Latin has this really cool feature.

[conuly]

If you want to make a question, you tack -ne to the important question word. So "Annane Mariam occidit" is me asking if it was Anna who killed Mary, while "Mariamne Anna occidit" is me asking if it was Mary whom Anna killed.

You can also make rhetorical questions in a way that makes them stunningly obvious. Nonne (not ne) expects a yes, num expects a no. (And of course, we all remember that after si, nisi, num and ne, all the alis drop away. I swear I will go desecrate the grave of the person who first thought that jingle up.)

I'm going to start using these in English. They're too good to leave to the dead.

Edit: Now I know what yuki was saying. This'll teach me to type Latin in the dead of the morning. *fixes second sentence*

Comments

[yuki-onna.livejournal.com]

That's ok. I don't speak Japanese, only Latin.

And I may not remember correctly either, but it was always my impression that it was simply the first word of the sentence--as I said, I don't recall ever seeing it attached to the second.

I just pointed it out because I find two languages with no common root who share a phonetic interrogative to be intensely interesting--perhaps especially considering early ideas about Asiatic languages detailed in Umberto Eco's Serendipities.

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

As I said, it is interesting; but there are limits to the similarities, which I find equally interesting.
(Incidentally, the German 'ne' doesn't have the qualities of the Latin 'ne' either. Nor does it come from Latin: It is a condensed 'nicht'(=no), which makes it comparable to 'isn't it' or French 'n'est-ce pas' - or Japanese 'ne'.)

Now you mention it, I can't recall having seen the 'ne' attached to any but the first word in a Latin sentence; but of course, since you can switch the words around pretty much as you want, there's actually no need for a 'second word' rule - after all, you can just put the word you want to stress (and tack the 'ne' to) at the beginning of the sentence...

[conuly]

Exactly. English doesn't have free word order, and I like being able to stress certain words, so I'll just tack -ne on wherever I like.