Talk:Ars Arcanum

Latin Grammar?

OK, to you guys who keep inserting the bit about "ars" being feminine and that "arcanum" should be "arcana"... please explain it to me. It seems you're saying "arcanum" is an adjective, but it's certainly being used as a noun here... --Neumannz, The Dark Falcon 04:14, August 27, 2010 (UTC)

Arcanum is being used as an adjective here. The adjective "arcanum" is being used to describe the noun "ars". To expand, Latin is structured in such a way that an adjective must agree in inflection (ending) with the noun that it describes. There are 7*2 different inflections for each noun (the seven grammatical cases in singular and plural form). Two of these cases are rarely used, so 7 could be 5 here, if you like. For adjectives, there are 7*2*3 different forms of the adjective, the different inflections from above and also each of these inflections in the masculine, feminine and neuter gender. For arcanus (this is the basic masculine form of the adjective), there are two other gender-versions, arcana (feminine) and arcanum (neuter). The plural of each of these is arcani, arcanae and arcana. Note that the neuter plural and the feminine singular share the same ending (however, in classical Latin, as far as I remember, the 'a' at the end of the neuter plural would have been elongated to sound like 'aw'). The noun ars is a feminine noun. It means art (or technique probably works better in the case of Sora's ability) in English. To further add to the confusion, Latin allows one to use an adjective as a noun, so that, say, one could use 'arcanus' to be an adjective meaning 'hidden' but also use it to mean 'the hidden (masculine) thing'. However, in the case of Ars Arcanum, using arcanum as a noun is not really tenable, as then the phrase would mean 'technique hidden thing'. This is like saying 'door chair' - it does not make grammatical sense. I would wager, therefore, that whoever came up with the name of the technique intended Ars Arcanum to mean 'hidden art'. In this case, the only case that makes grammatical sense, arcanum should be feminine => arcana, in order to agree with ars. Does that make sense?

Here are a few references to demonstrate the information above. Firstly, http://homepage.usask.ca/~jrp638/latin/harriuspotter/HPglossary.pdf is a glossary for the Latin version of Harry Potter. At the end-ish of the second page, you will find the adjective "arcanus, -a, -um". This format refers to its three genders, all in the nominative case (this is superfluous information; case doesn't matter here, because the phrase Ars Arcanum isn't being used in a sentence, so it will be in the nominative case by default). Secondly, http://www.archives.nd.edu/cgi-bin/lookup.pl?stem=ars&ending=, is a dictionary lookup for the word "ars". The 'f' after the "ars -tis" part is to denote that "ars" is indeed feminine. Lastly, Wikipedia's inflection table, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_declension#First_and_second_declension_adjectives, for first and second declension adjectives shows that an adjective like arcanus (one whose masculine, feminine and neuter forms are arcanus, arcana and arcanum respectively) will have the ending, -a, in the nominative feminine version. Again, note that the neuter plural in both the nominative (and accusative) case ends in the same inflection., but that these could never correspond, as adjectives, to "ars", since this noun is feminine. Can I please add my trivia now?

In fact, the second reference, I've just realised, is superfluous, because you will find 'ars' in the Harry Potter glossary as well as arcanus, -a, -um. (Oh, and the 3f, there, refers to the fact that "ars" belongs to the third declension and is feminine).

Just for reference, the original name is "Last Arcanum", suggesting that it is meant to mean "Last Secret", with Arcanum as a noun.Glorious CHAOS! 15:11, August 27, 2010 (UTC)