Lord direct us

[lWBwake]

Greetings,

I am curious to know the correct phrase translation for 'Lord direct us'. I have seen a common translation as Domine dirige nos. However, where my confusion lies, is that I have seen it on one particular website as Domine DILRIGE nos. Wondering if that L in dilrige was a mistake by whomever posted it.

Any help would be much appreciated! Thanks!!

 

[Aurifex]

Wondering if that L in dilrige was a mistake by whomever posted it.

Yes, the "l" has no place there.
BTW, I hope you don't mind my mentioning it, but it's considered more correct to say "by whoever posted it".

 

[Abbatiſſæ Scriptor]

BTW, I hope you don't mind my mentioning it, but it's considered more correct to say "by whoever posted it".

 

[Pacifica]

Why art thou so shocked?

 

[Abbatiſſæ Scriptor]

I was unaware that 'by' took the nominative.

 

[Pacifica]

"Whoever" is technically the subject of "posted" rather than the object of "by", which is kind of just implied - or perhaps it's just the whole clause "whoever posted it" working as a noun clause.

 

[Abbatiſſæ Scriptor]

Yes, I see now how it ſeems to ſerve as both. Bit of a trap, that.

 

[Aurifex]

"Whoever" contains both antecedent and relative. The antecedent and relative are here in different cases, the first being objective, the second subjective. Hence we need "whoever"' not "whomever".

 

[Abbatiſſæ Scriptor]

Somewhat equivalent to 'per eam qui poſuit', yes, but what would happen in Latin if we attempted to replace 'qui' with 'quicumque'? Would we have the ſame ſtrangeness as with an attempt at 'by him whoever'?

 

[Manus Correctrix]

Indeed.

"It's a mistake by whoever posted it."

=

"Mendum est factum a quocumque qui verba apposuit."

Right? When we say "whoever" here, it's kind of a contraction of what logically (but unidiomatically) would be "whomever who", i.e. an indefinite pronoun in a case dictated by the first clause, then a relative pronoun in a case dictated by the relative clause.

 

[Pacifica]

I'm not sure, actually. I'd rather have thought it would be factum ab eo quicumque verba apposuit.

 

[lWBwake]

Great! Thanks for the help.

 

[Manus Correctrix]

Ab eo qui would definitely be fine, but ab eo quicumque seems to me to put the "ever" in the wrong place. What we're saying is "by whatever person it was who...". The vagueness applies to the first pronoun.

I hope Latin has a clear way of expressing this.

 

[Abbatiſſæ Scriptor]

'eoquoque qui'
'himever who'
Yes! Manus Correctrix has solved it!
Now we juſt have to lobby to get that into the next edition of Lewis & Short.