Expert: Maria - 3/29/2006

Question
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Followup To
Question -
Hello,

I'd like some help with a few quick transaltions

1. "James son of Walter" (in latin would it be "Iacobus prognatus Valtharus" ?)

2. "The only true wisdom is knowing you know nothing."
..For this one I'd actually like ancient greek since it's Socrates... but I'd also like to know what it is in latin.

Thank you so much for any help
Answer -
Hello,

Here are my answers.

1-“James son of Walter� would be in Latin:
“Iacobus Valthari filius� or “ Iacomus Valthari filius�.

I must however point out that both “Iacobus/Iacomus� and “Valtharus�(genitive ‘Valthari') are latinized names which date back to the Middle Ages and late Latin, as they did not exist in classical Latin.
In fact “Jamesâ€? is  an English form of the Late Latin 'Jacomus' which was derived  from the Greek ‘Iakobos', from the Hebrew name ‘Ya'aqov ‘, while  â€œWaltherâ€? is a Germanic name.
Finally with regard to ‘prognatus', it means ‘born of', descended from', not ‘son'.

2- “The only true wisdom is knowing you know nothing� is in Latin as follows:
“Scire te nihil scire vera est sapientia�.

As for this saying attributed to Socrates, in Latin it reads as follows:
“Hoc unum scio, me nihil scire�
["All I know is that I know nothingâ€? or “The only thing I know is that I know nothingâ€?. In Greek it is: “Touto monon  oida, oti  ouden gignoskoâ€?].

Best,
Maria
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Hello Again,

I have a few follow-up questions:

1.  Does "prognatus" also mean "sprung from".  If so I really like that particalur word becasue it is much more poetic... it reminds me of some bible passages when they were describing geneology.

As for the names themselves, I can't do much about them since they're the names of my father and grandfather... mine is lot easier.. .Marcus.    (So the sentence structure is: "A" decendent of "B" -> "A" "B" prognatus... correct?)

2. As for quote attributed to Socrates...  how  do I convert “Touto monon oida, oti ouden gignoskoâ€? into actual greek text.... here's my best guess...

Tau_Omnicron_Upsilon_Tau_Omega   Mu_Omnicron_Nu_Omnicron_Nu   Omega_Iota_Delta_Alpha,   Omnicron_Tau_Iota  Omnicron_Upsilon_Delta_Epsilon_Nu   Gamma_Iota_Gamma_Nu_Omega_Sigma_Kappa_Omega

--- Thanks again for all the help...  I need to get this right, since it will be set in stone..literally.  I'm making a marble mosaic for the floor of my home library.  

Answer
Hello again,


1.If you want to use PROGNATUS you must say for “James son of Walter”:
IACOBUS VALTHARO PROGNATUS
where VALTHARO is in the ablative as PROGNATUS takes the ablative of origin which is used to express the origin from which someone or something came.


2. As for the quote attributed to Socrates, here's how you must convert it correctly into ancient  Greek text.

Greek, "Touto monon  oida, oti  ouden gignosko "

TOUTO= Tau-Omicron-Upsilon-Tau-Omicron
MONON= Mu-Omicron-Nu-Omicron-Nu
OIDA = Omicron-Iota-Delta-Alpha
OTI= Omicron-Tau-Iota
OUDEN = Omicron-Upsilon-Delta-Epsilon-Nu
GIGNOSKO= Gamma-Iota-Gamma-Nu-Omega-Sigma-Kappa-Omega

As unfortunately the  system does not allow the use of the Greek characters and diacritic marks, there are no accents and rough/smooth breathings.

All the best,
Maria