Double negatives in the sense of "I did not say anything to anyone"

[Jiacheng Liu]

Would an appropriate Latin translation be:
nihil nemini dixi, or
nihil cuicumque dixi, or
quodcumque nemini dixi, or
quodcumque cuiqumque non dixi?

If there are multiple possible answers, which one would be the more natural?

 

[Pacifica]

nihil cuicumque dixi

This is the closest one but it would usually be cuiquam rather than cuicumque.

You could also say nemini quicquam dixi.

 

[Jiacheng Liu]

This is the closest one but it would usually be cuiquam rather than cuicumque.

You could also say nemini quicquam dixi.

Thanks! Would "nihil nemini dixi" be understood as the same thing (as a presumed litote), or will the double negative cancel each other and denote something close to "I told everyone something"?

 

[Pacifica]

Thanks! Would "nihil nemini dixi" be understood as the same thing (as a presumed litote), or will the double negative cancel each other and denote something close to "I told everyone something"?

In theory, the two negatives should cancel each other. However, it could still be understood as entirely negative; we have some examples like that; but it's rare and non-classical in this type of sentence (it's common in some others).

 

[Dantius]

Regarding double negatives canceling each other, I think nemini nihil dixi would be most readily understood as "there was no one to whom I did not tell something" (i.e. "everyone heard at least some piece of information from me"), whereas nihil nemini dixi would be "there was nothing that I did not tell someone" (i.e. "every piece of information was told to at least someone"). So they are slightly different, but neither would be "I did not say anything to anyone."

Double negatives in the sense of single negatives are often found when a nec...nec... comes after a negative word. For instance, nihil nec Marco nec Gaio dixi = "I told nothing to either Marcus or Gaius." If the nec...nec... came first, though, you would say nec Marco nec Gaio quicquam dixi.

 

[Michael Zwingli]

R

“I did not say anything to anyone.”

This is not a double negative. To make it so, you would have to say “I did not say nothing to anyone.” It could also be a triple negative: “I did not say nothing to no one.” Of course, in colloquial English these structures all represent simple negative statements, with the additional negations simply serving to add emphasis. Supplementary negation in colloquial English is emphatic in nature; in formal English it is just plain bad grammar.

 

[Hawkwood]

R

This is not a double negative. To make it so, you would have to say “I did not say nothing to anyone.”

I noticed this too, but I didn't want to do nothing about it.

 

[Clemens]

I imagine that so-called Vulgar Latin or Proto-Romance used double negatives as they are the norm in all Romance languages.

 

[Iáson]

This is not a double negative.

nescio an quoque ad tālia dīcī potest.

In some languages, double negatives cancel one another and produce an affirmative; in other languages, doubled negatives intensify the negation... Discussing English grammar, the term "double negative" is often, though not universally, applied to the non-standard use of a second negative as an intensifier to a negation.

etsī hīc dīcunt 'doubled' prīmā occāsiōne.