How to sing 'Happy Birthday' in Latin?

[Mogster]

Is it possible to learn to sing this? Does anyone have a good resource?

[Karenciavo]

Per Memoria Press:

 

Happy Birthday in Latin:

 

Laetus natalis, tibi

Laetus natalis, tibi.

Laetus natalis, tibi.

Laetus natalis, care :insert name:, (if female cara)

Laetus natalis, tibi.

[latinteach]

According to John Traupman's "Conversational Latin for Oral Proficiency," one says Happy Birthday by saying: "Felicem Natalem (tibi exopto)." "I wish (to) you a happy birthday." "Natalis" is really a third declension adjective (natalis, natalis, natale) and so you could include "dies" (day). "Felicem natalem diem (tibi exopto.)" You can leave out the "tibi exopto" but you should still use the accusative because the verb is understood, it's implied that you are doing the wishing if you leave it out.

[Mogster]

Forgive me for my ignorance (we have only been doing Lively Latin for about a month), but is the c in 'felicem' hard or soft? I was thinking it was soft, but I am not positive. We are doing ecclesiastical pronunciation. Also, someone told me it was 'Felicem Natelem Diem' -- do you consider that to be correct? Thanks for your help!

[FO4UR]

Interesting. In high school Latin class we sang:

 

"Laetus dies natalus, tibi."

 

Of course, that's about all I remember from that class...:001_huh::lol:

[Karenciavo]

Forgive me for my ignorance (we have only been doing Lively Latin for about a month), but is the c in 'felicem' hard or soft? I was thinking it was soft, but I am not positive. We are doing ecclesiastical pronunciation.

 

the sound is /ch/

[latinteach]

Forgive me for my ignorance (we have only been doing Lively Latin for about a month), but is the c in 'felicem' hard or soft? I was thinking it was soft, but I am not positive. We are doing ecclesiastical pronunciation. Also, someone told me it was 'Felicem Natelem Diem' -- do you consider that to be correct? Thanks for your help!

 

"Felicem natalem diem" is the correct spelling.

 

It is in the accusative case because it is understood that the speaker is offering to the recipient the greeting of a happy birthday. So it is a direct object. You could say "Felicem natalem diem" or "Felicem natalem" (with the "diem" understood) and it would be understood as "(I wish you) a Happy Birthday."

 

According to the Ecclesiastical pronunciation guide at http://www.preces-latinae.org/thesaurus/Introductio/Pronunciatio.html the "C" is soft and pronounced as "ch." (There's a good pronunciation guide here for those who use this pronunciation.)

Edited December 10, 2008 by latinteach
addition

[Mogster]

Got it. Thanks! :001_smile:

[Guest calpurnia]

"Felicem natalem diem" is the correct spelling.

 

It is in the accusative case because it is understood that the speaker is offering to the recipient the greeting of a happy birthday. So it is a direct object. You could say "Felicem natalem diem" or "Felicem natalem" (with the "diem" understood) and it would be understood as "(I wish you) a Happy Birthday."

 

According to the Ecclesiastical pronunciation guide at http://www.preces-latinae.org/thesaurus/Introductio/Pronunciatio.html the "C" is soft and pronounced as "ch." (There's a good pronunciation guide here for those who use this pronunciation.)

 

I would say that it is accusative not because it is a "direct object," but an accusative of exclamation...which is very similar to a direct object. The whole idea of an accusative of exclamation is that the verb is left out (presumably because the speaker is so excited/agitated that he or she just exclaims the "endpoint" of his or her attention in the accusative case, in which the direct object of the verb would be if it were actually there...)

 

Also, we pronounce all c's as hard in Classical Latin, like k's. Ecclesiastical Latin ("Church Latin") is pronounced more like Italian.