# Haec pauca Turcica lingua vocabula...



## Muttaki

Hello,

This is a page from the book called De Turcarum Moribus written in 1558. Can anyone tell me what it says in the paragraph at the end? Previous sentences are dialogues translated from Turkish, so I understand them but can't figure out what it says in the last paragraph.

I would really appreciate your response.

Thanks.


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## Cagey

Hello, Muttaki

Please copy the part you are asking about and post it.  We want the information needed to answer your question in the thread.  

Also, please briefly describe the kind of writing this is.  Is it imaginary dialog between Christian and someone else? 

(This looks like an interesting project.  )


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## Muttaki

This is from a book named De Turcarum Moribus published in 1550s, by Bartolomeo Georgieuiz who was taken as prisoner by the Turks after the Battle of Mohács in 1526. Apparently he had lived in the Turkish lands for a long time, which made him to be able to write this book.

This paragraph comes after a dialogue between a Turk and a Christian. The dialogue is translated into Latin along with the Turkish sentences in Latinized form. And here they are in page order:
1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

Briefly the dialogue is about the Turk asking the Christian who was passing through where he goes, what he does etc. The Turk at the end offers him his place to stay for the night but the Christian rejects and goes to his way.

I was reluctant to write the paragraph down at first because I couldn't recognize some letters; but still, here is what I have written:

"Haec pauca Turcica linguae vocabula tibi non necessitatis, sed delectationis gratia, generose lector, adiunxi: vt scias quam sint crassa atque barbara. Faxit Deus Opt. Max. vt illis nostra magis, quam nobis eoru sint necessaria. Vale."


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## Glenfarclas

"I have subjoined these few terms from the Turkish language, dear Reader, not out of necessity but of amusement: so that you may know how gross and barbarous they are. May Almightly God grant that ours [language] be necessary for them, and not theirs to us.  Farewell."


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## Muttaki

Thanks a lot for your response.


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## Scholiast

salvete omnes!

Glenfarclas, bless him, has anticipated me (Cagey did say it was engaging!), but perhaps I can still contribute? Here is the full text as far as I can read it:


DIALOGVS

CHRISTIANVS

_Gegsien hair oltson_

Nox fausta tibi fuit

TVRCA

_Agbate hair oltson_

Et tibi felicior


_Ben kurtaldom tsoch succur Allaha_

Ego liberatus sum, summa laus Deo


Haec pauca Turcicae linguae vocabula tibi non necessitatis, sed delectationis gratia, generose lector, adiunxi: ut scias quam sint crassa atque barbara. Faxit Deus Opt. Max. vt illis nostra magis, quam nobis eorum sint necessaria. Vale.​


I think I could just do a translation into Gaelic, but I am guessing you would rather prefer it in English? 

Σ


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## Muttaki

I would prefer English but Glenfarclas seems to have made a nice translation of the last paragraph, hasn't he? And apart from it the dialogue is already translated into Turkish which I understand.

By the way I have added the previous pages that have the whole of this dialogue in the 3rd reply, if you haven't seen.

I agree that it is really interesting. I can't see how it could be "gross and barbaric" as interpreted there though.


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## Ben Jamin

Glenfarclas said:


> "I have subjoined these few terms from the Turkish language, dear Reader, not out of necessity but of amusement: so that you may know how gross and barbarous they are. May Almightly God grant that ours [language] be necessary for them, and not theirs to us.  Farewell."


Maybe it sounds pedantic, but shouldn't it be: not "*of* amusement but "*for* amusement"? And I think that the skipped word should be [words (nostra vocabula)] not [language].


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## Muttaki

What about the last sentence of the dialogue? Can a you also translate it to English? It says _Ego liberatus sum, summa laus Deo._ I wonder because if it means to be free or something about liberty it doesn't exactly fit to the Turkish sentence. Or maybe it does.


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## Ben Jamin

Muttaki said:


> What about the last sentence of the dialogue? Can a you also translate it to English? It says _Ego liberatus sum, summa laus Deo._ I wonder because if it means to be free or something about liberty it doesn't exactly fit to the Turkish sentence. Or maybe it does.


_Ego liberatus sum, summa laus Deo = I am free now, greatest praise [be] to God._
_Apparently he had been taken prisoner (in Turkey?)._


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## Glenfarclas

Ben Jamin said:


> Maybe it sounds pedantic, but shouldn't it be: not "*of* amusement but "*for* amusement"?



That would be fine also, but my intention was "out ... of amusement," i.e., for amusement's sake.



Ben Jamin said:


> And I think that the skipped word should be [words (nostra vocabula)] not [language].



You're right; that corresponds much better with the plural _sint_.


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## Muttaki

Ben Jamin said:


> _Ego liberatus sum, summa laus Deo = I am free now, greatest praise [be] to God.
> Apparently he had been taken prisoner (in Turkey?)._


No. As you can see reading the whole dialogue the person is free in the sense that you meant.

The Turkish sentence can also be translated as _Praise be to God, I am saved. Ben kurduldum çok şükür Allah'a_. In today's colloquial language, in Turkey, most people wouldn't understand in what sense this sentence is uttered. Because I wasn't sure of my understanding today I asked this to my instructor who is an Ottoman historian and he said _I am freed _is in the sense that since I am a Muslim I am freed or saved. And its utterance is kind of wishing for the other person to find the true path as well which is to become a Muslim. So, interesting but to have liberty comes to mean to be Muslim.


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## exgerman

_Liberatus_ means freed, not free. That's why BJ thought of captivity.  So that matches your teacher's interpretation.

(The word for free is _liber_.)


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## Muttaki

exgerman said:


> _Liberatus_ means freed, not free. That's why BJ thought of captivity.  So that matches your teacher's interpretation.
> 
> (The word for free is _liber_.)


Alright. But here it is not in the sense of having been freed after been prisoned. So we use "freed" as well in this sense in English is what you are saying right?


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## exgerman

Muttaki said:


> Alright. But here it is not in the sense of having been freed after been prisoned. So we use "freed" as well in this sense in English is what you are saying right?


Yes, exactly. Liberatus and freed can mean that an onerous burden has been removed.


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## Muttaki

Thanks for replies.


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