“People Called ‘Romanes’ They Go the House!”

Even if you’ve never taken Latin, this is funny. (It’s even funnier if
you have.)

Reminds me of my own Latin tutor.

Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."

8 thoughts on ““People Called ‘Romanes’ They Go the House!””

  2. Wait — but why the locative? The locative would be “at home” not towards “home.”
    And in any case, the locative of “domus” is “domi,” isn’t it?
    So yes, it should be “Romani, ite [ad] domum” but that’s not using the locative.

  3. I think I remember a story once of an English teacher at my middle school correcting a student for writing “your” instead of “you’re” while writing on a bathroom stall. History repeats itself…again!

  4. This is my favorite scene from the Life of Brian… I also like “blessed are the cheese makers.” Unfortunately, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend the whole movie. Sigh.

  5. Wait — but why the locative? The locative would be “at home” not towards “home.”
    Not quite. While you are right, the locative CASE ending for domus is domi, there are actually three rules for the use of endings for place names & “domus”, all of which are referred to collectively as the locative.
    When the place is where, then the locative case ending is used (genitive ending for 1/2 decl singular, ablative for 1/2/3 decl plural). When the place is from which, then the ablative is used. When the place is to which (which is the case here), then the accusative is used. In all cases, no preposition is used. All of these are considered locative usages, though the locative case ending is only used in one of the rules. So really the video is correct.

  6. Off topic, why is the left column suddenly so much wider? On a lower-resolution monitor this wastes a lot of valuable space.

  8. I talked my first-year Latin instructor into using this clip in class. Went over very well, as I recall. And I, for one, have never forgotten to use the accusative for ‘motion towards’.
    Unfortunately (?) I have never had the opportunity to cover a palace wall in Latin graffiti. A sad example of the decline of the liberal arts in daily life.

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