#gothicus summus

[katesfoxhole]

Speaking of Latin being used as the translation convention for High Gothic, it just occurred to me that if Astartes was a third-declension i-stem plural noun, then the singular form would be Astartis.

I will be using that from now on.

I mean, I could instead headcanon that it's fifth-declension, in which case Astartes would be both the singular and plural (in the nominative case)... but that would be boooooring.

So, to recap:

[katesfoxhole]

It just occurred to me to wonder, do Astartes speak High Gothic, Low Gothic, or both?

It would be funny if they only spoke High Gothic and only the more educated Guard officers could even communicate with them.

Meanwhile a handful of Astartes do go to the trouble of learning Low Gothic, and they get mocked for caring about the squishy mortals.

[katesfoxhole]

Translating "rogue trader" into Latin (i.e. High Gothic) was a bit of a challenge. In my New College Latin Dictionary, the entry for "rogue" was furcifer, but when I put that into the Online Latin Dictionary, it turned out that meant something more like "rascal" or "criminal".

(actually the first thing I did was misspell it and get fucus for "rouge" as a color)

I tried "uncontrolled" next, which in the New College was effrenatus. That turned out to be a horse metaphor, it literally means "unbridled", a horse out of its rider's control. Implicitly because the rider has been negligent, has allowed the reins to fall slack.

I think that's a good description of the relationship between Rogue Traders and the Imperium. ^_^

I tag factions/groups in the nomitive plural, so "rogue traders" would be mercatores effrenati. Nom singular would be mercator effrenatus.

[katesfoxhole]

Current stab at High Gothic (Latin) translations of all the primarchs' names. As a rule of thumb I went with the 2nd declension masculine singular, but used the plural for Alpharius. And Fulgrim is in the 3rd declension neuter. Jaghatai's is based on the Turkish pronunciation (that's a capital i not a lowercase L).

Leo Calibani (lit. Lion of Caliban)

(occultus)

Fulgur (also illa podicem)

Perturabus

Iogateus Caganus

Lemanus Ruber

Rogalus Dornus

Conradus Curzus

Angelus Magnus (lit. The Great Angel)

Ferrus Manus (lit. ferrus manus)

(occultus)

Iratus

Robutus Guillimanus

Mortarius

Magnus Ruber

Horus Lupercalus

Lorgar Aurelianus

Vulcanis

Corvus Coraxus

Alpharii Omegoni

[katesfoxhole]

"Vērax sum, Praefĭctrix. Significationes maxĭmē rancidae sunt."

*In perfect High Gothic*

"Imma be real, Captain. The vibes are absolutely rancid."

[katesfoxhole]

I like to use a unique tagging system on all my blogs to make it easy to find posts again

Latin is used as the translation convention for Imperial High Gothic, since that language doesn't exist (and English is busy standing in for Low Gothic). Also I'm studying Latin and need all the practice I can get.

Ergo (therefore), I am tagging posts on this sideblog in Latin.

#vetmalleus - oldhammer

#Haeresis Hori - Horus Heresy

#canon capitis XLk - 40k headcanon

#meretrix doctrina - lore slut

#tribus tumblrensis XLk - 40kblr

#debacchari - ranting

#caconere - shitposting (portmanteau of caco- and proponere)

#sitis - thirst

#sane non - not really

[katesfoxhole]

Sĕquĭmini me si gradum infĕro. Occīdĭte me si fŭgĭo. Vindĭcāte me si mŏrĭor.

[katesfoxhole]

While coming up with a tag for Watchers in the Dark I realized I'd fucked up my Dark Angels tag. Of the three adjective forms of "dark" in my Latin dictionary I wanted the one that had (gloomy) with it, but misread which of them it was attached to.

Semicolons. Dictionary formatting is so dense. Gotta remember to look where the semicolons are.

[katesfoxhole]

Perfectly.

My stab at translating that into "High Gothic" is arminfantes (Source). Which I will be using as a tag from now on.

I was browsing through my files and ran across this silly thing--

--and in retrospect, I feel like the term "armorbaby" sums up a lot of the feelings people 'round here have about space marines

[katesfoxhole]

I'm doing Wheelock, although I also listen to the audio version of per se Illustrata. It's all on youtube.

Thanks for @ing me!

just wondering, any tips you'd recommend for learning latin? I've been thinking of learning it since it sounds pretty fun but I don't really know where to start with it

Tips:

When studying vocabulary, close your eyes and picture the meaning of a Latin word while saying it. So for dux, form a mental image of a leader leading his army. For monere, picture someone shaking their finger in warning. For sub, find an image that signifies the meaning to you--for me, it's a boat going under a bridge. Having an image will help your brain bypass the English word to think in Latin.

After translating a sentence, do the same thing. Reread it aloud, clearly picturing what is happening in the sentence. If it describes an action, you could try moving your body to mimic the action, or if it's a question, pretend you're asking a friend. Try different tones of voice and facial expressions to get the meaning across. Eventually, you should be able to understand some sentences on the first read, without translating.

If you ever have the opportunity to practice speaking Latin with someone else, do it! It's so good for your comprehension.

Getting started:

Most textbooks will assume you're starting from scratch. Here are some different options to suit different learning needs:

Latina Lingua per se Illustrata uses no English at all. It tells a story in Latin, starting out with very simple sentences and progressing to harder ones. I think it's brilliant, but it may be difficult if you don't have a teacher.

Via Latina has been recommended to me as a similar idea, but using Latin primary sources rather than a story. I haven't personally used it, but it sounds amazing.

Henle is a four-year course appropriate for high school or college students. It's the one I used, but I don't think it's the best course out there. It is available online though, and the companion grammar is excellent.

Wheelock is a one-year textbook appropriate for college students. I only used it briefly, but my husband loves it. It covers roughly the same material as Henle in just one book, so it's denser for sure.

Regardless of what you're using, it's always helpful to be able to ask someone for help when you're stuck, so try to track down a "Latin mentor" if you can!

Best of luck.

[katesfoxhole]

Y'know, there are whole swaths of Human languages that don't have grammatic articles (e.g. a, an & the in English), so there's an even chance neither branch of Gothic has them.

It's entirely possible that in Gothic, High or Low, there is no linguistic difference between "My other ride is a Leman Russ" and "My other ride is Leman Russ".

If I'm a Guard trooper fighting alongside Space Wolves, I am going to choose my words VERY carefully.

[katesfoxhole]

Omnissiah omni est.

Etsy is advertising sexy neurolictor to me now

[katesfoxhole]

When I first got into 40K in the late 2e era, there was a constant refrain of "bring back Squats!" from older fans. GW had basically stealth-decanonized them at some point. They were included among the basic army lists in the Black Codex that came with the 2e box set, and then never mentioned again, and their fans were salty about it.

Now Squats are back! I'm happy for those fans. But now I need to come up with a High Gothic tag for them. A literal translation of "squat" doesn't work, since in Latin (parvus) that carries connotations of weakness, trivialness, or modesty.

My New College Latin Dictionary has a word for dwarf (pūmĭlĭo), but with no context or connotation, and since the Romans wouldn't have had much contact with Scandinavian mythology (where fantasy dwarves come from) I suspect that term refers to real people with dwarfism, which wouldn't be appropriate and might be offensive.

For now, I've settled on obtura ignibus, but that's admittedly a bit tongue-in-cheek. I'd welcome suggestions.

Space Dwarf Trikes Are Back!

[katesfoxhole]

Third declension neuter. Like all faction tags it's in the nominative plural.

I used necrontyr rather than necron as the stem, which may have been a mistake. Tbh I've never been that interested in necrons, so I've never delved that deep into their lore. Apparently necrontyr ≠ necrons, but are a precursor of them? Whoops.

alienigenae (xenos)

eldares – eldar (fifth declension f)

tyrannia – tyrannid (third declension i-stem n)

veridicutes – orks (lit. greenskins)(third declension f)

pueri caerulei – Tau (lit. blue boys)(second declension m)

necrontyra necrona – necrons (third declension n)

All this talk about space marine husbandry, where are the stories of necrons adopting flocks of adoring tech-priests

[katesfoxhole]

Because Latin is used as a translation convention for High Gothic. And it helps me learn and remember it.

something that doesn't come up very often in the How Bad Is Emps discussion is that he's. he's really old. millennia old. there's no way his sense of time isn't flagrantly broken. i mean look at him! every time we get an immediate perspective on him the dude is making plans with thousand-year timeframes. all of his buddies (well, ex-buddies) are perpetuals. emps has more in common with the eldar or the necrons when it comes to sense of time than he does with literally any non-perpetual, and that includes the primarchs.

just think about it. the primarchs are, what, three centuries old at Ullanor? they're BABIES. ok, maybe they're not babies, they're clearly old enough for simple tasks like systematic genocide and aggressive expansion, but c'mon, they haven't even reached their first millennium. of course emps isn't going to burden them with adult concerns like the encroaching threat of Chaos, or the potential dangers as humans evolve into a psyker species, or the existential challenges imposed by their warp-entity-wearing-flesh natures. they're kids! let them be kids! their brains are still growing, probably.

so yeah, emps holds off on some big conversations. and yeah, he ducks out of the crusade to go work on the webway by himself, what's wrong with that? it's just a few decades! he's spent more than a thousand years uniting humanity, surely he deserves a little time to himself. from emps's perspective, he's just spending an afternoon building a treehouse in his workshop. the kids are old enough to know better than to stick forks into electrical outlets, they'll be okay for an evening. horus you're a responsible guy, you're in charge.

but then like five minutes later magnus fucking bursts through the wall like the kool aid man screaming bloody hell about horus and then the hole he made starts puking daemons everywhere and yeah emps loses his temper and yells but he was gone for FIVE MINUTES. and now there's daemons all over his workshop! magnus what the fuck! only magnus fled as soon as emps started yelling without explaining a damn thing. also the hole is still puking daemons. ok, ok, emps will stay in the workshop and try to fix the hole before everything is covered in daemons, but he still needs to figure out what the hell is going on. leman, you're an obedient kid, hell you're always boasting about it, surely YOU'LL listen. go get magnus--yeah, i know you don't get along, this isn't the time--go get magnus and bring him here so he can explain himself.

emps goes back to the hole and--leman did WHAT? magnus did WHAT? HOW DID THEY FUCK UP BASIC INSTRUCTIONS. hang on, what's this about an isstvan. horus is rebelling? fucking HORUS??? nine legions????? HALF THE ARMY????? wtf wtf wtf oh shit it's chaos isn't it. emps looked away for five minutes and chaos got its claws in his boys. it's been six years. that's like a bathroom break. how did the boys break everything in SIX YEARS???

[katesfoxhole]

...I think so? Maybe? I've only been learning Latin for 2 months lol

When you talk about Emps and maybe mention him probably being Alexander the great please talk about Hephaestion

This doesn't come up much, but I headcanon the Emperor as profoundly queer by every definition we have.

We're talking about a shape-shifting entity that has existed since the dawn of civilization and will do just about anything to accomplish their goals. Malcador, and more importantly Aaron Demski-Bowden, has stated that the Emperor will adopt whatever persona suits their goals. In fact, I'm pretty sure Malcador explicitly says that they have adopted female personas in the past. This is a creature that has long since transcended petty human concerns like sexuality and gender.

I am 100% certain that the Emperor has been male, female, and enby at some point, that they have slept with all genders, and that they have both sired and born children. The only reason I use he/him pronouns is because their current persona is masculine.

So yeah, Emps definitely banged Hephaestion, banged dudes before him, and banged dudes after. Heaven only knows what gender they were during the dude-banging, but the answer is probably "yes."