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Aug. 1st, 2006 01:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
labellementeuseFanon I don't get: Sam & Dean speaking Latin.
Or, rather, I do get it because
a) that would be hot
b) fandom in general is made up of geeks. Geeks think obscure knowledge is hot and/or really freaking cool.
c) Latin! Latin is cool.
d) It's not *that* unreasonable. And it would be very useful, I mean, I think it would be a smart skill.
But I was rewatching Shadow last night and Meg speaks in Latin quite a lot in that episode, including a really kind of short phrase when she phones demon papa. And the phrase she uses is [something something] pater me audi. (I went and checked Super-Canon for a transcript; the Shadow transcript just has "Meg says stuff in an ancient language" which, well, ta for that; the Scarecrow transcript says "Tire quiero patem me a di.") My best guess is "te requiro pater me audi." Of course I could be totally wrong and it's not Latin at all; if, however, I'm right, this says... well, it appears to say "I demand that you hear me, father." Mind you, "pater me audi" says exactly the same thing a hell of a lot more quickly (literally, "hear me, father.") and I have a feeling the actual phrases used is kind of ungrammatical, but it's been a while since sixth form Latin, so I'm probably wrong.
Anyway, the point is? It's been nearly three years since I last studied Latin and the phrase "pater me audi" is distinctive and fairly easy to translate. But Sam goes on to say this:
SAM: She was communicating with someone.
DEAN: With who? With the Daeva?
SAM: No, you said those things were savages. No, this was someone different. Someone who’s giving her orders.
So Sam's justification that Meg was speaking to demonpapa was Meg's later conversation in English - and nothing to do with the fact she addressed her mysterious boss-person as "father." Call me crazy, but that seems like way better evidence. I mean, he seems to be extrapolating, guessing, not having certainty - but if he could translate "pater me audi" he would have been certain.
... So now I really want a definitive translation of that Latin, and the rest of what she uses in the ep; or at least confirmation that, yup, it's Latin...
[note for my own purposes: my post in spn_possession on this subject.]
Or, rather, I do get it because
a) that would be hot
b) fandom in general is made up of geeks. Geeks think obscure knowledge is hot and/or really freaking cool.
c) Latin! Latin is cool.
d) It's not *that* unreasonable. And it would be very useful, I mean, I think it would be a smart skill.
But I was rewatching Shadow last night and Meg speaks in Latin quite a lot in that episode, including a really kind of short phrase when she phones demon papa. And the phrase she uses is [something something] pater me audi. (I went and checked Super-Canon for a transcript; the Shadow transcript just has "Meg says stuff in an ancient language" which, well, ta for that; the Scarecrow transcript says "Tire quiero patem me a di.") My best guess is "te requiro pater me audi." Of course I could be totally wrong and it's not Latin at all; if, however, I'm right, this says... well, it appears to say "I demand that you hear me, father." Mind you, "pater me audi" says exactly the same thing a hell of a lot more quickly (literally, "hear me, father.") and I have a feeling the actual phrases used is kind of ungrammatical, but it's been a while since sixth form Latin, so I'm probably wrong.
Anyway, the point is? It's been nearly three years since I last studied Latin and the phrase "pater me audi" is distinctive and fairly easy to translate. But Sam goes on to say this:
SAM: She was communicating with someone.
DEAN: With who? With the Daeva?
SAM: No, you said those things were savages. No, this was someone different. Someone who’s giving her orders.
So Sam's justification that Meg was speaking to demonpapa was Meg's later conversation in English - and nothing to do with the fact she addressed her mysterious boss-person as "father." Call me crazy, but that seems like way better evidence. I mean, he seems to be extrapolating, guessing, not having certainty - but if he could translate "pater me audi" he would have been certain.
... So now I really want a definitive translation of that Latin, and the rest of what she uses in the ep; or at least confirmation that, yup, it's Latin...
[note for my own purposes: my post in spn_possession on this subject.]
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Date: 2006-08-02 02:34 am (UTC)Yeah, part of the reason I dropped it was that the really fantastic teacher had left the year before and the new one was a sweetheart, but not a very experienced teacher. :-/ Latin teachers are not easy to get hold of, apparently.
Oh, no, you're right, the audience definitely wasn't meant to understand it. I was just wondering how much of it the canon character observant was meant to have understood.