Ma che staddi, can it be comparable to the french saying " Mais qu'est ce tu dis ? " B in french is still Bé not bi.... italian is more fucked up than I thought.... 🤣😂
As a Italian i think people forget Rome is not latin city . Much like Washington DC is not a Maryland city even tho it is built land given to DC by Maryland ! Rome was built with people from all over Italy invited by Romulus , The people and land around what became Rome was in Latium and people of Latin .Which means that what people spoke in start of Rome might been more latin with words from other areas of Italy thrown and mix in .
My grandmothers maiden name was Videon . I gather it’s kind of old . Yes I do known what it means now a days most of her blood line got wiped out during the Second World War . Luckily my mother and father passed it on to me through my middle name. I gather it is Latin . Hopefully that context rises why I wrote about it
I think one of the reasons they switch to English is not because they think he's speaking English, it's because English is a lingua franca. A lot of people do that In Europe especially, not just in Italy, if they can speak it. They know the traveler is more likely to also speak English than another language they might speak.
I think it'll be funny as if he would speak also ancient Hebrew and a synagogue now that would be priceless or ancient Egyptian to a bunch of modern-day Egyptians, ancient Chinese in Hong Kong or ancient Aztec in Mexico City
@@kosmalaanimations2864 there isn’t a significant difference between “ancient Hebrew” and modern Hebrew. Just remove all the modern slang/word adaptations and all you’re left with is “ancient Hebrew”.
I thought this was the case as well. But if you look closely, you'll see that they were asking other people (not the guy himself) if anyone can speak english.
I have watched the original before with pleasure, but having your commentary as an insider on multiple levels takes things to a new dimension. Thanks, Metatron!
@obscureorca Ah. The name game. Yes yes. Well, in my family, there were three John Boltons. Then there's all the other relations at various distances. These are not the droids you're looking for.
Yeah, you're definitely right lol Shorter words in that "ma che stai/sta (he) addì/a dì?" so it's better with each other rather than "ma che stai/sta dicendo?" with any of the two. Although the french one is definitely still not close with that one as the italian one is, it's just the sound, there's no question when it comes to knowing what the words say and recognizing the words, especially because french is hard anyway.
@dusk6159 Yeah, they're definitely not* the same contracted words, but it's funny that it means the same thing and sounds pretty much the exactly the same (ok, the intonnation is different and Mais vs Ma, although they can sound very close in certain french accents)
@ricois3 That, for me new, last thing you've said could be good and bad news simultaneously for me lol Definitely bad for a french that would expect the "mais"/"but" spoken like in french and who of course only knows it from french. The spanish too I guess. Unlike italians.
I spent nine years learning Latin at school from the age of 9...We were verbally tested on vocabulary and conjugation every friday. More than two mistakes and we were beaten with a stick....The joys of English Catholic school in the 1970s/80's.
I have 2 comments regarding this: 1) Just like many other boys my age, I had no idea classical Latin pronunciation existed. I was watching a cover of "Lilium" (the opening from the "Elfen Lied" anime), which is in Latin and criticised the singer because she was using classical pronounciation (which is the one the original singer was using). It was thanks to the "Dead Poets Society" movie (which I had watched like 13 years ago for the first time) that I discovered classical pronounciation existed. 2) I met and spoke (horribly) Latin to Luke myself at a meet and greet in Rome. I had a wonderful time
And he was probably looking for a kind of 'lingua franca' to communicate. English being the most universal one for someone who he guessed was a tourist.
well, it's Luke Rainieri. He is Italian descendant. There is nothing in his fisionomy that says he is not Italian. Although sometimes we identify foreigners just by clothing, as weird as that sounds... our brains seem to be wired to identify "strangers".
@@rogeriopenna9014 I’m not familiar with Italian fashion, but yeah Americans are usually easy to pick out just by what we wear and our mannerisms. Also, if someone came up to me and started speaking old English I’d more than likely initially assume it was German he was speaking. If he kept going I might think it was Dutch. And only if he persisted would I maybe figure out it was old English
That's absolutely correct. Just read the subtext, that first guy said something like "can anyone speak to this man? He doesn't speak English or Italian!"
So you're telling me that Italians don't feel comfortable with vowel length, but they are addicted to double consonants. I feel like it makes things even
Tbh I think most Sardinians wouldn't understand him, maybe some very specific populations in remote villages night understand some of it, but not much more
@@MrRabiddogg yeah I am from Sardinia, the closest language doesn't mean that they are mutually intelligible. Like Korean is the closest language to japanese but I really don't believe they are mutually intelligible 😂. Also there are 3 main dialects of Sardinian and each of them has dozen of sub local varieties where most small towns have their sub-dialect with many differences (welcome to languages in Europe 😂)
@@GigaDavy91 I understand completely. I was just curious as to how much closer it would be. Ecolinguist's channel does have a ton of episodes where related languages try to understand each other but of course the people on that show appear to be experts so its not quite the same. Luke did one a few years back speaking Latin with Italian, French and a couple others
I think you misunderstood the people, they where not saying that he was speaking English, they where asking him if he could speak English and if there where any English speakers to communicate assuming that he could perhaps communicate in English.
Yeah you're right. At this point one could've guessed that the man, and others, just also think and also know that english is the most common language in the world, especially for a tourist, and in a a context like there in Europe, Western Europe at that.
I live in an area with lots of tourists from around the world, mostly I just default to English because even when they don’t speak it, they often at least understand a few words that helps them find the way.
sono spagnolo e conosco questo canale da circa un mese, e non capisco come tu non abbia potuto reagire a polýMATHY prima!! Sono contento che sia adesso, mentre sono qui io ahahaha. Un saluto da un fan dell'Estremadura!
Old English is far more removed from Modern English than classical Latin is from modern Italian. Middle English, assuming its late london middle english, not a chance you wouldn't be able to piece together through context whats being asked of you-- it's not as hard to understand as you're letting on, just look up a video of someone reciting Chaucer.
That's valid probably for all languages, as a Czech, I can barely understand 150 years old books. It's not like you don't understand it at all, but it looks like some crazy dialect and many words have completely different meaning now, even writting systems are evolving, when I see 150 years old books, it feels like Polish or something like that more than Czech. I don't know how much English alphabet changed in last like 200 years, but I guess it's gonna be similar.
Modern English has more than half of its vocabulary made by words of latin origin, due to its continued linguistical borrowing though history. That makes it far more distant to Middle English than Italian is to Latin. As an Italian native speaker who never had an education in Latin, I still find several Latin words to sound almost the same to their Italian equivalents.
Місяць тому+2
I can understand if you don't understand old English. But you wouldn't recognize it is old English? Even if you don't understand what the other person is saying you might know at least that it is old English...... Italians and spaniards Should recognize that a person is speaking in Latin even if they don't understand a word or the majority of the words
To break a lance for the natives, in a day to day scenario, you wouldn't expect for someone (probably a tourist in their eyes) to speak Latin to them. I think there's also the fact their mind is going for the more usual situation. They're going for English, Spanish etc ... because those are the most common languages spoken by tourists in Rome.
My first Latin instructor was Cuban. As a Spanish speaker, she regarded Latin as a dialect of her native language. She taught it as a conversational language, we spoke it. This was a wonderful foundation for the rest of my years of study.
It's rather strange seeing Metatron misunderstand the romans asking Luke as to whether he *also* speaks english, to facilitate communication, and just assume them being denser than they are, supposing they think he's speaking some form of odd english dialect. Not sure how that could happen. It appeared clear enough to me that the lady was trying to utilise english as a lingua franca given the fact they were both struggling to understand classical latin. At least I get Metatron's frustration, just that I'm frustrated with his misunderstanding of the situation, not with them per se. 10/10 I suffered greatly, sir.
Hmmm, too bad this guy isn't testing it out in Romania. Romanian is the closest living language to latin. I bet they'd actually get some of it. Just by listening to him, I could make out most of his questions. For context, I'm Romanian.
"romanian is the closest living language to latin". This is a controversial statement! It has a flavour of nationalism in it. Some linguists would laugh at it. Maybe form the grammar point of view romanian is closer in SOME aspects, but phonetically, the variants of sardinian are way closer. Romanian is more conservative, but that doesn't automatically mean it's the closest to latin. So that statement is an exaggeration that I often see among romanians wanting to believe they are more special or something. And I am romanian too. Those bombastic statements are better to be avoided!
I have travelled in Italy enough to get by in Italian but what I remember being amazed by is that some of the dialects were.. Well. Armacord. Who has ears to hear, let him hear. I also once saw a Spaniard asking directions in his language and an Italian answering in his. This was in Salerno. And it worked out
This reminds me of when my best friend and I (he having gone to a German school and I was learning German at the time, around 15 years old) in Louisiana, when we entered a 7-11 and pretended to only speak German. Afterwards we were both in tears from laughing so hard because the extremely patient shop attendant actually believed us: when he told us "that'll be two dollars" we opened up a roll of pennies on the counter and started counting in German.
I think they don't understand him so they ask him if he knows English rather than thinking that it's English I am certain that they know it isn't English
Metatron, a little note on the part about what kind of pronunciation is taught in Italy: I attended classical high school here in Italy up until 2022 and they always taught me Latin with the classical pronunciation. So I think that the trend is changing. Other than that, nice video as always, ciao!!!
Same for me and I speak French. A few words are too close to not be understandable and once you get them, at least, you have a basic idea of the subject is talking about.
I am a Romanian and i understood all he asked, many similarity between this and Romanian. Ubi est? Unde este?Rotundum aedificium, Edificiu rotund. Vicinia, vecinatate. Descendere, descindere....
When I was 14, I went to Italy with my Latin class, we had a brief Italian class for trip, but I had a conversation with a ww2 veteran (This was 1975) using my Latin knowledge to glean the gist of what he was saying.
i wondered when you’d find these videos! i think it’s fun how willing people are to try to engage in these exchanges, especially when they realize he’s speaking latin and they can understand some of it. the way their faces light up when they get it is great
I wonder how well Spanish people would understand him. Latin sounds aproximate Spanish quite a bit, like Eclesia is Iglesia in Spanish, Gratia is gracias. Until recently in Hispanic countries church services were in Latín so they will be familiar at least with the ecclesiastical version. I remember as a child being an Altar-boy I noticed the similarities ALL THE TIME. The online Italian teacher Davide of Podcast Italiano went to Spain and only spoke Italian and he found it quite easy to be understood surprisingly!
As a native Spanish I can say we understand Latin very badly. The grammar is very different, and the vocabulary is also very different. Spanish has a lot of words that come from ancient Greek instead of Latin, and a good amount from Arabic.
First time I thought "maybe Latin is not dead language", I was on a bus in Rome and I've heard 2 people talking in a strange language, after a while I started hearing "ubi est" "sed" (I've done Latin in scientific high school) and I thought "This two are really speaking Latin, maybe it's their common language".
Honestly, though. I am Italian and I've never studied Latin in my life, but I can say that I understood almost everything Luke said (at least the meaning, if not the exact words). And I'm not from Rome, but from the North of Italy.
Sardinians understand classical republican latin (the one he's using for), but today's Romans understands classical imperial latin from when the pronouncing Ce=Ke and Ci=Ki change into Ce=Che and Ci=Chi; or late imperial and/or ecclesiastical latin when the change was already settled down (except on Sardinia, of course). If he truly wanted to be understood by today's Romans, he'd should used late imperial and/or ecclesiastical latin instead.
Well, that and the v=w sound that it's preserved only on some very few sardinian dialects. Meanwhile, today's Romans pronounce v as a frictative f because on late imperial latin the v=w sound changed into v=ff
I don't think they think he's speaking English. I think they want to know if he speaks English so they can attempt to communicate with him in English. English is usually the langauge that speakers of different languages use if they can't understand each other's language.
I've had Latin at school, but it was only in the high school (in Portugal), and it wasn't mandatory; I've completely failed on that one because it was always after lunch, and the teacher had such a monocordic cadence. :D
In my Latin textbook in liceo, we had a few explainations on classical vs ecclesiastical pronunciation at the beginning but after the first lesson I don't think it was ever mentioned again
He made one where he did it in the Vatican. And the results were fun. Oh, and the Vatican not only has a homepage in italian, english, french etc. They also offer latin. Which isn't all surprising considering latin is official languge of the Holy See.
"ma che staddi?" Can be understood in some rural areas in Brazil as we usually say "mas o que tá dizendo?("but what are you saying?")",of course with a very heavy accent, especially in those villages with italian descendants.
My father, who spoke or read 6 languages and taught Latin in high school, would have gotten a kick out of this. I saw the original long time ago and found it interesting.
Around 4:00 i always thought that dead language means that it doesn't evolved anymore and will stay the same forever (which would also happen with non-native speakers)
Raf, it's all fun and games until you end up in a similar situation! I was never spoken Latin to, but every time I hear an In Extrēmō song I have a real hard time figuring out if it's in Latin or some medieval Portuguese or French.
Both you and Luke should work together on a Latin project like this - if you think you could keep a straight face like Luke did. That would be brilliant because one person alone could be speaking gibberish but two people speaking the same language is more believable.
That's an *EXCELLENT* idea! Imagine the two of them speaking fluent Latin in public and capturing the reactions of those around them! Bonus points if they're wearing legionary armor! 😂
In my Latin class at school (in England), our (English, non-Italian speaking) teacher told us he visited Italy and got by quite well by using Latin. Mind you, that was 55 years ago, and he may have exaggerated a little. I was bad at Latin, and failed the exam, but it's still one of the most valuable subjects I studied because of its wide use in the Sciences and of course its being a base of the Romance languages.
I love Latin very much. The long vowels are cake for me since I speak an Athabaskan language. Luke is just amazing. Metatron is incredible himself too ❤
As an American English speaker? I absolutely cannot understand old English. But surprisingly much of the Shakespearean stuff I relate too better than Received Pronunciation. Americans left Europe before the great vowel shift, while all the rest of the English colonies left after. I have a hard time figuring out if someone is from Wales or New Zealand I am amazed Metatron how grounded you are in world cultures. Great job!🙏🏻 BTW, I suck at English and barely made it through High School. I took some German language lessons and phonetic languages make a lot more sense to me. And it’s why every American child in Kindergarten spells CAT - KAT. Poor kids! Oops! You forgot the secret handshake!
He didn't think he was speaking english he was just asking if he can speak english to use it as a lingua franca, which is standard practice in most places in the world. As a portuguese speaker I use english with many spanish speakers
Most people in the video didn’t even notice it was latin, which is something a lot of us who speak a romance language don’t quite grasp. These are languages that look like latin, but the difference is massive. I got the vibe that people thought he was just a foreign tourist trying to speak italian. 😂
it's classical latin which is indeed a dead language. They probably acknowledged it but couldn't admit someone was pranking them speaking a dead language. It's an overly sophisticated prank and you always hesitate before going uterly hostile against someone
@@cmolodietsThere may be some truth in this. I tend to fill in persons' intentions more to the negative side when I don't grasp what they mean, and I always feel terrible when I assumed bad motives, acted upon it, and then find out they probably weren't there. You try to avoid these situations.
Ciao Metatron, mi chiamo Emanuela e come te abito qua negli States, Florida, e non pe esse volgare...ma io m'aspettavo un po' piu' de risposte colorite tipo: ao' ma vedi d'annattene; macche cazzo sta addi'; ma che voi e levete... e cosi' via....vedi io son cresciuta proprio a San Giovanni in Laterano e sono proprio sorpresa della smielata gentilezza di codesti romani nel video. Eh come cambiano i tempi, na vorta o mannavamo a quer paese subbito subbito. Ciao e grazie per il contenuto dei tuoi canali che molto spesso they make my day🤩
25 years ago i went to italy for the first time - didnt know any italian, was confident in my latin, though. I quickly found out i needed to learn a whole new language. I went to Milano back then.
I’ve been watching you since high school and I remember when I initially saw your videos I didn’t realise you were Italian, I thought you were an English guy who was maybe born to Italian immigrant parents.
Salve! Morituri te salutant. My native language is German, 6 years of Latin. The Latin subtitles so clear. Born in Lentia, studied in Vindobona. When I visited Rom with my wife, its in German: tomorrow we will see the Forum Romanum, Kolosseum etc. WHen sneaking in a Church during a mass I could easily understand the prayers in Italian like (from Latin) Pater nostro Ave Maria. In the Video Flavier (German), famous family, it was so funny the guy was clueless in ROMA!!!!!! In school we had different Latin teachers, who insisted in different pronounciations, some was said to be classical, the other's name I do not rembmember. Ceterum censeo YOU need to open a free on the street school, so that the Romans understand the classical names of their buildings, ;-)
@@Akhgy Was, since Vaticanum II no. Its supposed to be everywhere in the local language. I am 72 and as a child I heard the old ritus, understood it only when I had learned Latin at school.
Vids like Luke’s here and Xiaoma’s have come up in my feed lately, and I genuinely don’t know how to feel about the trolling aspect of them. Yours is very educational in explaining various aspects of Latin pronunciation and Luke’s use of word choice-and I am grateful for that. But the subtext of a video like Luke’s seems off, and it’s definitely the case that he’s inconveniencing well meaning Romans for the sake of his channel, if not his vanity. immo vero, latine loqui et scribere possum, sed numquam loquerer adversum aliquem qui non in lingua versatus sit ne putet me male sibi loqui aut se ab me ludificatum esse-quod arbitror eum fecisse Romae et eum id fecisse ut haberet “likes.”
I mean to be fair what you expect from a person who do the either did not get a great education or was taught Latin but it’s been a long time, so that knowledge is long gone. It’s like asking any random waiter in their 40s to do a quadratic problem for high school level. They studied it so much but after school they forget it.
Been watching polymathy for a while, most italians don't learn latin anymore although he did find some fluent speakers at the vatican. Even my dad who went to school in southern italy during the 60's and had to chose a mandatory foreign language during school chose german and french as a foreign language over latin when he had the choice. Rare language to encounter nowadays which is said as it sounds beautiful.
When the fella said, no one speaks Latin. That would have been a perfect opportunity to get someone else who's in on the joke to walk past and strike up a conversation in Latin and give him directions 😁.
I have a man that was born in Sicily at my job, on the team I lead (in America). He's almost 70 years old. A lot of times we'll switch languages to French, Italian, and Spanish if it's a conversation between the two of us. Sometimes I'll speak Latin though...I would say about half the time he understands it, and half the time he thinks I'm trying to incorrectly say something in Italian, to which I respond "Loquor lingua Latinām, loqueris lingua Latinām".
I don't think the italians think he is speaking english, they are asking because maybe if he did speak english they could comunicate. I would of asked him if he spoke english because I do speak english it would of been easy to comunicate
Link to the original video
ua-cam.com/video/DYYpTfx1ey8/v-deo.html
Ma che staddi, can it be comparable to the french saying " Mais qu'est ce tu dis ? "
B in french is still Bé not bi.... italian is more fucked up than I thought.... 🤣😂
As a Italian i think people forget Rome is not latin city . Much like Washington DC is not a Maryland city even tho it is built land given to DC by Maryland ! Rome was built with people from all over Italy invited by Romulus , The people and land around what became Rome was in Latium and people of Latin .Which means that what people spoke in start of Rome might been more latin with words from other areas of Italy thrown and mix in .
My grandmothers maiden name was Videon . I gather it’s kind of old . Yes I do known what it means now a days most of her blood line got wiped out during the Second World War . Luckily my mother and father passed it on to me through my middle name. I gather it is Latin . Hopefully that context rises why I wrote about it
I think one of the reasons they switch to English is not because they think he's speaking English, it's because English is a lingua franca. A lot of people do that In Europe especially, not just in Italy, if they can speak it. They know the traveler is more likely to also speak English than another language they might speak.
He should do “speaking Ancient Greek in Greece” next
I don't think he did , but Easy Languages did in a much more relaxed format.
ua-cam.com/video/B2fRTS8DZ8U/v-deo.html
I think it'll be funny as if he would speak also ancient Hebrew and a synagogue now that would be priceless or ancient Egyptian to a bunch of modern-day Egyptians, ancient Chinese in Hong Kong or ancient Aztec in Mexico City
I think they'd understand a little bit
@@kosmalaanimations2864 there isn’t a significant difference between “ancient Hebrew” and modern Hebrew. Just remove all the modern slang/word adaptations and all you’re left with is “ancient Hebrew”.
Whoever does "Speaking Sumerian in Iraq" wins
9:30 He’s not thinking Luke’s speaking English, at the moment. He’s just asking, if Luke *_COULD_* speak English.
They are indeed thinking he's speaking english and they are trying to find someone that speaks it as well so they can understand him
Right
Yeah I second that
I thought this was the case as well. But if you look closely, you'll see that they were asking other people (not the guy himself) if anyone can speak english.
Yeah, 'tron here not just NOT understanding Roman Italian, he's not reading the damn captions😂
You and Luke should do this in Sardinia, that will be fascinating to watch!
I second this!
Yes please
Me too
There language sounds like Latin I agree
He said the he spoke the Latin from the holy Roman empire, from the forest century
I have watched the original before with pleasure, but having your commentary as an insider on multiple levels takes things to a new dimension. Thanks, Metatron!
Same, for both videos
long ago indeed. he messaged him about quite an old video
Agreed, you guys should work together as a team
"In Sicily we would get shot" 😂😂😂
"Never go in against a Sicilian, when Death is on the line!"
@@Trylenwell... didn't work out too well for him did it?
Womp womp.
@@johnbolton292 Hey John Bolton, I like your honesty when you admitted on TV you organised coups around the world. Very sincere and brave of you 🙏
@obscureorca Ah. The name game. Yes yes. Well, in my family, there were three John Boltons. Then there's all the other relations at various distances. These are not the droids you're looking for.
"Ma che staddi?"
Sounds EXACTLY THE SAME as "Mais qu'est-ce t'as dis?" In French!
Yeah, you're definitely right lol
Shorter words in that "ma che stai/sta (he) addì/a dì?" so it's better with each other rather than "ma che stai/sta dicendo?" with any of the two. Although the french one is definitely still not close with that one as the italian one is, it's just the sound, there's no question when it comes to knowing what the words say and recognizing the words, especially because french is hard anyway.
@dusk6159 Yeah, they're definitely not* the same contracted words, but it's funny that it means the same thing and sounds pretty much the exactly the same (ok, the intonnation is different and Mais vs Ma, although they can sound very close in certain french accents)
@ricois3 That, for me new, last thing you've said could be good and bad news simultaneously for me lol
Definitely bad for a french that would expect the "mais"/"but" spoken like in french and who of course only knows it from french. The spanish too I guess. Unlike italians.
Audio books must be huge in France. Imagine wasting paper for all those silent letters😂
@@ldmtag Nah, we don't really think about it 😅 To be honest, English is just as weird as French
I spent nine years learning Latin at school from the age of 9...We were verbally tested on vocabulary and conjugation every friday. More than two mistakes and we were beaten with a stick....The joys of English Catholic school in the 1970s/80's.
I have 2 comments regarding this: 1) Just like many other boys my age, I had no idea classical Latin pronunciation existed. I was watching a cover of "Lilium" (the opening from the "Elfen Lied" anime), which is in Latin and criticised the singer because she was using classical pronounciation (which is the one the original singer was using). It was thanks to the "Dead Poets Society" movie (which I had watched like 13 years ago for the first time) that I discovered classical pronounciation existed.
2) I met and spoke (horribly) Latin to Luke myself at a meet and greet in Rome. I had a wonderful time
Leggi quel che ho scritto sopra...
ELFEN LIED MENTIONED
Read what I wrote above about that pronounciation: I'm a roman citizen
@@paolomacedone453 Ho risposto al commento
@@VictorAnsem Scusa non lo vedo...
I don’t think they thought he was speaking English. I think they correctly identified that he looked foreign and assumed he was American
And he was probably looking for a kind of 'lingua franca' to communicate. English being the most universal one for someone who he guessed was a tourist.
well, it's Luke Rainieri. He is Italian descendant. There is nothing in his fisionomy that says he is not Italian. Although sometimes we identify foreigners just by clothing, as weird as that sounds... our brains seem to be wired to identify "strangers".
@@rogeriopenna9014 I’m not familiar with Italian fashion, but yeah Americans are usually easy to pick out just by what we wear and our mannerisms.
Also, if someone came up to me and started speaking old English I’d more than likely initially assume it was German he was speaking. If he kept going I might think it was Dutch. And only if he persisted would I maybe figure out it was old English
That's absolutely correct. Just read the subtext, that first guy said something like "can anyone speak to this man? He doesn't speak English or Italian!"
@@Spartan10k
When I've visited several European countries no one ever noticed me as being American
So you're telling me that Italians don't feel comfortable with vowel length, but they are addicted to double consonants. I feel like it makes things even
Except that the Latins had those too…
Che diavolo è la vowel length?!
@GM_enderman22 that's the spirit
@@VitorEmanuelOliverlatin had tons of double wovels.
@GM_enderman22sono le vocali lunghe e vocali brevi latine.
do it in Sardinia, where the language is the closest to ancient Latin.
Tbh I think most Sardinians wouldn't understand him, maybe some very specific populations in remote villages night understand some of it, but not much more
@@GigaDavy91 Am I getting the islands confused? I thought Sardinia is the one where its the closest to Latin of all the dialects/languages
@@MrRabiddogg yeah I am from Sardinia, the closest language doesn't mean that they are mutually intelligible.
Like Korean is the closest language to japanese but I really don't believe they are mutually intelligible 😂. Also there are 3 main dialects of Sardinian and each of them has dozen of sub local varieties where most small towns have their sub-dialect with many differences (welcome to languages in Europe 😂)
@@GigaDavy91 I understand completely. I was just curious as to how much closer it would be. Ecolinguist's channel does have a ton of episodes where related languages try to understand each other but of course the people on that show appear to be experts so its not quite the same. Luke did one a few years back speaking Latin with Italian, French and a couple others
It isn't the closest. Just phonetically Is the closest, but grammatically wise Is Italian.
Sardinians would understand as much as peninsular Italians.
I think you misunderstood the people, they where not saying that he was speaking English, they where asking him if he could speak English and if there where any English speakers to communicate assuming that he could perhaps communicate in English.
Yeah you're right. At this point one could've guessed that the man, and others, just also think and also know that english is the most common language in the world, especially for a tourist, and in a a context like there in Europe, Western Europe at that.
It would have been funny if he replied with "Gese, ic sprece eac Englisc!" 😂
Ironically trying to find a lingua franca so both sides could communicate more effectively.
I live in an area with lots of tourists from around the world, mostly I just default to English because even when they don’t speak it, they often at least understand a few words that helps them find the way.
sono spagnolo e conosco questo canale da circa un mese, e non capisco come tu non abbia potuto reagire a polýMATHY prima!! Sono contento che sia adesso, mentre sono qui io ahahaha. Un saluto da un fan dell'Estremadura!
To be fair, as a native English speaker if you addressed me in old or even middle English i would be lost.
Old English is far more removed from Modern English than classical Latin is from modern Italian. Middle English, assuming its late london middle english, not a chance you wouldn't be able to piece together through context whats being asked of you-- it's not as hard to understand as you're letting on, just look up a video of someone reciting Chaucer.
Middle English could be understood, if you are highly literate and probably even then just small snippits here and there.
That's valid probably for all languages, as a Czech, I can barely understand 150 years old books. It's not like you don't understand it at all, but it looks like some crazy dialect and many words have completely different meaning now, even writting systems are evolving, when I see 150 years old books, it feels like Polish or something like that more than Czech. I don't know how much English alphabet changed in last like 200 years, but I guess it's gonna be similar.
Modern English has more than half of its vocabulary made by words of latin origin, due to its continued linguistical borrowing though history. That makes it far more distant to Middle English than Italian is to Latin.
As an Italian native speaker who never had an education in Latin, I still find several Latin words to sound almost the same to their Italian equivalents.
I can understand if you don't understand old English. But you wouldn't recognize it is old English? Even if you don't understand what the other person is saying you might know at least that it is old English...... Italians and spaniards Should recognize that a person is speaking in Latin even if they don't understand a word or the majority of the words
Great to have the Luke's ancient languages videos on here, especially the latin in Italy ones
I know right? How has this video never been here until now?
@@diablohorer "Ubi est? Metatron?"
Metatron: "What the hell are they saying.." "oh, the american Luke Ranieri's video I guess"
Thanks!
To break a lance for the natives, in a day to day scenario, you wouldn't expect for someone (probably a tourist in their eyes) to speak Latin to them. I think there's also the fact their mind is going for the more usual situation. They're going for English, Spanish etc ... because those are the most common languages spoken by tourists in Rome.
22:00 thats a really good analogy. Also, i learned so much watching this video. I took 2 years of latin in college.
I can't believe you haven't reacted to this yet! I enjoyed the original when I first watched it.
My first Latin instructor was Cuban. As a Spanish speaker, she regarded Latin as a dialect of her native language. She taught it as a conversational language, we spoke it. This was a wonderful foundation for the rest of my years of study.
It’d be an interesting experiment to try this speaking Latin thing in Romania,I bet he’d get more joy speaking to a citizen of Bucharest.
He wants to annoy a fallen people, not get robbed and likely die
@@jonathanwells223What a stupid comment! That's more likely to happen in Italy, not in Romania!
he wouldn't cos romanian is far more different from latin then italian is
It's a nice video. Luke has a great channel. And he speaks incredible Latin.
Magnus trollorum😂alla fine anche se non ha mai parlato in italiano è riuscito a farsi capire
Troglodytamus
It's rather strange seeing Metatron misunderstand the romans asking Luke as to whether he *also* speaks english, to facilitate communication, and just assume them being denser than they are, supposing they think he's speaking some form of odd english dialect.
Not sure how that could happen. It appeared clear enough to me that the lady was trying to utilise english as a lingua franca given the fact they were both struggling to understand classical latin.
At least I get Metatron's frustration, just that I'm frustrated with his misunderstanding of the situation, not with them per se.
10/10 I suffered greatly, sir.
I used to watch this guy a while back. His classical latin is amazing to listen to.
Hmmm, too bad this guy isn't testing it out in Romania. Romanian is the closest living language to latin. I bet they'd actually get some of it. Just by listening to him, I could make out most of his questions. For context, I'm Romanian.
"romanian is the closest living language to latin".
This is a controversial statement! It has a flavour of nationalism in it. Some linguists would laugh at it.
Maybe form the grammar point of view romanian is closer in SOME aspects, but phonetically, the variants of sardinian are way closer. Romanian is more conservative, but that doesn't automatically mean it's the closest to latin. So that statement is an exaggeration that I often see among romanians wanting to believe they are more special or something. And I am romanian too. Those bombastic statements are better to be avoided!
Some Romanian are fluent in Latin too =))
I have travelled in Italy enough to get by in Italian but what I remember being amazed by is that some of the dialects were.. Well. Armacord. Who has ears to hear, let him hear.
I also once saw a Spaniard asking directions in his language and an Italian answering in his. This was in Salerno. And it worked out
Thanks for funny commentary. Much appreciated addition of dialectical and cultural context. I watched original video some time ago.
This reminds me of when my best friend and I (he having gone to a German school and I was learning German at the time, around 15 years old) in Louisiana, when we entered a 7-11 and pretended to only speak German. Afterwards we were both in tears from laughing so hard because the extremely patient shop attendant actually believed us: when he told us "that'll be two dollars" we opened up a roll of pennies on the counter and started counting in German.
i'm at the end of the video and just realizing that you made a 29min reaction to a 6min video... i don't even know how that happened
Lots of pauses.
I think they don't understand him so they ask him if he knows English rather than thinking that it's English I am certain that they know it isn't English
Metatron, a little note on the part about what kind of pronunciation is taught in Italy: I attended classical high school here in Italy up until 2022 and they always taught me Latin with the classical pronunciation. So I think that the trend is changing. Other than that, nice video as always, ciao!!!
Pensavo fosse l'opposto, che insegnassero il latino con la pronuncia ecclesiastica?
@ dove ho fatto le superiori io noi al classico usavamo la restituta, allo scientifico la ecclesiastica
@francescobalaso2107 molto interessante! Grazie!
@francescobalaso2107 Alhamdulillah for that linguistic change.
Closing my eyes to not see the subtitles I can also understand a % of it, just by similarities to Portuguese words.
Same for me and I speak French. A few words are too close to not be understandable and once you get them, at least, you have a basic idea of the subject is talking about.
I pray that this guy raises his kids in latin to revive this language, how cool would it be to have Latin revived??
What i really wanted to see is the part where he tells the people he was speaking latin and it was being recorded
I am a Romanian and i understood all he asked, many similarity between this and Romanian. Ubi est? Unde este?Rotundum aedificium, Edificiu rotund. Vicinia, vecinatate. Descendere, descindere....
When I was 14, I went to Italy with my Latin class, we had a brief Italian class for trip, but I had a conversation with a ww2 veteran (This was 1975) using my Latin knowledge to glean the gist of what he was saying.
This was fascinating. As a bilingual English-French speaker, I’m riveted by this.
he has a newer video where people know ahead of time and he asks them some questions about food and animals, would love to see you watch that one
i wondered when you’d find these videos! i think it’s fun how willing people are to try to engage in these exchanges, especially when they realize he’s speaking latin and they can understand some of it. the way their faces light up when they get it is great
I wonder how well Spanish people would understand him. Latin sounds aproximate Spanish quite a bit, like Eclesia is Iglesia in Spanish, Gratia is gracias. Until recently in Hispanic countries church services were in Latín so they will be familiar at least with the ecclesiastical version. I remember as a child being an Altar-boy I noticed the similarities ALL THE TIME. The online Italian teacher Davide of Podcast Italiano went to Spain and only spoke Italian and he found it quite easy to be understood surprisingly!
I think no better than Italians do. The pronunciation wouldn't be a problem for a Spanish speaker, but most words and the grammar is very different.
As a native Spanish I can say we understand Latin very badly. The grammar is very different, and the vocabulary is also very different. Spanish has a lot of words that come from ancient Greek instead of Latin, and a good amount from Arabic.
'Ma stai scherzando con me?'
20:24 "I think the dog is more likely to understand." 😂😂😂
First time I thought "maybe Latin is not dead language", I was on a bus in Rome and I've heard 2 people talking in a strange language, after a while I started hearing "ubi est" "sed" (I've done Latin in scientific high school) and I thought "This two are really speaking Latin, maybe it's their common language".
Honestly, though. I am Italian and I've never studied Latin in my life, but I can say that I understood almost everything Luke said (at least the meaning, if not the exact words). And I'm not from Rome, but from the North of Italy.
Sardinians understand classical republican latin (the one he's using for), but today's Romans understands classical imperial latin from when the pronouncing Ce=Ke and Ci=Ki change into Ce=Che and Ci=Chi; or late imperial and/or ecclesiastical latin when the change was already settled down (except on Sardinia, of course). If he truly wanted to be understood by today's Romans, he'd should used late imperial and/or ecclesiastical latin instead.
Well, that and the v=w sound that it's preserved only on some very few sardinian dialects. Meanwhile, today's Romans pronounce v as a frictative f because on late imperial latin the v=w sound changed into v=ff
@@santiagodelpilar6701 in ciociaro and some dialects of abruzzese v=w
@@mandlebot990 《Sardinia Magna Est.》
And they say Italians dont speak English. Yet all of these people he interacted with at least spoke a little.
Will Metatron cameo on a Luke video, or vice versa? Linguriosa, Liga Romanica, Lang Focus?
I don't think they think he's speaking English. I think they want to know if he speaks English so they can attempt to communicate with him in English. English is usually the langauge that speakers of different languages use if they can't understand each other's language.
I've had Latin at school, but it was only in the high school (in Portugal), and it wasn't mandatory; I've completely failed on that one because it was always after lunch, and the teacher had such a monocordic cadence. :D
I'm Italian and I never studied Latin, but it is very easy to understand what he was saying when asking for the Colosseum.
You had subtitles though. It'such easier with subtitles.
In my Latin textbook in liceo, we had a few explainations on classical vs ecclesiastical pronunciation at the beginning
but after the first lesson I don't think it was ever mentioned again
Luke is in the US Army and works for the Defense Language Institute, teaching federal employees foreign languages.
It would have been amusing if there had been also a Romanian passing by. I wounder whether they would have picked that Luke was speaking Latin.
Italians and Romanians can understand each other.
Many Italians struggle to understand fairly sophisticated Italian, so no chances with Latin for 90% of them.
He made one where he did it in the Vatican. And the results were fun.
Oh, and the Vatican not only has a homepage in italian, english, french etc. They also offer latin. Which isn't all surprising considering latin is official languge of the Holy See.
Some quirks of Romanian noticed here:
- Lat. basilica > Rom. biserică (= En. church);
- Lat. intelligo > Rom. înțeleg (= En. I understand).
"ma che staddi?"
Can be understood in some rural areas in Brazil as we usually say "mas o que tá dizendo?("but what are you saying?")",of course with a very heavy accent, especially in those villages with italian descendants.
@metatronacademy you should do this in Romania, I think you would be understood way better than in Italy.
My father, who spoke or read 6 languages and taught Latin in high school, would have gotten a kick out of this. I saw the original long time ago and found it interesting.
Around 4:00 i always thought that dead language means that it doesn't evolved anymore and will stay the same forever (which would also happen with non-native speakers)
You should try this in several Mediterranean cities.
as a german i am very surprised that roman names and languages sounds even more german then modern italian.
Raf, it's all fun and games until you end up in a similar situation! I was never spoken Latin to, but every time I hear an In Extrēmō song I have a real hard time figuring out if it's in Latin or some medieval Portuguese or French.
Both you and Luke should work together on a Latin project like this - if you think you could keep a straight face like Luke did. That would be brilliant because one person alone could be speaking gibberish but two people speaking the same language is more believable.
That's an *EXCELLENT* idea! Imagine the two of them speaking fluent Latin in public and capturing the reactions of those around them! Bonus points if they're wearing legionary armor! 😂
So happy to see you enjoy that skit and that you two are friends😆
You should do a video on the corsican language if you can understand it.
Tbh, I got a feeling Romanians would have an easier time actually getting what he's saying
yes
no lol. Romanian is not similar to latin, italian is the closest language to latin, especially to ecclesiastical
@@Andre-tv1ig Yeah, you've got no clue what you're talking about. Maybe read again.
In my Latin class at school (in England), our (English, non-Italian speaking) teacher told us he visited Italy and got by quite well by using Latin. Mind you, that was 55 years ago, and he may have exaggerated a little.
I was bad at Latin, and failed the exam, but it's still one of the most valuable subjects I studied because of its wide use in the Sciences and of course its being a base of the Romance languages.
My late Italian mom knew some latin she told me it was mandatory in high school this would have been during Mussolinis time.
I love Latin very much. The long vowels are cake for me since I speak an Athabaskan language. Luke is just amazing. Metatron is incredible himself too ❤
As a New Zealander, I can confidently say there are no islands east of us where Latin is spoken.
So happy you started reacting to Luke's videos. He's awesome. Now, off to find your reaction to his vatican conversations...
As an American English speaker? I absolutely cannot understand old English. But surprisingly much of the Shakespearean stuff I relate too better than Received Pronunciation. Americans left Europe before the great vowel shift, while all the rest of the English colonies left after. I have a hard time figuring out if someone is from Wales or New Zealand
I am amazed Metatron how grounded you are in world cultures. Great job!🙏🏻
BTW, I suck at English and barely made it through High School. I took some German language lessons and phonetic languages make a lot more sense to me. And it’s why every American child in Kindergarten spells CAT - KAT. Poor kids! Oops! You forgot the secret handshake!
He didn't think he was speaking english he was just asking if he can speak english to use it as a lingua franca, which is standard practice in most places in the world. As a portuguese speaker I use english with many spanish speakers
Most people in the video didn’t even notice it was latin, which is something a lot of us who speak a romance language don’t quite grasp. These are languages that look like latin, but the difference is massive.
I got the vibe that people thought he was just a foreign tourist trying to speak italian.
😂
And just because he says Forum Romanum doesn't mean he's speaking Latin with all the other words, yeh.
it's classical latin which is indeed a dead language. They probably acknowledged it but couldn't admit someone was pranking them speaking a dead language. It's an overly sophisticated prank and you always hesitate before going uterly hostile against someone
@@cmolodietsThere may be some truth in this. I tend to fill in persons' intentions more to the negative side when I don't grasp what they mean, and I always feel terrible when I assumed bad motives, acted upon it, and then find out they probably weren't there. You try to avoid these situations.
Hitohira No Hanabira is such a great song, good taste!
27:41
😅
Well spotted.
I hope you guys go and speak Ancient Greek and Classical Latin. That would be great!
I just love it when you focus on language you make it music
Big fan of Stereopony! Have listened to them for a long time! Great video as always!
On Luke's other channel ScorpioMartianus, some of his videos have descriptions in Latin.
Ciao Metatron, mi chiamo Emanuela e come te abito qua negli States, Florida, e non pe esse volgare...ma io m'aspettavo un po' piu' de risposte colorite tipo: ao' ma vedi d'annattene; macche cazzo sta addi'; ma che voi e levete... e cosi' via....vedi io son cresciuta proprio a San Giovanni in Laterano e sono proprio sorpresa della smielata gentilezza di codesti romani nel video. Eh come cambiano i tempi, na vorta o mannavamo a quer paese subbito subbito.
Ciao e grazie per il contenuto dei tuoi canali che molto spesso they make my day🤩
25 years ago i went to italy for the first time - didnt know any italian, was confident in my latin, though. I quickly found out i needed to learn a whole new language. I went to Milano back then.
As someone who doesn't speak either language, I can't tell the difference between latin and italian. They sound the exact same😂
I’ve been watching you since high school and I remember when I initially saw your videos I didn’t realise you were Italian, I thought you were an English guy who was maybe born to Italian immigrant parents.
Salve! Morituri te salutant. My native language is German, 6 years of Latin. The Latin subtitles so clear. Born in Lentia, studied in Vindobona. When I visited Rom with my wife, its in German: tomorrow we will see the Forum Romanum, Kolosseum etc. WHen sneaking in a Church during a mass I could easily understand the prayers in Italian like (from Latin) Pater nostro Ave Maria. In the Video Flavier (German), famous family, it was so funny the guy was clueless in ROMA!!!!!! In school we had different Latin teachers, who insisted in different pronounciations, some was said to be classical, the other's name I do not rembmember. Ceterum censeo YOU need to open a free on the street school, so that the Romans understand the classical names of their buildings, ;-)
Because the liturgy is Latin
@@Akhgy Was, since Vaticanum II no. Its supposed to be everywhere in the local language. I am 72 and as a child I heard the old ritus, understood it only when I had learned Latin at school.
Just started to learn Latin and this video was very fun watched it last week :P
Vids like Luke’s here and Xiaoma’s have come up in my feed lately, and I genuinely don’t know how to feel about the trolling aspect of them. Yours is very educational in explaining various aspects of Latin pronunciation and Luke’s use of word choice-and I am grateful for that. But the subtext of a video like Luke’s seems off, and it’s definitely the case that he’s inconveniencing well meaning Romans for the sake of his channel, if not his vanity.
immo vero, latine loqui et scribere possum, sed numquam loquerer adversum aliquem qui non in lingua versatus sit ne putet me male sibi loqui aut se ab me ludificatum esse-quod arbitror eum fecisse Romae et eum id fecisse ut haberet “likes.”
I mean to be fair what you expect from a person who do the either did not get a great education or was taught Latin but it’s been a long time, so that knowledge is long gone.
It’s like asking any random waiter in their 40s to do a quadratic problem for high school level. They studied it so much but after school they forget it.
Been watching polymathy for a while, most italians don't learn latin anymore although he did find some fluent speakers at the vatican.
Even my dad who went to school in southern italy during the 60's and had to chose a mandatory foreign language during school chose german and french as a foreign language over latin when he had the choice.
Rare language to encounter nowadays which is said as it sounds beautiful.
When the fella said, no one speaks Latin. That would have been a perfect opportunity to get someone else who's in on the joke to walk past and strike up a conversation in Latin and give him directions 😁.
I have a man that was born in Sicily at my job, on the team I lead (in America). He's almost 70 years old. A lot of times we'll switch languages to French, Italian, and Spanish if it's a conversation between the two of us. Sometimes I'll speak Latin though...I would say about half the time he understands it, and half the time he thinks I'm trying to incorrectly say something in Italian, to which I respond "Loquor lingua Latinām, loqueris lingua Latinām".
Your commenting on this was very entertaining!
6:31 Tbh Metatron, Americans are very often discernible without hearing them speak…
FWIW, I first learned/noticed this as a non-Anglo American visiting London while shopping at Harrods.
Does he do one where he walks through with traditional clothing?
I don't think the italians think he is speaking english, they are asking because maybe if he did speak english they could comunicate. I would of asked him if he spoke english because I do speak english it would of been easy to comunicate
I can only speak English and i could have guessed he was speaking Latin almost immediately.