My Little Pony: University · 3:59pm Dec 13th, 2015
As it so happens, yesterday Julian "dm29" Yeo (DeviantArt/Derpibooru) uploaded some art of the Mane Six (with Sci-Twi) at a university.
An interesting piece, that. Pinkie would certainly make a good cheerleader. Source
Here, though, I want to nitpick just a little bit here. See that logo in the upper right-hand corner? The motto of Cantermare University is apparently "Amicitia Est Magicae".
Let me stop and say these:
First off, the motto is in the wrong word order. While Latin used a variety of word orders (given its extensive declension), the most typical one was subject-object-verb (SOV). By comparison, English usually uses an SVO word order. So it should be "Amicitia Magicae Est".
Second off, it's missing all the macrons. Macrons are used in Latin to note long vowels. While they may be absent from Google Translate's Latin (which I suspect Yeo used), they can still be found in Medieval manuscripts. So it should be "Amīcitia Magīcæ Est". (The "æ" ligature isn't necessary, but it's a nice typographical feature.)
Third off, magīcæ is declined incorrectly. Magīcæ is actually in its genitive or dative form, depending on context. For English speakers, possession is a variation of the genitive case, i.e. "John's book," where the name John is genitive. Dative fell out of English use back in Middle English; Chaucer was the last author known to use it; basically, it was "to [noun]", i.e. "I gave the book to Jane," where "to Jane" is dative. So, the accusative form of magīcæ is really magīam. (Note also that the root Magicē was borrowed from Ancient Greek Μαγική; Magīa is native to Latin.)
In the end, the motto should be "Amīcitia Magīam Est", not "Amicitia Est Magicae". And, if you haven't guessed yet, the English translation of the whole thing is "Friendship Is Magic". HASBRO Y U NO LATIN DUB
In other news, progress for The Blue Rose will slow down quite considerably, since I was working on it at school, and some hooligan thought it would be pretty funny to steal my flash drive. I still haven't recovered it. In addition, I'm working on an Equestria Girls story on the side, to pass the time during the year-long hiatus. (At least with the latter I had the foresight to put it in my Google Docs.)
Grātiās vōbīs agō, et bonam fortūnam. (Good night, and good luck.)
