Latin/Places and Geography 2

Salvēte omnēs! Welcome back to Latin for Wikiversity. Here you can peruse a new lesson in Latin, in a simple format. If you would like to catch up, you can find a directory of lessons, a classified vocabulary list, and Memrise courses at the links on the right.

In the last lesson we looked at the locative case, a relatively uncommon case used primarily for cities, towns, and small islands. Today we’ll continue an informal study of geography and place-names.

New grammar

Place-names are nouns, but often we use an adjectival form to describe people or things from that place. For example,

Rōma = Rome.

Rōmānus, a, um is the adjectival form, and can be used substantively (as a noun) in masc. or fem. to describe a person from Rome:

Rōmānus is a Roman man. Rōmāna is a Roman woman.

But you can also have populus Rōmānus (the Roman people), virtūtēs Rōmānae (Roman virtues), etc., as an adjective. Germānicus, Italicus, Britannicus would usually be used to describe things, not people, although Germānicus and Britannicus were names of famous Romans, as was Tiberius (named after the Tiber river). A German might be Germānus, a UK citizen might be Britannus or Britō.

Some adjectival forms are created by adding –(i)ēnsis to the noun describing a city or country, e.g. Branta Canadēnsis (Canadian goose), Gallia Narbōnēnsis (the Roman province in Gaul around the city Narbō, now Narbonne), philosophia Athēniēnsis (Athenian philosophy).

This is all made more complicated by the fact that Latin has been changing and adapting for thousands of years and there is no one definitive stylebook of modern usage. We therefore include some basic vocabulary and sentences, some of them taken from Vicipaedia.

Also, we’ll look at some of the Latin terms from higher education, which would not exist if not for Latin. It’s a bit of a digression, but not if we see the development of the human intellect as the most important journey of all. And we wish hearty congratulations to all of you reading this who are celebrating a completion of one part of your intellectual journey!

New Vocabulary

Nouns
Latin	English	Notes
caelum, ī	sky, heaven
vexillum, ī	flag
continēns, continentis, f.	continent, mainland	From contineō = hold in, enclose
ūniversitās, ūniversitātis, f. (ūniversitās magistrōrum et scholārium)	university (community of teachers and scholars)
dīplōma, dīplōmatis, n.	letter of recommendation, letter of authority
gradus, ūs	step, degree, position, rung of a ladder

Adjectives
Latin	English	Notes
almus, a, um	nurturing, nourishing, kind
ūniversus, a, um	all together, all in one, whole, universal
austrālis, e (also meridionalis, e or meridianus, a, um)	southern, of the south	from auster, the south wind, and meridies, midday or noon)
occidentālis, e	western, of the west	From occidens, or occasus, the falling or setting of the sun
orientālis, e	eastern, of the east	From oriens, referring to the rising of the sun
septentriōnālis, e (also borealis, e)	northern, of the north	From the seven stars, septentrio, the big or little dipper, or boreas, the north wind

New Sentences

Latin	English	Notes
Septem continentēs in mundō sunt; Eurōpa, Asia, Africa, Oceania, America septentriōnālis, America austrālis, et Antarctica.	There are seven continents in the world; Europe, Asia, Africa, Oceania, North America, South America, and Antarctica.
Ex oriente lūx, ex occidente lēx.	Light from the east, law from the west.	A phrase sometimes used in the study of civilization; the great religions of humanity arise in the East, bringing metaphorical light, and its legal and political traditions arise in the West, bringing, well, whatever it is they bring.
Ad occidentālem navigāvērunt.	They sailed to the west.
In terram austrālem iter fēcit.	He made a journey into the south (to the southern land).
Ursa Minor constellātiō in caelō septentriōnālī sita est.	Ursa Minor (the smaller bear) is a constellation located in the northern sky.
Scīpiō Africānus Hannibalem et Carthāginiēnsēs vīcit.	Scipio Africanus conquered Hannibal and the Carthaginians.	Africanus was a name given him in honor of his victory in Africa, not because he was African.
Britanniārum Rēgnum est lībera Eurōpae Occidentālis cīvitās, quae ex cīvitātibus Anglia, Scotia, Cambria, in Britannia Maiore īnsula, et Hibernia Septentriōnālī, in Hibernia, cōnstat.	The United Kingdom (kingdom of the British states) is an independent country in western Europe, which consists of England, Scotland, Wales on the island of Great Britain, and Northern Ireland, on Ireland.	Check out the Vicipaedia article
Cīvitātēs Foederātae Americae (CFA)	The United States of America (USA)	There is some dispute about this designation, and the Vicipaedia article is much less detailed than others.
Sententiae Franciae est “lībertās, aequālitās, frāternitās.”	The motto of France is “liberty, equality, fraternity.”	Check out the Vicipaedia article
Caput et urbs maxima Germāniae est Berōlinum.	The capital and largest city of Germany is Berlin.	Check out the Vicipaedia article. Note that “nōmen incolārum – Germānus” (the name of inhabitants is “German” but the adjective is “Germānicus.”
Folium acernum in vexillō Canadae est.	There is a maple leaf on the flag of Canada.
Crēdisne solum ūnum ūniversum esse?	Do you believe that there is only one universe?
In ūniversā terrā.	In the whole earth.
Ūniversitās Bonōniēnsis	University of Bologna (the oldest university)	From Bonōnia
Alma māter	nurturing mother
Ūniversitās Oxoniēnsis	University of Oxford
Ūniversitās Cantabrigiēnsis	University of Cambridge
Ūniversitās Harvardiana	Harvard University
Nuntiī Latīnī Occidentālis Studiōrum Ūniversitās Vasintoniēnsis Bellinghamiae	The Latin News podcast of Western Washington University at Bellingham	not a particularly old university, but they put on an enjoyable podcast with a transcript, and you should definitely check it out if you want to improve your Latin.
Alma mater	nurturing mother
Magnā cum laude	with great praise
Summā cum laude	with greatest praise
Artium Baccalaureus / Magister	Bachelor / Master of Arts
Scientiae Baccalaureus / Magister	Bachelor of Science
Philosophiae Doctor	Ph.D., Doctor of Philosophy
Gradum / dīplōma suscēpit.	He received his degree/diploma	ie, graduated
Honōris causā	for the reason of honor	an honorary degree

Practice

Practice and learn the words and phrases in this lesson
Step one	First learn the words using this lesson: Locative and Geography vocabulary
Step two	Next try learning and writing the sentencing using this: Locative and Geography Sentences
Note that the Memrise stage covers the content for all lessons in each stage. If you are skipping previous stages you may need to manually "ignore" the words in previous levels (use the 'select all' function)

Valēte et bonam fortūnam!

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