Window of Opportunity (406)

[Xaeden]

5.Daniel mentioned the he can speak Latin quite well now as he could hear it a few years ago from Jack. But he is an archeologist, so we would expect that he must have learnt some Latin anyway at the university.

Daniel simply said that he had encountered the Ancient's script before, that it was "similar in pronunciation to a language on our planet called Latin," and that he "had the opportunity to hear the [Ancient's] language spoken aloud a year or two ago."

Daniel was previously familiar Latin, which is why he was working with Jack and Teal'c to translate the Ancient script into Latin before then translating that into English and why he was able to identify that Jack was speaking a language similar (but quite different) to medieval Latin in "The Fifth Race" (when Daniel first heard Ancient spoken out loud).

DANIEL
(To O'Neill)
Okay, wh-what was that word you just used?

[O'Neill holds out a hand in invitation to Teal'c.]

TEAL'C
I believe it was falatus.

DANIEL
Okay, sounds kinda close to Medieval Latin.

...

DANIEL
The language he's speaking has similar sounds to Medieval Latin but it's still quite different.

Daniel didn't know medieval Latin so well that he had the definition of every word memorized as he had to look in one of his books to find out (or confirm) that "faculatus" meant "ability" in Latin. However, it took him just a few seconds to grab that Latin book from a table behind him, suggesting it's a text he references regularly and he's indicated a a familiarity with Latin in previous episodes...

In "Holiday" (Season 2, Episode 18), Daniel identified that Ma'chello's notes used an alphabet that was a "mixture of ancient Latin and Greek" but was its own distinct language. Meaning, Daniel knew ancient Latin and Greek well enough to know that there were no words in common with the language Ma'chello wrote in.

In "Legacy" (Season 3, Episode 4), Daniel said the Goa'uld tablet device found near the dead Linvris was written in "a Goa'uld dialect akin to Latin" ahead of his briefing room meeting with Hammond.