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Going back to my original post I eluded to the Roman Law dictum SUUM CUIQUE. To follow that thread SUUM CUIQUE, is a Latin phrase for "to each his own," In Roman times it was traditionally seen as a short definition of justice itself. The Institutes of Justinian (535 AD) define the precepts of the law as "honeste vivere, alterum non laedere, suum cuique tribuere," translated as, "to live honestly, not to injure another, and to give each one that which belongs to him." The Institutes of Justinian define Justice itself as "constans et perpetua voluntas jus suum cuique tribuens," the "constant and perpetual desire to give to each person his due."It has echoes of Jesus saying "render to Caesar that which is Caesar's"
I was actually making a slightly different point. The most noble of ideals and language can be corrupted by the homicidal. In Bond movies and those about the mafia, the most sinister villains speak softly with a great vocabulary and wit, making their homicidal madness normal in their world. "Work brings freedom" has a different understanding when everyone knows the freedom is death.Going back to my original post I eluded to the Roman Law dictum SUUM CUIQUE. To follow that thread SUUM CUIQUE, is a Latin phrase for "to each his own," In Roman times it was traditionally seen as a short definition of justice itself. The Institutes of Justinian (535 AD) define the precepts of the law as "honeste vivere, alterum non laedere, suum cuique tribuere," translated as, "to live honestly, not to injure another, and to give each one that which belongs to him." The Institutes of Justinian define Justice itself as "constans et perpetua voluntas jus suum cuique tribuens," the "constant and perpetual desire to give to each person his due."
I also mentioned that Bach had written a Cantata (a narrative piece of music for voices with instrumental accompaniment) in which the Roman precept, suum cuique is translated as Jedem das Seine. In his Cantata Nur jedem das Seine! Johann Sebastian Bach addresses the Gospel story where Jesus is asked by the Pharisees whether a tax to Caesar is legitimate (Matthew 22:15-22). The Pharisees hoped to entrap Jesus with this question: "Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?" Matt. 15:17. Jesus recognized the Pharasitic effort at entrapment, and asked to see the coin used to pay the tax. Whereupon they brought him a denarius, a Roman coin that bore the imprint of Caesar and his image
Jesus asked them whose portrait and whose inscription was on the coin, to which they replied "Caeasar's." The Jesus answer: Reddite ergo quae sun Caesaris Caesari et quae sunt Dei Deo, render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's. Using this Gospel text as the basis for his Cantata, Bach stresses both the obligation to pay tax to the legitimate authorities (Obrigkeit), and the more important obligation to render to God what is due God. The State, Bach reminds us in his cantata, has no purchase on our hearts; they belong to God alone about as anti-Nazi as you can get:
Doch bleibet das Herze dem Höchsten alleine.
But our heart continues to belong to the Almighty alone.
Chris, my German, such as it is, is a lot older than yours dating to 1950 or so and my most modern German language to college and about 1961. Literal translations are tough whether from German to English or the reverse and many don't translate well. We (family) said Ich wasche meine Hände für mich and in college Ich wasche mir die Hände. Literally I wash my hands for myself but then again who else would you wash them for?
Wie geht es ihnen shortened to simply Wie geht's today. Consider the way modern German casually uses familial tense to strangers. If I used Sie to Mom or Du to an older lady I'd have lost teeth. Es tut mir lied - It does me suffering, literally.
For the phrase To each his own, I would have said jedem sein eigenes
Germany is a new country formed thirty years after my grandmother was born, even now there are a massive range of dialects spoken, I met a guy from Bayern and didn't understand a word he spoke but no one else in the bar did either. I met many Germans who spoke two types of German, standard and local dialect.Chris, I thought that I was speaking it too until I got to college and actually TOOK German. The hillbilly dialect German of my Gparents and Parent wan't even close. I had to unlearn more than I learned
I just speek a little bit my grandmother taught me. I had no idea the local dialects were so varried.Germany is a new country formed thirty years after my grandmother was born, even now there are a massive range of dialects spoken, I met a guy from Bayern and didn't understand a word he spoke but no one else in the bar did either. I met many Germans who spoke two types of German, standard and local dialect.
Where Germany borders other countries there is sometimes a common dialect across the border. I have seen a German and Dutch guy speaking in a language that was neither German nor Dutch, they were born just a few miles apart but different sides of the border.I just speek a little bit my grandmother taught me. I had no idea the local dialects were so varried.
Chris, I thought that I was speaking it too until I got to college and actually TOOK German. The hillbilly dialect German of my Gparents and Parent wan't even close. I had to unlearn more than I learned
Are many of the dialects dissimilar enough that a person from one part of the country would have trouble understanding a person from another part?What you learned in College is not German. No one speaks that in Germany. There are hundreds if not thousands of dialects. I speak Schwabian and Hoch Deutsch (what you learned in college).
Are many of the dialects dissimilar enough that a person from one part of the country would have trouble understanding a person from another part?