Help with Latin or Greek language

[Person_Man]

Trying to get the correct translation of "World of Many Magics" in Latin or Greek (whichever sounds cooler in English), just to put a formal name on my homebrew Roman/Greek campaign world. I think it's "Mundus Multus Magicus" in Latin and "Gaia Polus Magei" in Greek. But my conjugation has always been atrocious. Any language scholars out there?

[Pomegranite Girl]

All the Latin and Greek I know is pilfered from taxonomy, particularly related to my profession so I would be rather useless at correcting conjugation. That being said I think the Greek sounds more foreign and more in line with a magical title if that is what you are looking for. I suppose it is from the degree of influence that Latin has on the English language.

[Razanir]

Trying to get the correct translation of "World of Many Magics" in Latin or Greek (whichever sounds cooler in English), just to put a formal name on my homebrew Roman/Greek campaign world. I think it's "Mundus Multus Magicus" in Latin and "Gaia Polus Magei" in Greek. But my conjugation has always been atrocious. Any language scholars out there?

Mundus Multorum Magorum (World of Many Magicians)
Mundus Plena Magia (World Full of Magic)
Mundus Multarum Magicarum (World of Many Magics)
Mundus Multarum Cantionum (World of Many Spells) (alt. Incantationum)
Mundus Magiae (World of Magic)
Mundus Magorum (World of Magicians)
Mundus Cantionum (World of Spells) (alt. Incantationum)

Source: I actually speak some Latin, enough to fake being fluent.

[Bulldog Psion]

I'm very, very rusty, but ...

Mundum multi magicis

Orbium multi venificiae

... are what I can come up with in Latin on short notice. Both of which sound pretty clumsy, unfortunately.

[Jay R]

This first part of the problem is that a language is set in a culture, and often cannot say things alien to that culture, or, in that case, so automatic as to not be worth saying. I'm not sure somebody from classical Rome could understand or accept the notion of a world that wasn't of many magical ideas and marvels. I suspect that this phrase, in classical Latin or Greek, would merely mean "this world as we know it actually is".

The second part of the problem is that you cannot say it in Latin until you can say it precisely in English.

Do you want a universe, a country, a continent, or what? Note that I didn't list "a planet", since the earth isn't one in classical Latin - the planets are bright lights that move in the sky - the moon, Mercury, Venus, the sun, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn.

"Orbis terrarum" means the earth, the disk we live on at the center of the universe. There can't be more than one of it.

"Mundus" means the world of orindary things, as contrasted with heaven or other mystical realms, so a "mundus" of magics seems like a contraciction in terms.

"Rerum natura" (natural things) is a common phrase for what we think of as the world. But I'm not sure you can modify it with "of many magics".

You can't use "universus", because that means everything - the earth, the heavens, everything that exists.

I suspect that you can't have "a" world in the sense you want - only *the* world, the one and only universe.

Next, what is a "magic"? The word is an adjective, and you're using it as a noun. English is a slippery language, that lets you play games with the grammar; Latin is not.

Do you want:

• a world of many magic items?
• a world of many magical effects?
• a world of many magical spells?
• a world of many mysteries?
• a world of many physical impossibilities?
• a world of many marvelous happenings?

All of these would be different - and many of them would be assumed

[Kneenibble]

Just to break up the blocky word-for-word translations with double genitive plurals (which are in terrible Latiny taste), I would write magis magicius mundum! - the really quite magical world!

My Greek is weak, but I think gaia is a cognate of terra, not mundum.

[Razanir]

This first part of the problem is that a language is set in a culture, and often cannot say things alien to that culture, or, in that case, so automatic as to not be worth saying. I'm not sure somebody from classical Rome could understand or accept the notion of a world that wasn't of many magical ideas and marvels. I suspect that this phrase, in classical Latin or Greek, would merely mean "this world as we know it actually is".

Not really an issue. Greek is undeniably a living, modern language. And Latin's a bit of a zombie. No one speaks it as a primary language any more, but it's far from dead. But things are still being written in Latin, so I don't really that that one's a problem either.

"Mundus" means the world of orindary things, as contrasted with heaven or other mystical realms, so a "mundus" of magics seems like a contraciction in terms.

I'm not really sure it's a contradiction. It also just means Earth (referring to the planet). As opposed to terra, -ae for lowercase-e earth, meaning dirt or land (or in some cases, Earth).

Do you want:

• a world of many mysteries?

Mundus Mysteriorum! Sounds cool and rhythmic. Means "(The) World of Mysteries". If the "many" is important, though. You could change it to Mundus Multorum Mysteriorum.

Alternatively, a world full of mystery would be Mundus Plena Mysterii.

[starflt]

Trying to get the correct translation of "World of Many Magics" in Latin or Greek (whichever sounds cooler in English), just to put a formal name on my homebrew Roman/Greek campaign world. I think it's "Mundus Multus Magicus" in Latin and "Gaia Polus Magei" in Greek. But my conjugation has always been atrocious. Any language scholars out there?

You've gotten a bunch of good Latin answers, so here's some Greek. Sadly, symbol font does not seem to be available, so I'll have to use a transliteration.

"world" is "gh" [gamma eta], although the poetic form "gaia" is probably more familiar to most English speakers.

"magic" is "efesos" [f = phi]

"many" is "polus"

As with the Latin, you need to either make the phrase "world of many magics" using the genitive plural (gh polwn efeswn = Ge (or Gaia) Polon Epheson) or use some of the alternative phrasings that Razanir listed.

[Person_Man]

Hmm, so the Latin definitely sounds cooler. And "Mundus Multarum Magicarum" or one of it's variants implies "multiple magics" in English. But unless you explicitly reference Rome, it has the down side of implying some kind of connection to the Harry Potter universe, where magic is closely linked to poorly conjugated Latin.

Gaia Polon Epheson is more unique, but English while most English speakers have a vague idea that Gaia ~ Earth, few people can guess at the meaning of Polon or Epheson. I wonder if there are Greek words that English speakers would recognize related to central concepts of my homebrew world; lots of different magics/psionics/etc, polytheism, fantastic creatures, a central powerful magical human dominated Republic trending towards Empire surrounded by a large variety of different races/nations each with their own magics/gods/abilities/etc.

Maybe something like "Poly Magiko Demos" or something similar? Many Magic People?

[starflt]

Maybe something like "Poly Magiko Demos" or something similar? Many Magic People?

Close. I would use "Polus Magikos Demos". "Magikos" or "mageutikos" are adjectives meaning magical, so are closer to what you want things to sound like. "Demos" also has a connotation in Greek that makes it more like "commoners" as opposed to a more general description of citizen ("polites").

I'd suggest at this point just making something up that's close enough and sounds like what you want. Trying to be linguistically accurate will be hard given your goal and unless someone has studied Latin or Greek they are unlikely to know the correct declensions or conjugations anyway (for example, "polus" is a bit irregular. "polus" is the Attic form, while "pollos" is the Ionic, and the stem is "poll")

[HeadlessMermaid]

Chiming in on the Greek front.

1) Options for "world"

• Ecumene (οικουμένη) means, more or less, the known world. I think it rings some bells to English speakers, thanks to words like "ecumenical", and perhaps Ursula Le Guin's Ekumene.
• Cosmos (κόσμος) orginally meant order or ornament, but by the time of the gospels the meaning started shifting to "world". Of course, now it's also an English word meaning "universe", which may or may not suit you. Does it?
• Gaia (Γαία) is more earth than land, and more the goddess of the earth than random earth. I'm not saying it's wrong, but it wouldn't be my first choice.

2) Options for "magic"

• Mageia (μαγεία) could mean "magic" in general, or "spell, incantation". Mageuma (μάγευμα) is "piece of magic art".
• Pharmakon (φάρμακον) means drug or (magic) potion, healing or harmful. And pharmakos (φαρμακός) is a slightly dark word for "magician", because it also implies "poisoner". They are related to the word "pharmacy" - which makes them familiar-sounding, but they probably don't convey the right meaning.
• Celema (κήλημα) means charm, spell. It's a solid classical word, but not intelligible to modern Greek speakers, much less English speakers.
• Goetia (γοητεία) means witchcraft, also juggling or cheating. It apparently referred to charlatans back then, but in modern English it will forever evoke Aleister Crowley. Goiteuma (γοήτευμα) is the spell or charm.
• "Efesos" should be written "ephesus", it is frightfully obscure, and if it made any sense at all to a modern reader, it would only be confused with the city of Ephesus. I do not recommend it.

3) Options for "many"

• Poly- or Pan- or Myri-. I think it's much better if you make up a compound word, an adjective for "many+magics". Poly means "many", pan means "all", myrios means "ten thousand", and all three have been used in several compound words with the meaning "there's a whole lot of X!".

4) Adding it up

• Pampharmakos (παμφάρμακος) may not sound too good, but has the outstanding virtue of being an actual Greek word. It's an adjective used to describe Medea at some point, as "skilled in all (magical) charms". So how about Pampharmakos Cosmos? (Or Cosmos Pampharmakos, if you like it better. You can flip the words around at will. It counts as slightly more poetic if you put the adjective last, but you can just pick what sounds better to you). Or, Ecumene Pampharmakos. Admittedly, it doesn't mean exactly what you wanted. But it's in the, err, general vicinity. :)
• Polymagos Cosmos. I think that's the simplest and most transparent solution. It won't wrap anyone's tongue (I hope), and it's relatively comprehensible. But does it sound right? Is it TOO simple, perhaps? You're the one to judge.

Well, I could go on, but since the Latin options seem stronger anyway, just let me know in case you'd like a specific combination.

P.S. "Polys Magikos Demos" and the like are rather off. The only grammatically correct phrase would be "poly magikos demos", which would mean "very magical people" (or "very magical country", if we go back to homeric Greek). Either way, it sounds too much like the "Very Large Telescope", IMO.

[T-Mick]

I think Mundus Magiarum sounds best in Latin. It translates to "World of Magics" literally, but cleaning that up into good English will give "Many Magics" if it pleases you. Adding a third word like Multarum makes it a bit awkward. Latin's strength is in saying a lot with a little.

[HeadlessMermaid]

I think Mundus Magiarum sounds best in Latin. It translates to "World of Magics" literally, but cleaning that up into good English will give "Many Magics" if it pleases you. Adding a third word like Multarum makes it a bit awkward. Latin's strength is in saying a lot with a little.

I agree with this. I once asked my mother (who taught Latin) how you say "I am Spartacus!" in Latin. Is it "Ego sum Spartacus", perhaps, or "Ego Spartacus sum", what sounds better? Naaah, she said, the Romans didn't use more words than absolutely necessary. They would just say "Ego Spartacus!", with a lot of emphasis on "ego". :)

[Razanir]

I think Mundus Magiarum sounds best in Latin. It translates to "World of Magics" literally, but cleaning that up into good English will give "Many Magics" if it pleases you. Adding a third word like Multarum makes it a bit awkward. Latin's strength is in saying a lot with a little.

I can attest to the translation.

Pronunciation notes:

There are actually two main pronunciation schemes for Latin. Classical (Ancient Rome) and Ecclesiastical (the Latin of ominous chanting). Most of it's the same. The differences are in vowels and that pesky G.

*You lucked out. A and U are the two vowels with the least changes in pronunciation. You'll be fine if you pronounce both A's "ah" and both U's "oo"
*It's a long I, so again, you lucked out. Either way, it's "ee"
*Classical, G is always hard. But in Ecclesiastical, it's soft before E or I sounds, so it sounds like a J there.

Put it all together, and you get either:

"MOON-dooss mah-gee-AH-room" (the G is hard)
"MOON-dooss mah-jee-AH-room"

[Aedilred]

There are actually two main pronunciation schemes for Latin. Classical (Ancient Rome) and Ecclesiastical (the Latin of ominous chanting). Most of it's the same. The differences are in vowels and that pesky G.

Aren't there differences with "c" and "v" too?

[Razanir]

Aren't there differences with "c" and "v" too?

Yes, and there are differences with other consonants as well. Ecclesiastical is pretty much "Pronounce it like Italian". But I only mentioned G, since it's the only one that mattered for "Mundus Magiarum".

Fun fact, though. "Veni, vidi, vici", as most people are used to hearing it pronounced, is actually Ecclesiastical pronunciation. Caesar likely would have pronounced the V's like W's, and the C like a K. Which, yes, means it would have sounded a lot like "wiki".