Re: Latin question: "titillandus"

On Thu, Mar 07, 2002 at 06:22:07AM +0000, Raymond Brown wrote:

Hello Ray, nice to see you back here, your knowledge is appreciated.

> Yep - same idea as the English proverb: "Let sleeping dogs lie" (IME a very
> good idea - never had any experience with dragons, but I have no doubt the
> same applies).
>
> In Welsh one has:
>  Na deffro      'r ci   a   fo'n cysgu
> Not wake[IMP.] the dog that is in sleeping
> i.e. Don't wake the sleeping dog.
Hmm, I'm a bit surprised by the pres. subjunctive, presumably because no
actual dog is referred to despite the definite article. Mod. Welsh
generally begins negative imperatives with "peidiwch a ..." 'refrain from'
which would be quite appropriate here. Presumably the phrase is proverbial
and thus a bit archaic.

Conlangs are a bit on the back burner right now, but I'll do it in
Cornish :

Dragon yn kosk -- bydh war y losk
A dragon asleep -- beware her fire

(Cornish dragons are apparently female, at least grammatically)

Keith Mylchreest

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