Romanes Eunt Domus EXPLAINED | Monty Python's Life of Brian • Fun with Latin
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Timestamps
00:00 Intro
1:40 Romanes
4:10 Eunt
6:15 Domus
10:25 Disadvantages of Grammar/Translation Teaching (typo here: it should read "carnifex")
17:44 Mir
#montypython #lifeofbrian #latin
Intro and outro music: Overture to The Magic Flute by Mozart
Typo! at 10:28 it should read "carnifex" q.v. www.latinitium.com/latin-dictionaries?t=lsn6836
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Timestamps
00:00 Intro
1:40 Romanes
4:10 Eunt
6:15 Domus
10:25 Disadvantages of Grammar/Translation Teaching (typo here: it should read "carnifex")
17:44 Mir
Luke, when I first saw this, I wondered why the centurion didn't correct Brian to write Romans go [to your] HOME COUNTRY. I really thought he would "fix" the Latin domus to patria, rather than leave it as house. Was I misinformed?
Haha! Right. Your idea works fine too. However Latin has a cool idiom “domī mīlitiaeque” which means “at home (in Rome) and abroad” or “at peace and war,” since mīlitia was the primary activity abroad. 😆 So I think the final translation is fine.
I did?! Haha no, it must be because I recorded this late last night and I was tired. Thanks for your warm thoughts, though!
@@polyMATHY_Luke Some Roman military would be conscripts from other occupied nations. Odd, though, say out of all the known bibical apostles an similar only Saul of Tarsus (Paul) claimed Roman Citizenship by birth. Perhaps giving the christian church its needed bridge from the occupied jewish nations to the occuping roman empire. Although from what we might now call Asia Minor I understand Paul would generally write in Greek (as would most Gospel writers) , rather than Latin ( indeed the Septugaint later translation of the Hebrew scriptures is somewhat lacking in its use of words - possibly failing into the dictionary trap), compared to particulary earlier writings of the Dead Sea Scrolls of Old Testament where these pre-date the Septuagint translation.
1:37: I would call these "a declination", "o declination", "mixed declination", "u declination" and "e declination".
"If the Romans had been obliged to learn Latin, they would never have found time to conquer the world."
- Heinrich Heine
This is why most Romans used Vulgar Latin :P
@@TheOnyomiMaster Heard the same from my Brazilian students. Told me the formal 'correct' Portuguese is so complicated, people there don't bother with it and speak a simplified everyday version. Interestingly, the country is so big this has lead to vearious dialects evolving which sometimes are startlingly different. To me it sounds like the situation whereby Vulgar Latin broke up into over time, very different, though related languages.
@@paulohagan3309 yeah I think it’s a normal occurrence in most languages.
@@TheOnyomiMaster oh oh... you will get a scolding.
Check his video about vulgar Latin
@@paulohagan3309 " *Heard the same from my Brazilian students. Told me the formal 'correct' Portuguese is so complicated* "
Portuguese is as complicated as any other latim language. Brazil has some problems, some are real but some of them are unnecessary and come from pure ideological mindset
1) The education in Brazil is not that good, when everybody around you makes grammar mistakes, it's hard to speak the «formal 'correct' Portuguese»
2) Do you know where people speaks grammar more correctly in Brasil?
Pará. It's literally in the East part of Amazon, it's an region that received more Portuguese immigrants than from other countries. I suspect that the large part of immigrants that went to Brasil after the Republican coup, cumming from Italy and Germany never really fully mastered the language. São Paulo received a lot of Italian immigrants and since São Paulo it's the main cultural spreader (Tv's are there) it end up spreading grammar mistakes trough media
3) Brazilians have a prejudiced against speaking correctly. Because the persons that are concerned in speaking correctly are older (plus 50 or 60) or lawyers, so they don't want to sound to up tied, old fashion and square and end up speaking in a juvenil way until very late in life. I already saw people making the same critic about Americans but there is a diference, I think Brazilians tend to break gramatical rules much more then Americans, they perceive this as sounding cool
4) Unfortunately there is a vision by Brazilian linguistics (which is not shared by grammarians) that the language it's always in evolution (it's true in a way) and it serves the purpose of communicate and if that happens it serves it's function... this has an ideology behind and the problem with this is that end up creating a population with low level in mastering their own language, and when they pass that communication into writing the communication is not that efective. It's quite ironic that a group of professionals that are experts at Portuguese language apparently don't want the rest of the population to speak or write as good as they do, which makes it difficult to the population that didn't received a good language education to progress professionally.
Context: at the time when Life of Brian was made, many British adults who were educated at private schools (known as public schools in Britain) or grammar schools would have learnt Latin at school, and the teachers would have followed exactly the approach adopted by John Cleese as the centurion. So people would have recognised the situation exactly,
I’m sure if my Latin teacher was six and a half feet tall and held a sword to my throat, I would have been an A student.
funny, secondary schools we got the cane but at least learned math, technical drawing, metal-work and wood-work and Latin we didn't waste time on. Like now.
@@briz1965 Math has an extra letter, also, do begin your sentence with a capital letter, tut tut, "oh the very shame of it"! :-D :-D
I'm British and I'm SURE that private and public schools are entirely antithetical things
@@adamkingston2725 No: Eton and Harrow are public schools. They are also private schools: they aren’t run or funded by any part of Government, local or national.
In contrast, Bradford Grammar School is an independent school, in other words a private school, but isn’t a public school.
Monty Python have some of the cleverest jokes in their films. One of my favourites is
Brian: "You are all individuals."
Crowd in unison: "YES! WE ARE ALL INDIVIDUALS!"
One guy in the crowd "I'm not"
Which of course makes him the only individual in the crowd
It's so simple but I love it
Yeees that has always been my favourite monty python joke
Yes we are all unique. Ha ha.
@@ltgood Speak for yourself! 😂
@@Bjowolf2 remember you are unique, just like everyone else. 🤣
@@ltgood 😳
Back in High School, our Latin teacher took us to see "Life of Brian" in the theater because of this scene. And for the next several years, she would occasionally come into her class and find "Romani Ite Domum" written all over her blackboards.
That’s hilarious - I just laughed out loud.
@@valerietaylor9615the proper form would be LOL, no need to spell it all out boy.
That sounds like an awesome teacher.
Have The Simpsons ever done that as an opening blackboard scene? That would be hilarious
Love this
Quanti anni hai? = Câți ani ai? (Romanian phrase)
But apparently we Romanians ask for anuses instead of years. Vlad the Impaler would be proud.
xD
Genius joke 😂
😂
Frate! Frate! Aici erai tu ? Mama mea... aici erai tu! Vino acasa!
(romanian language nowadays)
:D
Don't forget the Romanian! ;)
Apparently the guy who plays the Centurion (John Cleese) actually used to be a Latin teacher, which is probably where they got the idea for the skit
He's a brilliant fellow!
He was educated as a physician, so he probably took Latin in a public (private, to Americans) prep school.
Oh. Never realised that. (from wikipedia) After National Service ended, there were too many applicants to university, so he delayed by 2 years and taught at the prep school he'd left! Definitely channelling UK schoolmaster of the time there :D
@@davefb Yes, and the degree he took was law (alongside Tim Brooke-Taylor).
@@allanrichardson1468 Graham Chapman who played Brian was the Python who was trained as a medical practitioner. John Cleese (the Roman officer) did law. Both would have studied Latin at school.
I showed this scene to a friend once, and she commented, "The scholars and scribes of Judea would have spoken Greek since before the Romans arrived, so wouldn't Latin have been easy for them to learn?" I could only respond, "I'm going to ignore your lack of a sense of humor, and instead inquire exactly what about Brian makes you think he's in any way scholarly?"
More importantly, Greek would have been the err..."lingua franca" of the Roman soldiers stationed in Palestine. Of course, the officers (such as Cleese's centurion) would also have spoken Latin.
Pretty formal speech to a friend…
Agreed. I think it was only when you got to the level of Senators or public figures or artists..... or those who fancied themselves..... who would have spoken Latin. I don't think it would have been at the level of a Roman soldier, probably of the equivalent of 'Sargent'. Still, it's one of my favourite Python sketches. All of you may understand what is happening but only those who had Latin beaten into us a British Public (private in American terms) school would be transported back to those cold draughty, fearful Latin lessons ..... Thank you Mr Abrahams and Mr Bryan-Brown....... you are remembered....... not altogether with affection.....
Brian wasn't a scholar.
He was just a very naughty boy.
But brian is pleb
I was discussing once with my manager from Italian descent that I learn a bit of Italian when travelling. I told her that I was surprised that the plural in Italian was like in Latin. She was very impressed and was thinking that I went in very posh schools. I didn’t had the heart to told her that it was because of Life of Brian.
@@devinreese1397 you need the obvious to be stated?
@@MorgorDre well, the original comment stated that he was surprised that the plural in Italian was like in Latin, so... yeah it needed to be stated because apparently for some it's not that obvious.
@@grigturcescu6190 Which is really confusing when you consider that Rome is, to this day, the capital of Italy.
@@grigturcescu6190 He is saying (in rather awkward English) that she, the commenter, is stating the obvious.
@@spartan.falbion2761 re-read the comments and the @s carefully.
Of course the biggest part of the joke is that the officer MAKES him write it down a hundred times, making Brian a hero to the resistance, while really he would've snuck off after the first time given the chance.
The centurion leaves two soldiers to watch over Brian. It's even shown when he's done because one of the soldiers tells him to not do it again.
@@fermitupoupon1754 and how does that change anything of what I said?
@@nagranoth_ It's rather hard to sneak off if there's two armed soldiers breathing down your neck watching your every move.
@@fermitupoupon1754 sigh... obviously they wouldn't have been there breathing down his neck - FORCING HIM TO WRITE IT DOWN 100 TIMES - if he hadn't been caught in the first place...
"Finished."
"Right. Now don't do it again."
There's nothing like Latin grammar lessons for making me want to learn a book of logarithm tables off by heart afterwards for recreation.
ah... and good ol' Bradis tables.
Uuuh, in base 58th root of 2, they can actually be fun...!
Liceo scientifico be like: do both
Explains why Gauss did the same as a boy instead of browsing CZcams or something 😅
"learn a book off by heart"? What's the "off" for?
The problem can arise in Spanish as well, which resulted in Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix once putting up signs that reminded people in English that you can't drink in Arizona unless you're 21 years old, but stating in Spanish that you can't drink in Arizona unless you have at least 21 buttholes....
Kek that's why it's writen differently.😂
Well that will greatly reduce DUI incidents.
The ñ is very important when talking about years.
Años
I'm not sure that was an error
Ah, I am a product of English public school, and you explained it perfectly.
The way the teacher pulls on the hair on the side of Brian’s head as a teaching aid was particularly common, too.
That particular scene just completely accurately represented something that we experienced every day - except for when he threatens to cut Brian’s throat with his sword, maybe
Maybe.....lol.
I think most Latin teachers became accurate shots with the board rubber, instead.
perhaps not a sword, but the nearest ruler being snatched up and brandished as a threat of further physical violence...
@@wolf1066 And you could tell exactly how irate they were by whether it descended flat surface down or edge on!
@@nikiTricoteuse One of my teachers, in absolute fury, threatened to snap the ruler "so it will sting more".
I went to school in the "good old days" (according to sadistic pricks like our Phys Ed teacher, anyway) when teachers were allowed to hit Primary School boys on the hand with a leather strap and hit Secondary School boys on the arse with a willow cane.
Throwing chalk and occasionally dusters (wooden blocks with just a strip of felt glued on) or threatening to hammer you with your own (or your immediate neighbour's) ruler were just "normal".
"Write it out 100 times" is the bit that does it for me.
But what about the bit immediately after? "If it's not done by morning, I'll chop your balls off"
@@handlesarecringe957 Sounds like a good 60s education. The. centurion meant it of course and if the good brothers at Stalag St Michaels College, East Avenue, Beverley, Adelaide, South Australia could have got away with it they would have done it. God, how I hated that place.
The defacement of city walls in Roman times was a capital offence. It makes the whole scene even funnier
I think a meta joke is that the Centurion (Cleese at his best, of course) knew full well that Brian would dig himself deeper by writing it out 100 times and that the other Roman soldiers would want to arrest Brian. If you wanted to get all woke about it (I don't, personally!) , you'd call it an object lesson in cultural humiliation.
Brings back memories of Latin class!
I was 11 years old when this film came out, and having to learn Latin. It was the funniest thing ever because we were being taught Latin as almost mathematical formulae, as opposed to French which real people apparently speak.
Our Latin master was sooo much like John Cleese.
Anyway I never escaped, and now nearly half a century later here I am still conugating ire... eo is it
...
🏆🤣👍
It reminded me of the Greek priest who taught us Greek .He was a prick.
This was exactly how they taught Latin at my Catholic boys' school in Australia in the 70s.
It’s funny, you describing being taught Latin like mathematical formulae. When I was in high school I often used a similar phrase when explaining why Latin class was such a drag, except I said it was “math but for words”. I can attest that the grammar first approach was still in use in the first decade of the 21st century.
In my school they had to do funny translations where you had to be a bit creative with latin (30 years ago)
Like translating Grimms "Hänsel und Gretel"(Little Brother and Little Sister) into Latin.
But some years later the school subject Latin was made easier so pupil only needed to learn how to translate from Latin into German....
It didn't improve the grades...still half of the Latin classes pupils got grades so bad they were in danger of not passing the school year.
Taking Latin instead of French or Spanish as a third language was allways a risk.
Having studied Latin for two years in high school, when I saw this movie in a movie theatre, I laughed out loud at this scene - especially when Brian had to write it on the wall 100 times in the correct Latin. Absolutely brilliant scene.
Yes that was rather the punchline of the joke. He should have added that at the end.
What I find truly amazing is that at 67 years old, having watched “Life of Brian” so many times that I’ve practically memorised the whole script AND having never studied latin,
I finally understand this whole clip! 😂 Thank you. Gratias tibi.
Gaudeō!
My Latin teacher freaked when she saw this scrawled across my exercise book. Happy days 😁
Preaceptines Lantinorum eunt domus.
It helped that Cleese used to be a teacher long before Python. You can see how natural he looked when he's correcting that graff.
Before? I thought Python teamed up while they were all studying at Cambridge?
@@sirrathersplendid4825 No, John and Graham Chapman (and the guys who later became the Goodies) did Footlights then, "A Clump of Plinths" in I think 1963, and subsequently the two of them wrote for "The Frost Report" in maybe 65 and met most of the other proto-Pythons, but Python came years later (69).
@@sirrathersplendid4825 One didn't need a degree or PGCE in those days in order to teach. I believe he taught for a summer before he went to Cambridge. It was also customary in certain schools for teachers to wander off and leave senior students in charge of the class, so they would already have some teaching experience before the age of 18.
The scene with your cat is also priceless! Instruction while laughing is great pedagogy.
It was Maru! A Japanese cat that loves to get into boxes and even jump in and out of them.
As a cat *_PURRson_* (🤯🔫), I *_DEFINITELY_* approve 😻.
@@ginnyjollykidd Fun fact: In Irish, ”Máru” means: ”Death”. I wonder, if Japanese mice actually speak Irish 😅. 😾😼
I have to admit , I just loved the idea of the equivalent of a nazi getting upset that you had written 'death to hitler" in very poor German. The focus on the grammar etc - to the point of nearly killing him - was wonderful. John Cleese could be a terrifying man at times. And Graham absolutely nails his part..
There's a whole, random scene involving one giving a couple of Klansmen a dressing-down and ridiculing them, both in general and for their comically bad German, in one of the Wolfenstein games. There was the strong implication that they would just _disappear_ if they did not start showing up at their German lessons...
College Humour did a great sketch called "Grammar Nazi" based on Inglorious Basterds. You can still find it on YT.
@@crowe6961 Nazi Germany showing KKK, who’s the Big Brother; LMAO 😅!
@@kaltaron1284 I have to check that out. 😅
In Croatian the translation of "Romani, ite domum" is "Rimljani, idite doma!" Incredible how sometimes the connection between IE languages can be so obvious even when they belong to different branches. 😉
Wow! Could you link that song here?
I think Croatian would've probably inherited that directly from Latin as opposed to indo European. If I'm not mistaken Croatia is a part of what once was Dalmatia.
Hadn't been one of the greatest Roman emperor a person who had been born in what we today call Croatia?
@@sikViduser No, it's not from vulgar Latin, it's Slavic. Verb "to go" in Croatian is "ići" (older form "iti").
"Home" is "dom", not only in Croatian, but in other Slavic languages.
Both words are very obvious cognates.
@@polyMATHY_Luke What song, Luke?
This is especially funny in English because you need 1/4 hour to explain some concepts which are obvious to German, Russian, Latin (and many others) speakers
I was wondering why he took all that time to explain what 3 person plural was hahahahhaha
@@filippo6157 yeah, and it even have in english too, the same with imperative
This is why english speakers conquered the world while others speaking foreign were too slow; they didn’t need to figure out the correct form of the 9th declension before yelling “to the ramparts!” And putting the verbs earlier helped too. Seconds count when you’re under attack.
To bad it's the very Latin based languages today, some of the only ones in Europe that no longer have a declension system :/
@@rob28803 why do you assume English is easier than other langages ? Fix your broken spelling for starter 😅
Having taken Latin for 6 years (at a school in St. Louis founded by British monks from an abbey in Yorkshire), this is easily one of my favorite Money Python scenes ever. When I first saw this movie in high school, I was literally out of my chair, on the floor, laughing so hard I couldn't breathe. Only a few other times have I laughed that hard, including the "Pie Jesu Domine" monk scene in Holy Grail. (And the first ever Mr. Bill skit, and John Belushi doing Joe Cocker, singing a duet with...Joe Cocker).
I remember learning Russian in university and having just watched this scene, I showed it to my professor who thought it was a gas! She ended up showing it to the rest of the class the next day.
Although it wasn’t Latin, I definitely felt it with the Russian declensions and directional/locative details lmao
I feel the exact same way 😅. Though, I learned some Latin (as well, as Russian), in high school, I only took 2 courses of it (Latin); and so, I only ever really got to scratch the surface. Russian has surprisingly much in common with Latin; and they *_DO_* call themselves: ”The 3rd & Eternal Rome”; so, there’s that 🇷🇺.
*EDIT:* I wish I’d known of this scene, back then. Though, I doubt my Russian-teacher would have understood a word; given that she literally thought that ”Let’s go!” is Swedish 😅.
Yes, it can be really difficult for foreigners. In Slavic languages even verbs have different conjugations for grammatic genders.
Cleese tortures Brian with the questions in a way, and even with a tone of voice, that strongly reminded me of my Latin teacher. I laughed in the cinema at this but almost nobody else did because of course most people hadn't been tortured by a Latin teacher and did not know the traditional style.
So what did your teacher hold to your throat when you had trouble telling your 2nd and 4th declentions apart?
@@andrewdreasler428 Good question. My Latin teacher did not physically assault us even though some other teachers did at that time, when it was still legal in the UK.
@@andrewdreasler428 A finely sharpened failing grade.
Did your Latin teacher threaten to cut your balls off?
@@eddiewillers1 No. I don't think so. Not in English anyway.
(egō) Māter, potest-ne me Linguam Latīnam habēre?
(māter) Domī habēmus Linguam Latīnam!
Domī Lingua Latīna:
haha
frater momentum
@@davethepants frah
frater!
@@invock it's literally how young Italian privileged mumble rappers call each other
The dictionary comments really hit home, dude.
When I signed up for Arabic in 2008-2009 at the university, I was so proud of myself I bought an Al Mawrid, the dictionary the “cool kid” Arabic learners buy.
But that was pointless.
Mostly for expediency (and out of colossal laziness), I used the dictionary at the back of our book.
Imagine you’re new to Arabic, and you don’t know if a word is a word you’ve learned but forgotten, a singular or plural noun (or adjective), a proper noun, or a weak verb.
Fuck.
Even if I had an Arabic keyboard, it would have been too unwieldy for me to look up words electronically (yet).
It was only when I got an iPad that new world of B1 “fluency” came upon me!
(Oddly, the brown dictionary they give Army dudes does not contain the word “south,” but it does contain the phrase, “There was a lot of blood.”)
I’m pretty sure the blood definition was why the Army chose that particular book.
That's why the measures chart is your best friend at the beginning of learning Arabic 😉. Not sure what brown dictionary you're referring to, but it's likely more of a "phrasebook" if it's something they give to regular troops. At Defense Language Institute they issue a Hans Wehr dictionary, which has a green cover, and most certainly contains the word for south 😜.
Jack, you actually bought a المورد dictionary. You sir, are a martyr. I’m an Arab, and live in the very bosom of Arabia, descendent of a tribe that has been in Arabia since at least the 4rd century BC, and I’ve only seen such dictionaries in universities, not once, did I ever see one in an Arab household. You’re a brave man.
@@khalidalali186 4rd? So, is that 3rd or 4th?
That centurion acts just like my high school Latin teacher. He taught me how to speak and read Latin through intimidation and fear, absolutely the way the centurion is doing to Brian. For that reason I can't help but laugh extra hard about this. I think there must be many Latin teachers out there like that. Thing is, I really respected the guy and really think highly of him even 55 years later. I also will never forget Hic, Haec, Hoc... and all the forms of it. He really did a good job hammering it into my head, and all these years later I still can still use it, even after I've forgotten most of my French. He may have been an old school Latin teacher, but he was a good one, and I will be eternally grateful for what he did. Rest well, Mr. Gow. Rest well.
Hic, Haec, Hoc!!! ...my core memory from 5 years at failing to learn Latin at Grammar school.
Mind blown twice! First that Monty python made such a funny sketch out of something so convoluted, and Second that Luke managed to make a very educational and interesting video out of that sketch! Carry on man, you’re making gold.
Aw thanks!
The Pythons were all Public (i.e privately educated in England) school boys, so would have had Latin rammed down their throats for years.
@@philipmorgan6048 didn’t know that! Thanks for the info
@@philipmorgan6048 Do you know who of the Pythons that came up with this wonderful gem?
@@Bjowolf2 I'd be very surprised if it wasn't Cleese himself.
When Brian was asked what case 'domus' was supposed to be in, I said "DATIVE", and that's when the centurion pulled out his sword and I was like, I TAKE IT BACK, I TAKE IT BACK. LOL
Heck, I thought it was a golden moment, even without that enhanced vicarious engagement... Your nerve fibres must have been tingling like a power pylon in fog!
I couldn't remember what the dative was for, and I had completely forgotten there was such a thing as the locative (I thought there was just the good old nominative vocative accusative genitive dative and ablative - but it has been nearly sixty years!
Having gone myself through Latin in highschool in southern Spain, I can attest that this is exactly how I was taught by my 60ish year old teacher. Hairpulling aside, he would yell declensions at a thousand words a minute and take any chance to grill you.
Actually lovely man, learnt a lot.
"Really? What was his name?"
"Naughtius Maximus"
*Laughs. Brief silence.*
"Centurion do you have anyone with that name is the Garrison?"
This video just taught me more latin in 17 minutes than i learnt in 6 years of latin classes.
Ah yes, this brings back embarrassing and uncomfortable memories of failing to learn Latin grammar at school. I may not have been manhandled, tortured or threatened with a gladius by the teacher, but his sarcasm cut like one.
Literally, my Latin teacher (Mr Bryan-Brown) DID teach us with a gladius in hand! And he used it on us liberally! Fortunately, it was hand carved from wood and he would beat us with it....... I kid you not! I am not exaggerating!
as a teacher for 35 years, this has always been on of my favorite MP scenes in all the movies and the TV show and this explanation makes it all the better
15:00
Also; as a Russian-student of 3 years, back in high school; I can definitely feel the meaning and context of ”Īte domum!”, which is actually surprisingly similar to the Russian phrase of the same meaning: «Идите домой!»; _”Idíte domói!”;_ also meaning: ”Go home!” (for plural people); for a single person, it would be: «Иди домой!»; ”Idí domói!”; much like ”Ī domum!”, in Latin 😅.
It's actually very similar in other Slavic languages
@@szt1980 I would figure. Seems like Slavic languages are a pretty conservative bunch. Finnic and Turkic languages are the same way.
As they say, explaining a joke is like dissecting a frog -- you understand it better afterwards, but the subject dies in the process.
It didn't stop me from enjoying the video though xD
My Latin teacher was a native speaker - he was at least 1800 years old, based upon his curmudgeonly behavior and his use of various tools of potential violence. He had also had polio, so walked on metal crutches, chain-smoked Chesterfield cigarettes, and carried a cattle prod as he crutched around the room during exams, just waiting to use it.
Did he sleep in a mausoleum, or hang upside down in a cave?
The funniest part of this comment is how absolutely believable it is. At primary school we had a very much loved teacher called Mr Mac. Also a chain smoker with a lovely Scottish lilt that was a joy to listen to. One lunchtime, one of the boys stole his "strap" (standard equipment for teachers of my era) out of his desk drawer, cut it into pieces and put it back in the drawer. (In fairness to Mr Mac, none of us had ever seen him use it.) We were all in on the joke so misbehaved mightily until, even the lovely Mr Mac had reached his limit. On opening the drawer he saw what had happened and wordlessly left the room. Queue much hilarity from us. He returned a few minutes later with an enormous oar from the sports department and, equally wordlessly, stood it in the corner behind his desk, sat down and carried on with the lesson. The silence that descended was absolute, instantaneous and stoically maintained for the remainder of the afternoon. To this day l'm not sure whether he would have used it but, absolutely none of us were prepared to risk it. it still makes me laugh whenever l remember it though and Craig W. who for a brief moment was the bravest of all of us and our hero.
@@nikiTricoteuse Great story!
@@Gottenhimfella Thanks very much. It's more than 50 years ago now but, l often think fondly of Mr Mac who, l'm sure, instilled in me my love of reading (and Tolkien). If we were "good" on Friday afternoons he would read the Hobbit to us. I still remember the stillness and silence in the classroom and watching the dust motes in the sun as his lovely warm voice and glorious Scottish accent carried us all away on a magnificent journey, there and back again. 🙂
OMG. My teacher was Mr MacCleary. He was Scottish as well.
You think that’s where they keep all the ancient Romans?
My father took me through this lesson about fourty years ago as he could speak Latin and found this scene hilarious, thank you so much for reminding me of his lesson, it bought tears to my eyes, its almost like I could hear his voice... Thankyou.
Beautiful comments ! Made me tears
@@ghtddkc ”Comments”? Plural? ”Made me tears?” What’s the verb associated with tears? 🤨😉
Anybody who took Latin in high school knows this routine from experience. I laughed myself to breathlessness. Of course, I found that true of much of this movie. "What have the Romans ever done for us?"
Peace?
I love this video. Not only have you beautifully explained every part of this language joke, you finally helped me understand the last part. For years I never knew Brian initially said “ad domum,” I always thought he just said “domum,” which made me confused why the centurion corrected him from saying “domum” to saying...”domum.” I always thought the “ad” was just a frightened gasp of “ah”. Thank you so much for finally explaining things, and making me laugh while doing so.
Same here! And not just that but now I finally understand the locative case. Thirty years too late to matter, but still.
Back in my Liceo Classico days, I took things way too seriously. This scene saved my life because after that I could never take seriously Latin oral tests ever again
For those who understand Italian, as I suppose the owner of the channel does. The funniest case of translation from dictionary I've ever seen was in an advertisement of a restaurant: "specialità marinare" translated as "specialities to marinate". I couldn't stop laughing for ten minutes.
What an amazing explanation. Latin language sounds so familiar to Portuguese speakers but at the same time a little bit far away. And as a Brazilian Portuguese speaker I have to say that the annus joke works perfectly for us as well, since we have the words 'anos' (years) and "ânus" (anus) that have basically the same pronunciation. So I remember asking my friends when we were kids 'quantos ânus tens?' (how many anus do you have?) instead of 'quantos anos tens?' (how old are you?).. we laughed a lot.
It's amazing how clear things become when someone holds a Gladius to your neck...
Learning ad gladium!
Quite motivating, it seems
I prefer the centurion teaching style. Fewer words and to the point. I was studying Latin at the time I watched the scene and I perfectly remember being the only one in my group to understand the joke.
Also emphasized with the threat of having ones throat cut in short order.
"To the point...." of the sword.
You don't need to speak latin to find it funny. Maybe it's funnier speaking latin. But all it takes to find it funny is having studied any language at all, if even that. The joke is basically the centurion scolding him for bad language instead of arresting him for agitation against Rome.
@@beorlingo And then on top of that, he assigns him a punishment exercise that requires that he agitate even more.
...he was only driving the point home...literally.
As a lifetime fan of Monty Python, I love this movie. As a high school Latin student, I could relate to Brian in this scene. Now as an adult who is learning Spanish, I find this video and your approach to the subject matter absolutely on point. Thank you for your insight, and for keeping the torch burning!
Thanks so much for the nice comment!
This video is brilliant! The second part struck.a chord with me. I remember my 1st ever french lesson aged 11. The verb "to be" was written up and I thought " what on earth is the verb "to be"?" The teacher then started going on about plurals, persons and I was lost. It got no better.....parents were called in for serious talks. Perhaps I was dyslexic? It was even suggested that I had some cognitive defect that hampered my ability to learn a new language. In any event....things carried on in the same vein and, at age 16 I failed french o level (UK exam) with worst possible grade.
The thing is that this took place at an English medium school in the Nethetlands. Over the same time period I interacted with Dutch speaking people every time I left home. By the time I was 14, and in spite of my issues with language acquisition, I could speak so well that was sometimes mistaken for a Dutch boy. This happened despite my never having had a single lesson!
As an adult I then went on to study german. Dutch was a good grounding here as word order, sentence structure was very similar. German still has Latin type grammar structure (understood the video well) which I eventually managed to understand. Only real issue is that I speak german with a dutch accent!
Wow! I never noticed that "home" is locative in English too! That's such a convenient teaching tool.
I’m glad you think so too!
@@polyMATHY_Luke Logis - lodgings or a residence for a domicile?
Right? A native speaker might say, "go to work", or "go to school", but would not say "go to home", unless he's talking about a programming script or code.
Would Cartman's "Screw you guys, I home" be an even stronger locative then? He's lost the verb entirely but the meaning is clear.
My Hungarian language teacher thought that, in English, saying "I am going to work" is using the infinitive form of "work". However, I told her "work" was a place, and "to" was used in the sense of "to or toward", which is how we always translated "ad" in Latin classes.
@@maddyg3208 In the morning, leaving ones beloved, or family, ;'right then , off to work'
Vidite is very similar to видите. The domum is like домой as well.
Yes, what my message was getting at
Also ite like идете as in to go
Slavic and Italic are branches of the Indo-European language family, so there's nothing particularly surprising about that. Even the case endings are similar, and the three gender system, and Proto-Balto-Slavic even had -as (cognate to latin -us) as the nominative form of nouns. In Proto-Slavic and OCS you still had a final short vowel sound in nominative forms as remnant after the -s was dropped from endings. This sound used to be marked with Ъ in Russian and Bulgarian for many years even after that final vowel turned inaudible.
@@elimalinsky7069 English is also an IE lanuage but 'go home' sounds nothing like the other examples. I think it is quite surprising to see how similar Italic and Slavic languages actually are
@@smittoria Semantic changes. the word "go" comes from the PIE root "ghe" meaning to release or to leave behind. The word "home" comes from PIE root "koimo" meaning household, dwelling or settlement. I think it is cognate with the common Slavic "semja", meaning family, but I'm not sure.
"People called Romanes, they go the house". Priceless.
Somebody some day had to explain this and I am so glad it was you. Perfect casting.
Thanks! Glad to be of help.
I must confess it is 4h 52 am in my country, I have just escaped from à very decadent party, and I only focused on your lip during the whole explanation... I will watch it tomorrow...
Hehe thanks! I’m glad you’re able to get out and enjoy a party.
I was watching this video at 2h58 a.m.
You're so French 😂
@@CaptainGrimes1 indeed ^^, and half italian 😊.
'and dont do it again!!!' was the absolute icing on the cake of that scene.
Accusative! "I accuse the Romans of going home. Stop that at once."
Nice use of Maru btw.
Thank you for explaining why dictionaries are not proper pedagogical tools. I can’t explain how many times I’ve had to tell someone that dictionaries don’t tell us what‘s right, but only what’s said.
Well said
It was only when I studied German at school that this sketch made sense to me.
Pro tip from a German: try Polish for the next level.
mostly true except the locativ would not be commonly used in german, in fact most German schools don't even teach about it.
@@windhelmguard5295 Yeah, can't say I heard about the locative in school. But we use dative or akkusative for that, essentially, sooooo.....I never saw how that may be confusing for non-native speakers.
When I learned German, I was extremely frustrated by the forced use of an oral phrase memorization approach, as I am a very textual learner.
I love the way the Monty Python team completely ignores what people might know and just rabbit on about things that happened in their own lives like the obscurities, to some, of being taught Latin in the English school system. ¡Viva la erudición!
Very true. The skit is dependent on English having a irrational grammar. Which makes learning inflected languages like Russian, Lithuanian, Latin... Arabic, aramaic & Hebrew pretty hard. If you're speaking Aramaic or Hebrew as a first language you don't need grammatical concepts explained to you
To be fair, in most areas grammar schools taught Latin to at least their top streams at the time the Pythons were at school (1950s). I went to three local grammar schools in the 60s and early 70s and studied it at two of them. Most of my friends of my generation had to do at least a couple of years of it, so the joke there worked really well for us.
@@gillothen8913 I wonder how many people who have never studied Latin watch this clip. Do they actually learn anything from it - I imagine the rare genius would - or just listen to what might sound like gobbledygook and make no sense of it whatsoever. In the latter case it couldn't be very entertaining. I really cannot imagine how it would be for some people.
I was never taught latin but I still found it funny, the absurdity of a Roman Centurion correcting Brian's graffiti, was hilarious 😂 then telling him to write it out a hundred times. To me this was a Roman Soldier who would rather have been at home in Italy, than keeping peace in a backwater of the Empire.
@@Noblebird02 I wouldn't say that English has "irrational grammar" but rather that English grammar relies more on additional "helping" words and word order far more than the grammar being embedded in changes to the base word.
What a great teaching technique (and ear) you have. Just loved this, not least for the accuracy of your impressions! ❤
These are brilliant - both the skit (of course - you know, Cleese) and, weirdly, your explanation! Thank you. It makes the skit even better.
So Brian actually wrote something like "Roman, enter into a home". And good point about how you would actually learn a language by learning stock phrases, rather than learning rules of grammar.
More like 'Romanes go the house,' but as a statement rather than a command.
"People called Romanes, they go, the house" is what he wrote
I went to a grammar school where the latin teacher was legendary. Everyone was afraid of her, even before they enrolled. It was ridiculous she'd get so pissed when someone didn't know something she deemed we should know (not only latin stuff, but also facts about roman/greek history/mythology). The first time I've seen this movie was when another teacher showed it to us in class. It was such a great experience
I found this presentation fascinating.
Over 70 years ago I was treated to my first classes in Latin. I still remember understanding English grammar more completely.as a result of the process.
I'm glued!! Amo 🤣 Wish you where my Latin teacher, I might of passed my exam.!!!
Cleese and Chapman did more for the cause of learning Latin than an entire generation of Latin teachers. Hail Python!
Ave Pythonem!
@@WhiteCamry
Quid unquam fecit Romani nobis?
In Brazilian Portuguese, we have the imperative "Ide!" (< īte!) but it is old-fashioned nowadays as well as all conjugations in "vós" (vós ides < vos ītis).
Interestingly, Galician maintains two forms from īre: "imos" (< īmos) and "ides" ( < ītis). In portuguese: "vamos" e "ides", respectively.
En español el imperativo es "id", "idos" para el caso de los romanos, pero muchísima dice "iros". "Iros a la mierda".
Brilliant video! As a long MP fan, I now see that this scene is about 10X more funny than it was 20 minutes ago. Many thanks! Subscribed!
What a lovely channel, I'm so happy to have run into it.
For me, my regular dictum is "Learn songs by heart (muscle memory), then find out what they mean. You'll get whole sentences, then you can mix & match as new words come along, but not have to stop and think about it." (ukulele optional)
How kind!
That is EXACTLY how I was learning Latin as an 11 year old attending a minor English public school in the early '60's, with additional encouragement provided by the liberal application of a gym shoe to various parts of the anatomy.
How unpleasant!
@@polyMATHY_LukeIt's just the way things were. I am given to understand that things are better these days - even in English public schools.
My memory too.
My sister and I usually recite the entire sketch by ear when we're on a road trip etc. One of the best stuff they ever wrote. Brilliant British humour! ;)
Ha! How random to see THE Anders Jensen under this video 🤣 love your songs!
"SOME of the best 'stuff"............Now type , or Dictate it out one hundred times
Well,the Monty Python crew were all Oxford- and Cambridge-educated .
Luke, I’m delighted You Tube brought your wonderful channel to my attention. I studied Latin school for 7 years, and both tutored and taught the language in elementary classrooms.
Oh how this scene used to make me laugh, especially in high school, when I too was subject to a similar teaching style.
When I went off to college and studied Italian, my professor was appalled at the way I approached translation, which was clearly as dusty and dry as that wall in this scene. She told me I needed to drink more wine and loosen up! 😂
You make me want to go back and learn it all over again your way. I think I just might!
Salve, Magister!
I return to this video every six months or so ... I enjoyed the original movie and I love Luke's explanation and reenactments!
I am studying to become a latin teacher and your videos are very inspiring to me, thank you so much for all your great content!
Danke dir, Felix!
Do you have your Centurion costume yet?
@@oldmanfromscenetwentyfour8164 😂
So you get the sword at graduation ? :)
It's kind of sad how the so called most prestigious universities still insist on using the dysfunctional and outdated "grammar first" method. Old dogs are those professors in that they are unable to learn new things. IMO the most important aspect of a teacher is that themselves love to learn, including learning methods based on new knowledge about what works best.
Btw cats and other animals are very useful and funny enactors of language examples! 😻
Not sure if anyone has brought this up yet, but if memory serves, John Cleese spent time as a Latin teacher before he joined the Pythons, which is why his "stern, condescending teacher" character here is *SO* spot on.
Many thanks for the instruction. One of my favorite comedy scenes. British intellectual humor at its finest, and in Latin, my favorite language.
I was taking latin lessons in the university. Because I wanted to study a master's degree in philology, but for the pandemic I left my lessons. Now, thanks to that I found your videos and I practice and learn more things thanks to you.
My Latin teacher had every right to act like he did because I was a bad/lazy student.
This beautifully explains the subtlety of the humour and sums up precisely the experience people of my generation had learning Latin in an English grammar school. It makes this Monty Python scene so easy to laugh at. I studied Latin for 7 years under a variety teachers, all of them occasionally displaying the same frustration as the Roman centurion in the film clip. My university degree was in French and German but I found myself regularly drawing on the Latin I'd been taught. The case system prepared me for the case system of German and, later, Russian. The verb system made learning Italian easier. When it came to studying Old French and Old High German as part oc my degree course, my knowledge of Latin was almost essential when having to refer to Latin texts rendered by earlier scholars into French of German (and vice versa). Even today, I find myself constantly checking words - especially new words or technical terms - against Latin and in a quiz. Gir example, I'm often able to make an informed guess about the meaning of a word by deconstructing its Latin components. Latin, in a word, is for me anything but dead language. My daughter l, now a young adult, is teaching herself German online and asks me why such and such an ending appears on a verb or noun and the same questions appear again and again. I tell her that an understanding of grammatical structure and terminology will greatly enhance her learning of German and the jargon of grammar (accusative, dative, conjugation, preposition, subjunctive, passive etc etc) is not just a smokescreen for the linguistic elite but a handy tool to make learning faster and more efficient.
If I had one criticism to make of the way Latin was (and still is) taught, it would be the inordinate length of time it took ( seven years in my case ) to reach a good level of proficiency. I was fairly good in both French and German after only three years and neither of those languages is any more complicated than Latin. With better methodology, learning Latin could be both speedier and less tedious. It would also remove the danger of being pinned against the classroom wall by the teacher and asked to give the 2nd person singular future tense passive of the verb "necare". ( For the uninitiated, this means "you will be killed").
Wow, the depth and breadth of knowledge of the Python crew never ceases to amaze me. Cerebral wackiness!
This is my granddad's favourite joke, he never learned Latin but its exactly how he was taught when learning foreign languages
He was forced to learn at blade-point? Or made to deface a public building repeatedly?
As a Greek learner of Latin, this all seems funny but at the same time very natural to me. All these forms already exist in a similar way in both modern and ancient Greek. Still, a cool introduction to the different logic of Latin grammar.
I remember the first time I came across a Greek noun in my Latin textbook (it was a name, Euphrosyne) and being fascinated by the fact the Latin text declined it, absolutely naturally, in the Greek way rather than trying to force a Latin ending on it. Because both languages have an accusative case so why use one in particular when it already has an accusative form of its own in its own language?
@@Teverell yeah and there are others too. My Latin text book for some reason (most likely because it assumes that the Greek student knows Greek name declension 😅) starts off early on with names like Cepheus, Perseus, Cassiope and Andromeda. Then proceeds to bombard the student with all the possible double types 😂. But yeah, it's interesting that inside the text, you can see both Andromedam and Cassiopen, Cephei but then accusative Persea. But, as you might know, the declensions of Greek also match up with those of Latin for the most part. So many names in -us in Latin are changed to -ος in Greek to remain in the 2nd declension. A great example of this phenomenon is the name of Dio Cassius. I first came across him in an English video, so I thought he was a Roman person, his name didn't sound that Greek anyway. But no, I was shocked to see that his actual name is Δίων Κάσσιος (Dion Cassios), a person born in Bithynia in Asia Minor. And of course, this lines up perfectly, since the Latin third declension in -io suggests there's a missing -n in the nouns character, so it's Dio-Dionis, and in Greek Δίων-Δίωνος. Cassius is from Greek Κάσσιος and maybe I could have seen that coming, but... It just seemed so Roman! It's hard to tell them apart after some point, don't you think?
@@georgios_5342 names are really interesting! I studied koine Greek for a year at university (when you're more interested in reading the New Testament than Aristotle and Plato, why choose classical Greek, after all?!) and I found that I understood so many grammatical concepts immediately because of the years I'd spent studying Latin.
@@Teverell Yeah, Koine Greek and later versions of Greek are easily understandable, at least half as difficult as ancient Greek, to a modern Greek speaker. That's because much of the vocabulary and grammar changed to accommodate with more Eastern cultures and also the grammar became simplified. To me, it was all a natural process. I first learnt Byzantine Greek through ecclesiastical music and texts at a young age. Then I tried Biblical Greek and finally Ancient Greek, especially at school. I'm still lacking in Homeric Greek, but that gets absurdly difficult and less and less rewarding as after a point back in time there are very few texts. This year I started Latin classes and I enjoy it very much! It feels like an add-on to French, and Luke and the Familia Romana book definitely make this a lot more interesting.
@@georgios_5342 wait in greek you decline proper names? In latin too?
This is excellent! It is so much like the humourless bullies who tried to teach me Latin at school. At one stage, a quarter of the syllabus was Latin, with just one period for all the sciences - the idea was to stop us learning about evolution. (Ultimately they fired the headmaster.) I hope those bullies saw this and were duly ashamed.
OMG when my middle school latin teacher was explaining what a preposition was, she defined it as “anywhere a cat can go.” She used the exact same cat and box example for the different prepositions and it’s so amazing that you were able to get your cat to demonstrate that for us!
Talk about lost in translation--the first time I saw Life of Brian was in a movie theater in Paris. It was in English with French subtitles. I was cracking up throughout the show, and I was the only person in the theater laughing. Of course I had the added pleasure of seeing the humor clumsily translated into the French subtitles.
The subtilty in the comedy of this production escapes most of it's viewers. This subtilty is what makes this the best of the MP productions.
I was literally crying in the last part, thinking about the time I wasted in Italian schools "learning" latin grammar. It's such a beautiful languange with so much beautiful and interesting literature that I can't read because I learnt nothing... :-(
Re discovering Latin as an adult who now actually understands how to self teach a language and use it has been a wonderful experience. Actually discovering the underlying Roman culture and even a small living Latin community online has been a lot of fun. Definitely helps my language skills a lot more than the grammatical exercises ever did.
A beautiful language until you are tortured with having to translate Ovidius.
I am here as i have just started learning Latin via Duolingo, and i'm wanting to supplement with understanding the explicit grammar rules... and this clip from The Life of Brian instantly came to mind, which then brought me here to this video 😊.
Thank you for this very rich explanation... i now see i have A LOT of learning to do. I will look into the other learning modes you have suggested... thank you!
This was one of my "Life of Brian" favorite scenes. I found it easy to understand what "Romani, eunt domus" means and how it should be writen.
I like your commentary on the best ways to learn Latin art the end, but you didn't comment on if holding a sword to the students throat is an effective teaching tool. It seemed good in the clip.
Whoah! Krashen. The input hypothesis. Sweet. Finally and for the first time since grad school, I hear someone talk about input before grammar. ;-) Stay safe & sane, amigo.
I always had problems with differentiating between genitive and dative because they are largely the same in Romanian. BUT, thank God "dative" sound like "a da"(to give). So now that's how I always remember them.
It has taken me decades to realize that all cases work that way...
Nominative = the case in which you name a word in its basic form
Genitive = the case which tells you (at least in Latin) to which 'genus' (in the sense of group or declension, rather than 'gender') the noun belongs
Dative = the case 'required' by dare/to give
Accusative = the case 'required' by accusare/to accuse.
In Russian "to give" is дать. Dat'.
@@derick1618 do you have declensions and cases in russian?
@@cosettapessa6417 Yes. 6 cases. Nominative, genitive, dative, prepositional, accusative, instrumental.
@@cosettapessa6417 You can do a quick Wiktionary check to see a declension table for any noun/adjective if you'd like more examples :) Try Москва for example.
I may take up Latin just because of this video.
"What has polýMATHY ever done for us!?"
Probably more than the Peoples' Front of Judea.
(...or was that the "Judean Peoples' Front"?)
SPLITTERS!
🤣🤣🤣
I mean, other than the roads and the sewers ....
@@jhayes1944 Wine...
@@samarvora7185 Sanitation. Remember what cities used to be like?
Possibly the Popular Front haha
Your point about extensive reading is well-taken. I took French in middle and high school, and in high school especially I think I learned as much, or more, from the stack of Asterix compilations (in the original) sitting on one of the bookshelves, that I'd sneak a read of whenever I could, than I got from actual classroom (grammar-first) instruction.
I learned Latin back in high school (55 years ago!), and up to this point I never knew there was a locative case in Latin! Learned late, but thanks for the new knowledge!
One of the funniest sketches from one of Monty Python's funniest movies.
No it isn’t.
@@historyandhorseplaying7374 oh yes it is!
@@NicholasShanks Nonsense, no it’s not. Are you here for the 5 minute argument or the full half hour?
@@historyandhorseplaying7374 but African swallows are not migratory
@@tick999 It’s not my cross!
"Romėnai, eikite namo" in Lithuanian, slightly changed words, same grammar. Fun fact, namo is the genitive of namas (house), but genitive most likely merged with ablative in old Lithuanian, that being the reason why genitive is still used, where in certain cases, ablative would be used in Latin for example. Interesting to see the clear IE connections, even if so far seperated
I totally agree on the idea of not overemphasizing the teaching of grammar.
Back in my school days, in French class my teacher asked us something-unfortunately I can't recall what it was-and I answered the question, he said: "Yes, well done, that's correct. And now tell me why that is.". I replied that I didn't know the reason, that I just knew that it sounded right.
I am bad at grammar, I rely on my "gut feeling", I rely on how spoken sentences sound and compare them intuitively with the correct pattern stored in my brain, I compare it with the language's own rhythm and melody and that is how I deal with foreign languages.
This is how it works for me and therefore completely subjective.
Great help thank you : from old Latin struggler - the Aeneid in year 10-11 : age 14, 15 prior to University ( Med ) the logic is so amazing !! Rob