What is the latin translation for "Beware of the flying dogs"?

This is in the aviation sense... any translation of 'flying' that
suggests dogs piloting an aircraft would be acceptable.

Thanks!
Glenn

Hello, Glenn! What an unusual question you've asked. There is no
single "correct" answer, but I have two suggestions for you.

Citivolus means "swiftly flying" in Latin. I think this is about as
close as you can come to suggesting flight in an aircraft. Obviously,
the ancient Romans did not have a word for an airplane pilot.

Using the necessary plurals, I suggest this as a translation of
"Beware of the flying dogs":

"Cavete canes citivoli."

Another possibility that occurs to me is to consider an airplane as a
"sky chariot." In Latin, one word for the driver of a chariot is
"auriga" (the plural is "aurigae.") So we could say "Beware of the
canine sky-charioteers":

"Cavete canes caeli aurigae."

I hope these translations are suitable. It's none of my business, but
I'd love to hear the story behind your slogan. When I was a child, I
heard the term "dogfight" used in describing an aerial battle, and
ever since that time, I've had an imaginary picture of doggies zooming
through the skies in airplanes. When the "Peanuts" comic strip
presented Snoopy as the World War I Flying Ace, I wondered if
cartoonist Charles M. Schulz had likewise misunderstood "dogfight" and
carried around that absurd, yet charming mental image.

If anything is unclear, or if you have a question, please request
clarification; I'll be glad to offer further assistance before you
rate my answer.

Best wishes,
pinkfreud

---

Request for Answer Clarification by glenn42-ga on 12 Sep 2003 11:59 PDT

Thanks for the quick response, PinkFreud.  Could you please address
the comments by HLabadie?  I'm fluent in French, but know nothing
about Latin, so I just want to make sure there's a concensus about the
most correct answer.  Also, a pronunciation guide would be most
appreciated.

The story behind the question: My wife and I have 3 dogs, which we're
a little crazy about.  My wife always had a saying for her timid
childhood dog: "Cave canum bellicose(sp?), which I understand is
loosely "Beware of the warlike dog!".  In that sense it's just an
inside joke, but I'm adapting it for my use.  I'm a student pilot
about to make my first solo.  Part of the ritual with a first solo is
that your instructor cuts off your shirttails, i.e., the back of your
t-shirt.  Most people get a blank t-shirt and draw something on it. 
I'm going to take pictures of my 3 dogs and Photoshop them into a
cartoon airplane to print out and iron on the back of my shirt, with
the slogan below it.  During solos, I'm not able to carry human
passengers, but dogs are OK.  As such, if you see a light aircraft
with dogs in it, beware, as there's a student pilot at the yoke. 
Silly?  Yes, but how many times will I get to solo?  :^}

Thanks again,
Glenn

---

Clarification of Answer by pinkfreud-ga on 12 Sep 2003 14:05 PDT

Glenn,

The remark by my colleague hlabadie is quite apt. "Cavete canes
citivolos" is indeed better Latin than "Cavete canes citivoli."

Regarding the plural "cavete," I presumed that the "warning" was
directed at more than one person, hence my choice of "cavete" rather
than "cave." If the "inside joke" is directed to one person only,
"cave" would be a more appropriate choice.

Regarding pronunciation, there aren't any ancient Romans around to
correct us, so we take a lot of liberties in pronouncing Latin. ;-)

I would pronounce "Cavete canes citivolos" in this fashion:

KAH-veh-teh KAY-nees sit-IH-vo-lohs.

Some would substitute a 'w' sound for the 'v' in cavete and citivolos.
I don't like doing this, even though it may be more authentic, since
it makes the Latin sound as if it is being spoken by Elmer Fudd.

Here you'll find a useful guide to the pronunciation of Latin:

http://www.hhhh.org/perseant/libellus/aides/allgre/allgre.8.html

The Photoshopped t-shirt project with your three dogs sounds like a
lot of fun! Perhaps your theme song should be "Pup, we go into the
wild blue yonder." :-D

~pinkfreud

Quick, concise response, with swift follow-up.

Hi glenn42!!

What do you think about this:
Cavutum ab canes volatilis volavi.

Can I claim the price?

The classical example from a pavement in Pompeii is Cave Canem, beware the dog.

cavutum means hollow.

hlabadie-ga

Pompeii: Art Gallery - Cave Canem
http://www.harcourtschool.com/activity/pompeii/imagesHTM/Canem.html

cave, singular imperative of caveo, cavere - beware (cavete is plural)
canes, masculine plural accusative of canis, canis, object of verb
cave - dogs
volucres, adjective, modifies canes with which it agrees in gender,
number, and case - flying

Thus:

cave canes volucres

If the warning is being directed to a group, then cavete replaces
cave. Canes is not the subject of cave but rather its object, and
reflects the number of objects taken by the verb. The subject of the
imperative verb is the person or persons to whom the warning is
directed. In the answer given, citivoli is incorrect: it should agree
with canes and be declined accordingly.

For male dogs, as per the classical example:

citivoli nom. pl.
citivolorum gen. pl.
citivolis dat. pl.
citivolos acc. pl.
citivolis abl. pl.

Thus, citivolos is correct.

If one assumes that dogs are female, then citivolas.


volucer
Charlton T. Lewis, Charles Short, A Latin Dictionary
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0059%3Aentry%3D%2351325

SEARCH TERM
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=cave+canem+Pompeii

hlabadie-ga

Insofar as pronunciation is concerned, there are two accepted schemes,
Classical and Ecclesiastical. Classical is almost mandatory for Roman
Literature and conscious imitations, while Ecclesiastical is fine for
Medieval and Modern usages. The Classical approximates as closely as
may be the Roman sound, and Ecclesiastical, not surprisingly, sounds
similar to Italian. For your purposes, it is immaterial which you
choose. The Classical system has the advantage of regularity, in the
sense that the sounds of letters are mostly constant, and variations
are predictable. "c" is always hard, for instance, sounded like that
in English "can".  In contrast, the Ecclesiastical "c" in citivolos is
sounded like the "ch" in English "cherry". As there is no Classical
precedent for citivolos, you might prefer the Ecclesiastical
pronunciation.


Gasper's Guide to Ecclesiastical Latin
http://fgmusic.org/~fgasper/latin-php.php

Latin--Why? And how to pronounce it!
http://www.kensmen.com/catholic/latin.html

://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=ecclesiastical+latin+pronunciation

hlabadie-ga

try website http://www.worldlingo.com or http://babelfish.google.com/tr

Thanks, all... special mention to hlabadie for your additional
comments, which are much appreciated.  I just finished the t-shirt
graphic, and just in time for my solo on Sunday.  You can see a
version of it at http://www.desena.com/cave_canes_citivolos.jpg.

~ Glenn

Cool! and congratulations.

hlabadie-ga