bugcat / Latin For Go

Orthography

• The core letters are A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U and X. K and Z are rarely seen. Y, a vowel, is used in words of Greek origin. W would only be used in foreign words. The consonant I can be disambiguated from the vowel I by using J for the former. V can likewise be separated from U. Neither separation is made by all writers.

• Sentences can begin with a capital letter, as can proper nouns. Neither have to.

• Long vowels can be marked with a macron (ā) or apex (á). Short vowels can take a breve (ă). This is no longer common even in textbooks. Some writers mark all long vowels; others don't mark any. I recommend only marking a vowel as long when this distinguishes a word or inflection.

Grammar

Latin has three genders: masculine, feminine and neuter. It has four core cases: nominative, accusative, ablative and dative. The vocative will rarely appear in Go discussion. The main use of the ablative for Go is as "in / on" (with in), and the main use of the dative is as "for".

Nouns can pluralise. Adjectives agree in gender, case and number with the nouns they apply to. Verbs also change form if more than one person or thing is acting.

Vocabulary (native)

• Latin distinguishes between a gloss white (candidus) and matte white (albus), and between a gloss black (niger) and matte black (ater). The writer can decide which to use. The previous are the male forms. A female player would instead be referred to with the female forms: Candida / Alba and Nigra / Atra. As in English, the players can be distinguished from the colours by capitalisation.

• player: lusor (pl. -ores, gen. -oris)

• game: ludus (pl. / gen. -i)

• victory: victoria, winner (m.): victor, winner (f.): victrix

• loss: amissio. Not sure of the word for loser. Perhaps amittens.

• stone: calculus (pl. / gen. -i)

• group: grupus (pl. / gen. -ūs) or grex (pl. -eges, gen. -egis). grex is a bit more expressive if you don't want to bother marking the long U of grupus.

• board: tabula (pl. gen. -ae, abl. -ā)

• corner: angulus (pl. / gen. -i, dat. / abl. -o).

• side: margo (pl. -ines, gen. -inis, abl. -ine)

• centre: centrum (dat. abl. -o)

• eye: oculus (pl. gen. -i)

• jump (v.): salio

Vocabulary (Japanese)

• atari (v.): atario or ataro

• hane (v.): haneo or hano