I will translate anything into Latin.

[Eldan]

My latin is a bit rusty, but I can't let that go unanswered.

Let's see...

"In domo sua R'liehae, mortuus Cthulhu somnians exspectat."

I assumed R'lyeh was a first declination feminine (as if it was "R'lieha") and that "Cthulhu" was Cthulhu's nominative (sounds reasonnable).

That's probably a little awkward, but I am confident it is correct.


EDIT 1: I changed the "y" in R'lyeh to a "i" to keep the pronunciation alike. "y" in latin sounds like a french "u". I don't think there is that sound in english.

EDIT 2: Another one because why not?



What is a PbP?

"Ordini. Coronae. Gloriae honorique."

This is assuming you mean "honor" as a synonym of "glory", if you mean more as "virtous behaviour", "honestoque" would be more fitting.

How would you transcribe Cthulhu into Latin? Catulu? Cetulus?

[Fyraltari]

How would you transcribe Cthulhu into Latin? Catulu? Cetulus?

You could use of the other spellings: Tulu, Kutulu, Katulu, etc.

It's apparently pronounced "Khlûl′-hloo" anyway, which is still wrong since humans can't prononce it correctly anyway.

[Crisis21]

I'll ask for a (hopefully) simple one:

Deus ex Machina is (roughly) 'God in the Machine'. What would be best for swapping 'God' for 'Insanity' in that phrase?

[MoonCat]

I'll ask for a (hopefully) simple one:

Deus ex Machina is (roughly) 'God in the Machine'. What would be best for swapping 'God' for 'Insanity' in that phrase?

I'd do vecordia or amentia ex machina.

It's originally Attic Greek though, so you could always go old school (with the added benefit of alliteration) and say ἀπὸ μηχανῆς μανία.

[Grammaticus]

Hello,
I'm been an avid OOTS reader but so far I had nothing to say on the forums. But I was a bit bored waiting for a shop to open today and I stumbled upon this thread. I happen to be a latin linguist doing a PhD about some very specific language features in latin (won't bother you with that, I promise) and a background in archaeology and anthropology. More specifically, I spend an awful lot of time reading what ancient grammarians wrote about latin.

I would be glad to translate or discuss some latin. Sorry for my English in advance, I'm french.

To begin with, how latin speakers transcribed foreign words into latin is an interesting topic. All in all, there are three ways to do it:

- the republican/"normal" way: they transcribed foreign words by altering them so they could be pronounced using only latin phonems and (roughly) latin grammar. For "Cthulhu", that would be something like "Tulu(us), Tului". That would also probably determinate the pronounciation in "vulgar" latin.

- the classical/"pedantic" way: typically observed for greek words, the rule was to keep the greek pronounciation and even sometimes greek grammar. I'll be forced to compare with greek anyway so let's say Cthulhy would be treated like a greek word. So they wrote the words in the greek alphabet, or with a latin alphabet with small alterations (like C for K, removing the "h" etc). So it would be "Cthulhu" or "Ctulu". But the pronounciation varied depending on the reader's skill. For "Cthulhu" that would go from "Ctulhu" to "Kutulu". And sometimes they tried to sound greeker than the greek, so they would add greek-sounding parts, something like "Kthhhulhhhhu" just to show they could aspirate the h (while the actually erudite cultists in the room would try not laughing).

- the late/medieval/"latin isn't my native language" way: this is especially true after the dilution of the western empire into "barbarian" successor states. There were still very knowledgeable people but most of the time, the problem was not to translate foreign words into latin, but to translate their own language into weird latin. That's when the writers started to use very fancy spellings because it looked better, and I fear we aren't safe from something like "Khthylys" because everything looks better with greek letters/rules. But they would still pronounce it right, because they were used to not pronounce latin as it is written.

[Pseudo_Nym]

Interesting thread!

I've used 'Nec neca nec necare' as 'neither kill nor be killed' on occasion, and since we have some genuine expertise here I'd be grateful for correction or confirmation, as appropriate. It's a phrase I'd like to be confident in, and my own Latin is... rather rusty.

Thanks greatly.

[ahyangyi]

- the classical/"pedantic" way: typically observed for greek words, the rule was to keep the greek pronounciation and even sometimes greek grammar. I'll be forced to compare with greek anyway so let's say Cthulhy would be treated like a greek word. So they wrote the words in the greek alphabet, or with a latin alphabet with small alterations (like C for K, removing the "h" etc). So it would be "Cthulhu" or "Ctulu". But the pronounciation varied depending on the reader's skill. For "Cthulhu" that would go from "Ctulhu" to "Kutulu". And sometimes they tried to sound greeker than the greek, so they would add greek-sounding parts, something like "Kthhhulhhhhu" just to show they could aspirate the h (while the actually erudite cultists in the room would try not laughing).

I think "Cthulhu" takes inspiration from the Greek word χθόνιος (as in some cults devoted to subterranean Greek deities). So maybe the Latin version would simply be Chthulu or Chtholu?

[LeSwordfish]

Hey folks,

Really hope this thread doesn't get locked for necroposting because I actually have a relevant question for it! I'm making a Titan Legion for Warhammer 40,000, which in case you don't know uses a lot of cod latin. I want to give each Titan (big stompy mecha) a latin name, and was hoping to have a human who speaks the language look over the names before I paint them on anything. So please let me know what the "correct" translations for the names below is - I just fiddled around in Google Translate until I got some sounds I liked, so please let me know how the words I selected are actually used, and any unfortunate connotations etc. Can I just put the words in whatever order, for a name?

Warhounds (Small dog-like scout titans)
Canis Caelestis (Celestial dog)
Aetherus Catulus (sky cub)

Reaver (Medium sized "ambush" titan)
Sideralis Venandi (stellar hunter)

Warlord (Big boss titan)
Constellatia Divinatus (Divine constellation)

In particular I vaguely remember something about Latin names being gendered by how they end - Flavius/Flavia, etc. Can you do that with ordinary words as well? (Divinatus to Divinata and so on). Would that imply the gender of the titan or it's crew to a latin speaker?

[Fyraltari]

Hey folks,

Really hope this thread doesn't get locked for necroposting because I actually have a relevant question for it! I'm making a Titan Legion for Warhammer 40,000, which in case you don't know uses a lot of cod latin. I want to give each Titan (big stompy mecha) a latin name, and was hoping to have a human who speaks the language look over the names before I paint them on anything. So please let me know what the "correct" translations for the names below is - I just fiddled around in Google Translate until I got some sounds I liked, so please let me know how the words I selected are actually used, and any unfortunate connotations etc. Can I just put the words in whatever order, for a name?

Warhounds (Small dog-like scout titans)
Canis Caelestis (Celestial dog)
Aetherus Catulus (sky cub)

Reaver (Medium sized "ambush" titan)
Sideralis Venandi (stellar hunter)

Warlord (Big boss titan)
Constellatia Divinatus (Divine constellation)

In particular I vaguely remember something about Latin names being gendered by how they end - Flavius/Flavia, etc. Can you do that with ordinary words as well? (Divinatus to Divinata and so on). Would that imply the gender of the titan or it's crew to a latin speaker?

First, Warhammer 40K does not bother with having actually correct latin. The Imperial guard "actual" name Astra Militarum(sic) is probablys supposed to translate to "Army of the stars" but actually means something like "star of the soldiers". So if you go beyond "whatever sounds cool on google translate" you are already putting in more effort than GW employees are.

Second: each latin noun (both common and names) decline according to three things: gender (male, female or neutral and no there are no easy way to know which a given name is you just have to learn it by rote), number (singluar or plural) and case (function within the sentence, ie subject, object, etc). Each noun does so by following one of the five different possible declination (who may have some additional sub-declinations).
Order is not important in a latin sentence, like at all (at least in written latin).

Finally, unlike English, latin cannot just slap a noun to another and expect it to work as an epiteth like it was an adjective or something so your

"Sky cub" would be "cub from the sky" so catulus coelo or coelo catulus (catulus is in the nominative case and coelus in the ablative)

"Stellar hunter": stellis venator or venator stellis (again nominative venator and and ablative plural stella)

"Divine constellation": constellatio divina or divina constellatio (divinus is an adjective so it just takes the gender, number and case (here female, singular and nominative) of constellatio.)

[Mutant Donkey]

The cheese is old and moldy.

[Eldan]

I think "Cthulhu" takes inspiration from the Greek word χθόνιος (as in some cults devoted to subterranean Greek deities). So maybe the Latin version would simply be Chthulu or Chtholu?

I just came across it and thought I might mention it, but Lovecraft's own Whisperer in Darkness has the name Kathulos coming up in a list of dark gods and/or things and that might as well be a Latinized spelling of Cthulhu.

[hema kumar]

thats a better skill.

[Phhase]

Just clarify for me: "Manes ex Machina."
It does mean ghost from the machine, right?

[Bohandas]

First, Warhammer 40K does not bother with having actually correct latin. The Imperial guard "actual" name Astra Militarum(sic) is probablys supposed to translate to "Army of the stars" but actually means something like "star of the soldiers". So if you go beyond "whatever sounds cool on google translate" you are already putting in more effort than GW employees are.

Speaking of which, why is it that the pseudo-Latin language from WH40K is pretty much the only thing in the imperial faction that doesn't have a pseudo-Latin name? Instead of "High Gothic" shouldn't it be called "Fakeus Latinus" or something like that?

[Eldan]

Canis latinum.

[Eldan]

Just clarify for me: "Manes ex Machina."
It does mean ghost from the machine, right?

Sort of. There's several words for ghost. (Manes, Lares, Larvae, Lemures, Genii...) Manes are ancestral spirits that are neither really good or evil:

Apuleius "says, indeed, that the souls of men are demons, and that men become Lares if they are good, Lemures or Larvae if they are bad, and Manes if it is uncertain whether they deserve well or ill... He also states that the blessed are called in Greek εὐδαίμονες [eudaimones], because they are good souls, that is to say, good demons, confirming his opinion that the souls of men are demons."

— City of God, Book IX, Chapter 11[3]

They have to be placated with sacrifice and ritual, though.

[jeremymarshall]

Hello.
I need your help, how will be "special one" in Latin?

[Fyraltari]

Hello.
I need your help, how will be "special one" in Latin?

That depends on the context but specialis is probably the answer you are looking for.

[angelinalove]

Hello!
Help me please. How can i say "wise woman" on Latin?

[Fyraltari]

Sapiens femina in the sense of ‘an adult (but not too old) female human who has wisdom’.

[flat_footed]

The Fullmetal Mod: Thread Necromancy is a forbidden art.