Given the semi-success of mihi in this world...

[conuly]

I've decided to up the ante with still more Latin in my livejournal posts.

If you missed the memo, mihi is the dative (of reference). It means "to/for me", as in "The room is cold mihi. To say "to/for you" you go tibi.

Anyway, now I'm going to start using the pronouns ipse and iste (full declension to follow).

Ipse means "the famous" or "him/her/myself" and iste means "that of yours" or "the disreputable". VERY useful pronouns. Latin was a little pronoun happy.

I'm slightly torn as to whether or not to bother declining them in my typing or not. I'll probably go with not because unless you know Latin, you won't get the declinsions.

Use of ipse

Ipse isn't used to mean "I was talking to myself" or "he killed himself". For my, your, our self you use the regular pronoun (I was talking to me, you want to kill you, we taught us) and for his, her, their self you use the pronoun sui (as in suicide). So, first and second person doesn't get a special word, third person does.

Ipse is used in the sense of "I myself am writing this entry" or "They themselves admit how stupid they've been". It's an intensifier, not a reflexive.

Use of iste

Iste can either mean "that of yours", as in "that dog of yours got into the trash again" and "that boy of yours won the nobel prize" or, more commonly, "that disreputable", as in "iste Bush is stupid" and "iste Bush is ridiculous".

Ipse and Iste declined, along with some other pronouns.

Comments

[strangelette.livejournal.com]

*smiles happily* I have nothing to add except that this post made me think of high school Latin and that made me think about my high school latin teacher Gale who remains the Coolest Person Ever. So yeah, thank ya :)

Re:

[conuly]

Always glad to help. MY high school latin teacher was addicted to star trek, and studies of Latin were often derailed by convos about the romulans.

[strangelette.livejournal.com]

*smiles happily* I have nothing to add except that this post made me think of high school Latin and that made me think about my high school latin teacher Gale who remains the Coolest Person Ever. So yeah, thank ya :)

Re:

[conuly]

Always glad to help. MY high school latin teacher was addicted to star trek, and studies of Latin were often derailed by convos about the romulans.