TheNextBigWriter Premium → Are there any Latin speakers out there?
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I was wondering if anyone knows someone who would be willing to help me translate some English words into Latin. I've tried an online forum but am getting inadequate results
, and professional translators are too expensive. I don't need a lot of help, although some of it is curse words used by my teenage characters.
Thanks
Dirk
Did you try Google translate?
Translation requires declension of the nouns and adjectives and conjugation of the verbs, as well as respect of grammar and idiom.
Lol. The Latin forum has a rule that thou shalt not quote Google translate on their site, although I did try it. Some of the translations look plausible based on my research of all things Roman, but I can't be sure. Google is often wrong when I try to translate words between the three languages I know.
I was wondering if anyone knows someone who would be willing to help me translate some English words into Latin. I've tried an online forum but am getting inadequate results
, and professional translators are too expensive. I don't need a lot of help, although some of it is curse words used by my teenage characters.
http://www.youswear.com/index.asp?language=Latin
Do you really mean "curse" words because in old style that would me "May you ...." or "May [insert god or animated spirit] do this or that to whomever. That could also be in Latin something like Pecore coierit! which is something like May your cattle crossbreed!
To "swear" is a peculiarly Protestant English reference to improper "taking an oath" usually using the name of the Lord thy God in vain. "Christ!" and "Jesus!" are oath fragment "swear" words.
Obscene words, expletives, are vulgar slang not literally translated well from language to language, but in the Latin "swear words" offered in the above URL "stercus" is a vulgar Latin word for "sterquilinium" and hence might be an equivalent vulgar English word for feces, but only might be because such words were probably never written down in anything surviving to today, and "stercus" is probably medieval Latin invented by annoyed monks. "Caput sterci!" means "S**t head" but is not known to be uttered by any ancient Roman. Like everything listed in the above URL, it's just an educated guess or completely made up. Maybe: Efutue! and Tua esque! are good and also cursing in a sense.
Foreign words, especially in a dead language, violate the simple writing rules for simple authors for simple readers. It may be in the context of the story, but how is a reader to deal with "Efutue!" uttered by a character?
Thank you, Charles. I used the same site recently for Japanese swear words, but forgot to check it for Latin. As you saw, many of the words are quite rude. I finally got some answers from two Latin forums about Latin titles (imperator, imperatrix, heres imperialis, etc.). Next step are some less rude curse words (e.g., bloody hell, orgasm, ass, etc.). I'm not too worried about the reader not knowing the exact definition of my curse words. They can look it up if they're really curious. Most of the words will be discernable from context. The idea is that society has evolved the quirk that it is considered uncivilized to swear in New English (my "standard" language in the book). Most of my characters swear using words appropriate to their culture (Japanese, Italian, and Latin). I then have one of my characters drop an f-bomb in New English when he's furious about an unauthorized bombing.
Hmm. Sarah Ruden, in Paul Among the People, states that the Greco-Roman world had very non-Platonic views on sodomy and gives an example from literature or a play in which those who enjoy being raped in that fashion come under particularly severe censure. It was apparently a dominance behavior, among other things. (Ruden, by the way, is a Quaker.) You might look to that for some maybe-translatable terms. Not sure if you want to discuss them on the forum in question.
Hmm. Sarah Ruden, in Paul Among the People, states that the Greco-Roman world had very non-Platonic views on sodomy and gives an example from literature or a play in which those who enjoy being raped in that fashion come under particularly severe censure. It was apparently a dominance behavior, among other things. (Ruden, by the way, is a Quaker.) You might look to that for some maybe-translatable terms. Not sure if you want to discuss them on the forum in question.
Catullus' poetry got him banned from Rome within the new morality of Augustus because of such things as might be doubly interpreted, such as being smoothed dry by a pumice stone, but I leave the train when academics want to fight over what Catullus ever really meant. He was an annoying satirist to the establishment and lived libertine lifestyle and it is not so much written in obscene words as in obscene language : I am afraid of your penis hostile to boys because you let it go where it pleases.
The example that I remember had to do with someone enjoying a punishment and having it denied. The word for such people would probably be a severe insult.
The example that I remember had to do with someone enjoying a punishment and having it denied. The word for such people would probably be a severe insult.
Oh, I see what you mean. Certainly Latin and not Greek because Hellenistic Greeks were decadent in comparison in art and practice.
See if you can find a copy of Wheelock's Latin (I think that's how it's spelled.).
Thanks, Janet. I finally found two forums where people are giving me quite a lesson in Latin. I'm trying to find valid Latin terms that English readers can easily understand. Thus, illegitimate children will be known as "bastardi imperialis" in this society, since I wanted to denigrate Apollo's brothers, causing resentment. Emperor and empress will be imperator and imperatrix. Technically, imperial heir is heres imperialis, but I chose filius imperatoris, which means emperor's son. Apollo will be the only one referred to as that, making the brothers even more resentful. I'm also considering renaming Titanis, which is Greek and therefore wrong for the ruling dynasty of a second empire. I'm toying with Caesar as the name of the dynasty. Thus, Apollo becomes Filius Imperatoris Apollo Caesar III. Say that three times real quick.
People on the Latin forum recommended Augustus as the title of an emperor and Caesar as the title of an imperial heir. There's historical precident for that, so I'm waiting to see how they react to my proposed choices. I have my Roman armor on in preparation for that one.
Oh, I see what you mean. Certainly Latin and not Greek because Hellenistic Greeks were decadent in comparison in art and practice.
According to Ruden, the Greeks and Romans were not that far apart. In Rome the son of a good family had to be accompanied in public by a strong family slave to protect him from such assault.
You can take Ruden at her word or not. I'm inclined to believe her, but she is arguing a point: That Christianity changed the Greco-Roman culture in ways that defy our assumptions.
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