Latin Translations

[paradoxhorizon]

One of my stories decided it needed a country with a shadowy council of people with ridiculous Latin titles. While I don't really need 100% perfect Latin (the rule of cool is definitely in play here), I'd like to know the accurate Latin (because, well, because I like knowing the correct thing before I choose the less correct, aesthetically better

Comments

[rusquen]

My Latin is sort of self-taught with a couple of informal lessons thrown in, but...
I'd say you want Dominus (Lord)/ Domina (Lady) and the Genitive declension of whatever it is you want them to be the lord/lady of.I don't think there's a neuter version of the title.

[rusquen]

Dominus/Domina
...venaturae (hunt)
...mani ferrei (iron hand)
...mani aurei (golden hand)
...clavis argentei (silver key)
...portarum et viarum/ portarum viarumque / viarum portarumque (doors and ways)
...liminis (threshold)
...arvi (fields/ farmland)
...campi herbidi (grassy field)
...aquarum (waters)
...aequorae (seas)
...praestigiarum (illusions/spectres/ phantoms)
...umbrarum (illusions/ shadows/ shades/ ghosts)
...flammae scientiae (flame of knowledge - really not sure about this, two genitives one on top of another O_o)
...opulentiae (wealth/riches/might)
...vitae et mortis/ vitae mortisque/ mortis vitaeque (life and death in various combinations)

Hope this helps :)

[mel_sha]

The translation seems correct to me -5 years of latin in high school, but I'm not good at it xD-, but the name comes last. So if you want to say Lord of hunt, the corrct translation is venaturae dominus. The same goes to Lord of iron hand, that translates into ferrei mani dominus.
Ancient latin, not the one christians use, has a different order of the names and the verbs. It's one of the first things teachers tells students when starting learning latin.

[lizzardgirl]

The name doesn't *have* to come last, however. Think of Henry VIII's famous title, which I've seen as both Defensor Fidei and Fidei Defensor. Since the different endings make it obvious which is which, you have a lot of liberty (especially when there's the rule of cool) to arrange in whichever way you like best.

Also, I completely agree with the translations above, but I'd like to add that if you want to have your lord/lady titles more of a teacher-like slant (in the way that Snape was called Potions Master in HP, if you're familiar with that) there's always the alternative of magister/magistra. In my understanding, dominus/domina would be someone who is ruling the domain in question, whereas a magister/magistra would be one who had mastered that domain. Just thought I'd throw it out there.

[mel_sha]

The name comes after its adjectives in ancient latin, like the verb is the last word in the sentence. Latin used in the Middle Ages and after doesn't follow the rules of the position of the verbs and the names anymore. I'm totally sure of that, my teacher explained that to us in one of the first lessons.

About the magister/magistra you're totally right, in this context is the best term. -another time that I'm reminded of how my latin vocabulary is really low xD-

[alextiefling]

I remember two things from my own classical Latin classes:

1) Adjectives usually, but not always, followed their nouns: [I]lupus magnus et niger[/I] was given as an example.

2) Genitives of nouns are not adjectives anyway. If you have 'The X of the Y of Z', the correct meaning would have to be deduced from context anyway.

[rusquen]

Wikipedia over here tells me Latin adjectives normally go after nouns they modify, unless it's poetry. In which case you can place them anywhere reasonably close, just don't forget to match gender/number/declension.
Not sure whether this is about classical or vulgar Latin, but since we're talking alternative 20th century where Latin is still in use, they've probably gone through both and developed their own version by now :)

[paradoxhorizon]

Fished this out of spam because it is helpful. At the very least, for giving me an idea as to how far where some of the limits are in mucking about with Latin.

[rusquen]

Ugh. Referenced Wikipedia and got marked as spam. Serves me right, I guess :)

[rusquen]

Fun fact about Latin: word order is not terribly important. The sentence structure a lot of modern classes use is more uniform to match the way we learn other romance languages. As long as verb conjugation, noun declension, etc. match each other to indicate what words affect one another, it is still correct! So, put them in whichever order you like.

[paradoxhorizon]

Weirdly, I find this more confusing. But, hey, more excuses for abusing the poor (mostly) dead language to my aesthetic whims!

[mel_sha]

1. My own teacher, and the tons of texts that I had to translate, said differently. We translated "pulchra puella" not "puella pulchra".

2. It was late and I didn't have the time to start searching in the vocabolary all the correct terminology about grammar in english, so I said adjective to semplify.

I said ancient latin, but I meant classical latin. Ancient latin was worse.

[lizzardgirl]

Your teacher may have been giving you abridged and edited texts to make the translations easier.

Original Latin sources (from, yes, the Classical period) do show a very liberal take on word order as well as a preference for adjectives (and other attributive constructions) following nouns. Compare, for example:

Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres,

or else:

Quo usque tandem abutere, Catilina, patientia nostra? Quam diu etiam furor iste tuus nos eludet? Quem ad finem sese effrenata iactabit audacia?

[mel_sha]

We weren't given abridged or edited texts. And it didn't make the traslation easier, Italian -my mother tongue- follows the order of the Medieval Latin, being a neolatin language.
I know very well both authors, thanks, I've translated them so many many times during high school. About Cesar's passage, the incipit of the De Bello Gallico, go on and the order is different. Not all the authors followed that rule, but that's what I've been taught from day one. Language changes during the time, I've studied a lot of latin authors and translated many others and everyone had its own style.

[paradoxhorizon]

Thank you for the usage/definition/connotation note (dominus vs magister). May have to mix and match...

[paradoxhorizon]

Thank you for info on word order.