P*rl in Latin, whither Python?

[Alex Martelli]

"Erik Max Francis" <max at alcyone.com> wrote in message
news:3A1AB720.728F96C6 at alcyone.com...
> Konrad Hinsen wrote:
>
> > The first sentence was in Latin, the Esperanto translation would be
> > "Kio estis pruvenda", meaning "what had to be proven".
>
> The word _pruv/end/a_ doesn't really work here, because the _/end/_
> affix indicates a compulsion, not simply future tense.  I would write,
> _Kio estis pruvota_.

"Demonstrandum" also connotes a degree of 'compulsion', rather
than 'future', at least in the most common usage.  The common
(considered literal) translation of "Quod erat demonstrandum" in
Italian is "Come dovevasi dimostrare", i.e. "as it HAD to be
proven" (my emphasis), which is also what Konrad is suggesting
as the English equivalent of the Esperanto he suggests.

[Another well-known Latin quotation using a gerund is Cato Major's
"Carthago delenda est" (although his exact wording was more
likely "censeo Carthago delenda esse", but that's by the by).  He
wasn't *predicting* Carthago's destruction, he was (vehemently)
*inciting* it: "Carthago IS TO BE destroyed", i.e. "we MUST
destroy Carthago".  The Holy Office's official monicker, "Propaganda
Fide" (from which English also gets its current meaning for
"propaganda"), is another example of compulsion-indicating
gerund -- the faith is indicated as "having to be propagated"
(connoting a sense of duty help it spread)].

My fluency in Esperanto is _absolutely_ not sufficient to be able
to tell whether there is some subtle semantic difference in it that
may make gerunds inappropriate where they'd be appropriate in
Latin -- I just wanted to point out the Latin connotations here
are not far at all from the "compulsion" you indicate.


Alex