Re: 3d person imperative

At 9:48 am -0400 9/5/00, John Cowan wrote:
>Roger Mills wrote:
>
>>  I don't recall ever encountering the Latin Future Imperative, except in
>> grammar-book listings.
>
>Here's a real-world example from the XII Tables (the first written Roman
>law):
>
>        SI CLIENTI PATRONUS FRAUDEM FECERIT SACER ESTO
>
>"If an aristocrat commits fraud against his dependent, let him be[come]
>accursed."
Yep - 'esto' in fact is not uncommon in later Latin either.

>>  cake (actually brioche, wasn't it?)
It certainly was:
"Qu'ils mangent de la brioche!"

>Nah, she never said it.
Yes, its attribution to Marie Antoinette is now regarded as apocryphal by
reputable scholars.  The saying, in various forms, has also be attributed
to Yolande, duchesse de Polignac, to the Princesse Victoire, to Queen Maria
Teresa and to many others.  It appears, in fact, to have had an earlier
ancestry than any of these 'worthies'.

Princess Charlotte, daughter of the Prince Regent (later George IV) is
similarly said to have said she would "rather eat beef than starve" and to
have be puzzled as to why people should insiste on eating bread when it was
so scarce    :)

Ray.

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A mind which thinks at its own expense
will always interfere with language.
                   [J.G. Hamann 1760]
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