Request for Latin help

Mar 30, 2015 21:12

A friend who works at a tertiary institute in England (let's say in Newcastle) wants the students' mission statement translated into Latin ( Read more... )

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Comments 6

cnoocy March 30 2015, 11:05:43 UTC
He knows it's not going to be exact, right? That's a carefully crafted english statement, and the Latin isn't going to have quite the same range of meaning. It's also likely to be wordier than he wants.

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vilakins March 30 2015, 21:36:12 UTC
I'm sure she doesn't expect it to be exact (she has a deep interest in hieroglyphics and does translations). Me, I'd simplify it to start with:

"To enable our students to excel beyond expectation in an outstanding school in the centre of Newcastle."

My attempt is:
"scolastici nostri extra spei in scolae praestitae in centro Newcastle excellere habilitare"

I'm sure others can do a better and more accurate job.

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cnoocy March 30 2015, 23:06:11 UTC
My apologies for assuming the gender of your friend!

My quick take is: "Discipulos nostros exspectationem excellere docere in eminenti schola in centro Novocastellensi".

I used "teach" instead of "enable" because that requires a gerund with facultatem dare, and the sentence is complex enough as is.

If you need to change the city, as you implied, you'll want to find the Latin name of the city. An easy and reasonably accurate way of doing so is to go to the city's Wikipedia page, then switch to the Latin version of the page. I used the ablative singular adjectival form of the city, but the genitive singular noun form is also fine.

If she wants something more like a motto, those tend to be a lot more pithy, something like "Ut discipuli spem superent".

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vilakins March 31 2015, 00:14:14 UTC
No probs! And thank you, you've been very helpful. :-)

The college probably has a motto though I couldn't find one; this is a mission statement - and an unwieldy one IMO but apparently the students chose it, a committee decision I suspect.The town is quite a small one, there's no Latin page associated, and the name's old English for "Hlothver's homestead" which isn't that helpful . So should I just leave it in English without declining it?

I thought the infinitives would go to the end but maybe I'm getting confused with other languages like German. Your version flows so much better than mine - thanks again!

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ioanna_ioannina March 31 2015, 00:13:47 UTC
In instituto nostro optimo Novi Castelli curamus, ut studiosi excellere possint et longius quam quis expectet progrediantur.

(Modern languages allow more nouns quam Latin, so I added "curamus" to make the sentence work.)

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vilakins March 31 2015, 00:19:12 UTC
Ooh, that's completely different again! Thanks very much - I'll offer my friend both and she (and the students) can decide.

This has made me very aware of how inadequate my Latin is.

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