bed" .The accent stands on this vowel.
-A is pronounced like the A in “father”.

Finally note that the correct quotation from Cicero’s Paradoxa stoicorum ad M. Brutum, section 8 is just “Omnia  mecum porto mea”, not “Omnia mea mecum porto”.

Best regards,
Maria
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GRAMMATICAL ANALYSIS

-OMNIA (direct object in the accusative neuter plural of OMNIS) = all things

-MECUM (composed by ME [ablative of the 1st.person pronoun] + CUM meaning “with”) = with me

-PORTO(1st.person singular, present indicative ) = I am carrying/ I carry

-MEA(direct object in the accusative neuter plural of the possessive MEUS agreed with OMNIA) = my


In short, "Omnia mecum porto mea” means “I'm carrying all my things with me”, i.e. “Spiritual values are always with me".

There is also a variant of this saying, i.e. "Omnia bona mea mecum sunt" we read in Seneca, Epistulae Morales (Moral Letters) 9,18. It literally means : "All my goods/possessions are with me".

As you can see, Latin word order is different from english for Latin is an inflected language where syntactical relationships aare indicated by the endings, not by the order of the words.