# Slovenian: Vse znaš, če vse bereš



## papillon

In the Other Languages forum we have a mystery phrase which we now think is a corruption of a Latin proverb. I found a website where this phrase is translated, I believe into Slovenian:

Cuneta sapis,si cuncta legis -- Latin
Vse znaš, *č*e vse bereš -- Slovenian ??

Can somebody confirm the slavic language?
To my Russian ears this means:
_<You> know all that you can take_, which I think would be the wrong translation for the Latin phrase. But still, did I get it right?

Also, if someone knows the meaning of the Latin phrase, please post in the original thread.


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## mansio

I think it is Slovenian too.


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## skye

It's Slovenian and it means "you know all if you read all."


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## papillon

So, in Slovenian bereš means <you> read? Intereresting, I guess I was misled by the similarity the the Russian word meaning <you> take. What's the Slovenian word for take?


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## skye

take - vzeti, you take - vzameš

The most common meaning of "brati" is to read, but it can also have other meanings. For instance "brati jagode" means to pick up strawberries, but it sounds a little poetic or even archaic.


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## papillon

Thank you for the explanation, skye. Now this makes sense to me, particularly given that we have the word взять as well meaning to take.
In fact, in Russian the verbs
взять / брать form a perfective/imperfective pair for _to take_.
ты берёшь  (beresh) you take, you are taking (present)
ты возьмешь (voz'mesh) you *will* take (future, because the verb is perfective).

We also со*бираем* ягоды sometimes 
(although ягоды is general berries).

Edit: maybe I am "beating a dead horse" here, but is there no other word for _read_ in Slovenian similar to chitat'?


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## skye

You can find "čitati" in old texts, even in the first half of the 20th century, but then the use just declined and today it is considered archaic (or Croatian or Serbian  ). 

Jagoda can refer to berries (fruit) in general as well, but everyone's first association would be strawberry. You would use jagodičevje to talk about berries in general. 

I was the last generation that still had the so called Serbo-Croatian at school and we learnt the cyrillic script too. I sometimes try to read the Serbian text on the various food or cosmetics products - just for fun if I have nothing else to do. But apart from that I'm not really used to reading it and it's kinda difficult for me.


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## papillon

skye said:


> I was the last generation that still had the so called Serbo-Croatian at school and we learnt the cyrillic script too. I sometimes try to read the Serbian text on the various food or cosmetics products - just for fun if I have nothing else to do. But apart from that I'm not really used to reading it and it's kinda difficult for me.


Oh, sorry, I should make sure to include transcriptions, particularly as this was a thread about a Slovenian phrase.
And thanks for the all the info!


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## skye

No problem.


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## janecito

papillon said:


> взять / брать form a perfective/imperfective pair for _to take_.


 The Slovenian equivalent of the Russian aspectual pair *взять / брать* would be *jemati / vzeti*. Although the use of verbal aspect in Slovenian language differs from its use in Russian, hence the perfective form wouldn't necessarily mean future tense.

 The equivalent of *собирать / собрать* (ягоды) would be *nabirati / nabrati* (jagode) and in this case (as skye already explained) *brati *could be used as an archaic synonym of *nabirati*.


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