Question QUESTION: Please can you help with an English-Latin translation. I would like to say "safety within the walls" or "Be / feel safe within the walls" where 'walls' is 'baillii' and 'safety' is 'securitas'.
I've had trouble with the locative form!
ANSWER: Hello,
The translation of "Safety within the walls" or "Be / feel safe within the walls" is the following:
-“Securitas intra moenia“, if “the walls“ are the walls or fortifications of a city .
-“Securitas intra parietes”, if “the walls” are properly the walls of a house.
Both the above phrases mean “Safety within the walls”, of course.
As for “baillium”, it does not exist at all in Latin, where there is “vallum” (neuter noun, 2nd.declension) which however means “a palisade of stakes” as a fortification, a defence, like in VALLUM HADRIANI (Hadrian's Wall).
It is just from Latin VALLUM that the English word “wall” derives.
Finally I have to point out that in the above Latin sentences there is no locative form (see below for learning more).
With regard to “Be / feel safe within the walls", here's the translation:
-“Securus esto intra moenia / intra parietes”, if the adjective ‘safe’ (securus) refers to only one male person.
-“Secura esto intra moenia / intra parietes”, if the adjective ‘safe’ (secura) refers to only one female person
- “Securi estote intra moenia / intra parietes”, if the adjective ‘safe’ (securi) refers to 2 or more male persons.
-“Securae estote intra moenia / intra parietes”, if the adjective ‘safe’ (securae) refers to 2 or more female persons.
Best regards,
Maria
__________________________________________________
Note that in “Safety within the walls”:
-within = INTRA (preposition which takes the accusative)
- the walls = MOENIA (accusative neuter plural, 2nd.declension) or PARIETES (accusative plural, 3rd.declension).
_____________________________________________________
In “Be / feel safe within the walls", note that:
-Be / feel = ESTO (imperative of SUM, in the 2nd.person singular) /ESTOTE (imperative of SUM,in the 2nd.person plural)
The LOCATIVE FORM indicates a place in, as in Latin DOMI ( “at home/ in the house”), RURI (in the country), ROMAE (at Rome), EBORACI (at York), ATHENAE (at Athens), etc.
For example DOMI SUM (I am at home); ROMAE SUM (I am at Rome), etc.
In “Safety within the walls” there is no locative, but the preposition “within” which translates as INTRA.
---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------
QUESTION: Thank you for your help. Further to your reply:
Dictionaries show 'baillium' to be the medieval latin root for the modern 'bailey', being a castle wall or enclosure.
William Whitaker's 'Words' lists: Baillii - locative neuter singular, 3rd decension. How does that change a possible Latin translation? Is the 'intra' redundant?
Answer Hello,
First of all I have to repeat that the noun “baillium” (or “ballium” ) does not exist at all in classical Latin which is the true Latin, while Medieval Latin is nothing but the form of Latin used in the Middle Ages when purity of language had been contaminated by Vulgar Latin (‘sermo vulgaris, in Latin), i.e. the idiom of the illiterate, like soldiers, merchants, peasants, slaves, who did not know Latin well, of course.
Secondly, please note that William Whitaker himself in his Introduction says that he is NOT an expert in Latin as his “training is limited to a couple of years in high school almost 50 years ago”(See below).
In short, you cannot use 'baillium' for “wall” and moreover the form “baillii” you mention as a locative is nothing but the standard genitive of this neuter noun which belongs to the 2nd.declension (BAILLIUM/ BALLIUM, nominative- BAILLII/ BALLII, genitive).
The Latin genitive locative in fact can be applied ONLY to the names of cities and small islands belonging to the first and second declension singular, and to a few other isolated words like “domus” and “rus” (view the footnote).
In short a locative “baillii” which should mean ‘within the walls’ is absolutely WRONG, first because this noun does not exist in Latin, second because this noun cannot have a locative case.
Finally, the preposition INTRA is not redundant at all, as it corresponds exactly to “within”.
This in CLASSICAL LATIN, of course, simply because medieval Latin is nothing but late Latin, i.e. a spurious form of Latin.
As a curiosity, I want to tell you that in classical Latin there is the masculine noun BAIULUS (2nd.declension) meaning PORTER in English, that is "A person employed to carry burdens", and then it is probable that it is from BAIULUS as a person employed to carry stakes for building the fortifications that the term 'bailey' is derived.
Hope all is clear enough.
Best regards,
Maria
_____________________________________________________________________
1-See at http://www.archives.nd.edu/words.htm where William Whitaker himself in his Introduction says:
“I am no expert in Latin, indeed my training is limited to a couple of years in high school almost 50 years ago”.
2-Please note that in my previous answer I typed "Athenae" instead of ATHENIS. This name in fact cannot have the genitive locative as it is a plural name(Athenae. Athenarum)and then it takes the ablative case.
