Salvēte, sodālēs.
Surely we have to start with ‘Hello’. Or, as we say in Latin, ‘Be well!’. Yes, that’s right! The Latin way to greet somebody is to order them to be well.
To order one person to be well we say salvē. To order more than one person to be well we say salvēte. The ‘v’ in Latin is pronounced like a ‘w’ and I’ll put in caps the syllable that you want to stress. SALvē. salVĒte.
This brings us to an important concept: Latin word endings change a lot (salvē vs salvēte for example). We can worry about how and why later on, but it helps to know this as you’re going in.
I’ll begin most of my posts by saying ‘Salvēte, sodālēs.’ Sodālis is a Latin term for a friend and sodālēs is its plural, friends. Salvē, soDĀlis and Salvēte, soDĀlēs.
The textbook uses amīca (female friend) and amīcus (male friend), so these are the words that you’ll see there. I use sodālis because it’s gender non-specific.
Do you have some people in your life that would be happy to be greeted in Latin? If you do, let them know you are telling them to be well and try it out. If not, practise on animals you see throughout the day. I am forever saying ‘Salvēte’ to my students and my cats.
From Legonium Disco, lesson one.