Many words in the Russian language are of Latin origin. Let's see why this happens.
Features of Roman Names
In the time of Ancient Rome, a special attitude was formed to the names of citizens, especially men. The process of choosing a name turned into a real event. It is worth starting with the fact that the full name of the man contained several parts:
- premenom (personal name);
- nomen (generic name);
- cognominal (nickname or name of the generic branch);
- agnomen (second nickname).
Brand name - This is the same as an ordinary modern name. The Romans did not have so many - several dozen, of which the 18 most common were used. Most of them ended in -us.
In writing, 18 frequently occurring names, as a rule, were not indicated in full, but in abbreviated form. For example, App. instead of Appius, N. instead of Numerius, etc. The names were so ancient that often the Romans themselves did not know where they came from.
Interesting fact: according to tradition, the four eldest sons received unique personal preferences, and the fifth, sixth child and so on were named in accordance with the serial number. For example, Sextus is the sixth.
Gradually, names derived from numbers began to be used in free order. So a boy named Sextus did not have to be the sixth son in the family.
Sometimes sons were named after the fathers. And in 230 BC, this tradition completely turned into a law prescribed by the government.Proof of this is the well-known Guy Julius Caesar Octavian Augustus: four generations of his ancestors carried the personal name Guy.
Some genera preferred to call their sons only 2-3 names. And if one of the representatives of the clan committed a crime, then his name was forever excluded from the list of people used.
Nomen - almost the same as the last name in our time. Grammatically, nomen is a masculine adjective ending in -ius. For example, Yulius (genus Yuliev), Tulius (genus Tuliev). This rule applies only to nomenes of Roman origin.
Generic names were written completely, without abbreviations. An exception was made only by the most famous. There were much more numbers - about 1000. Their values were also mostly forgotten.
First nickname (cognomogeneous) not all Romans had. As a rule, it carried a certain meaning, since cognomains appeared much later than first and last names.
With their help, it was possible to distinguish a son from a father, because the first two components of the name they often coincided. Cognomains were given by the origin of the genus, as a sign of some event, by the peculiarities of the appearance of a person, etc.
Agnomens were not so common. They arose if it was necessary to identify a person among several of his relatives. For example, a son inherited from his father all three parts of a name. Often, the man received his second nickname for his own merits.
Female names
Women did not have personal names at all until a certain time.Instead, the name of the genus was used, for example, Julia - Julia from the genus Juliev (that was the name of Caesar's daughter).
Since all women in the family had the same name, they were distinguished by age. The oldest was called Major, the second oldest - Secunda, the youngest - Minor.
When marrying, a woman left her name, to which was added the cognitive nature of her husband. Representatives of well-known genera also wore fathers' cognomains. In general, feminine names in writing were often accompanied by masculine nomens and cognomogenes. The result is a rather long inscription.
Difficulties in translating names in Latin
It is easy to see that it is in male names that the ending -us is present. The thing is that it just means masculine. At the same time, -us is a case ending (Latin words, like Russian, are inflected).
When translating, there is no need to transfer the ending. For example, no one translates into English the phrase “the work of A. S. Pushkin” as “work of A. S. Pushkina”. Firstly, that phrase sounds unnatural. Yes, and native English speakers who are not used to cases will find it extremely difficult to remember and use them correctly.
The rule for dropping the ending -us applies not only to proper names, but also to common nouns. Of course, there are many exceptions to the rule. Not all words are devoid of this ending. There are many more such examples in the English language, because it was more strongly influenced by Latin than Russian:
- Julius - Julius;
- Cornelius - Cornelius;
- hippopotamus - hippo.
Similarly, the ending -um is discarded, indicating the middle gender.This rule looks most clearly in the periodic table, where most of the elements are translated into Russian in this way.
In addition, in Russian transcription adhere to the principle of preserving the basis of the word. For example, the basis of the word Venus is Vener, although it is poorly manifested in the nominative case, it is clearly visible in the genitive - Veneris. From here comes the translation into Russian - Venus.
To understand the main point of discarding the ending, it is worth trying to pronounce the word Venus in the original format: Venus. And if you also decline it: on Venus, on Venus, it turns out too confusing.
The ending -us in Latin indicates masculine and case. When translated into Russian (and other languages) the basis of the word is transmitted. Carrying the ending does not make sense, because of this the word becomes too difficult in pronunciation and spelling.
