Do not despair, for where there is life, there is hope

paulmoore

Member

Location:
Holiday, FL
Help translating to Latin for my novel..

Hi all, I am new to this board. I have an interest in Latin because it is an ancient language. and not many people speak it anymore. I am currently in the process of writing a fiction novel that is set in a Medieval time period. There is magic in my book, and I would really like the magic spells to have a verbal component to them. And you guessed it, I would like the incantations to be in Latin, preferrably classical. From what I understand the ecclesiastical Latin pronounces the letter V as we do in regular English, is that correct? I would like to use Latin in its purest form. The latinesque of Harry Potter bothers me because I know that it is not the 'real' way to speak it, and to me, it screams either laziness or lack of care for authenticity.

With that being said, what is the best way for me to structure my requests? Shall I list them all in one post, or would it be better suited and easier to create seperate posts for each spell translation? Thank you so much for your time and patience, they are greatly appreciated!!
 

Decimvs

Aedilis

  • Aedilis

Location:
Civitates Coniunctae
Re: Help translating to Latin for my novel..

paulmoore dixit:
Hi all, I am new to this board.
Salve!

paulmoore dixit:
From what I understand the ecclesiastical Latin pronounces the letter V as we do in regular English, is that correct?
More or less, yes.

paulmoore dixit:
With that being said, what is the best way for me to structure my requests? Shall I list them all in one post, or would it be better suited and easier to create seperate posts for each spell translation?
Reference the massive red Rules box above. :)

Start with the first phrase here, and then I will rename this thread.
 

Nikolaos

schmikolaos

  • Censor

Location:
Matsumoto, Nagano, Japan
Re: Help translating to Latin for my novel..

Hello!

The best way would probably to post just a few requests at a time - a lot of requests at once tends to make the more timid members like myself shy away : p

Yes, Ecclesiastical Latin pronounces "v" as in English, but in Classical Latin it is pronounced as a "w". I should mention that Ecclesiastical Latin isn't really impure - it just represents a completely different time.

And yes, the Harry Potter novels do use a kind of broken Latin, but I think Rowling was well aware that it wasn't valid Latin as she wrote it - she just wanted it to sound good and be recognizable.

Edit - Decimvs beat me to it, but I'm not allowing this post to fall into the abyss :p
 

paulmoore

Member

Location:
Holiday, FL
Re: Help translating to Latin for my novel..

Thank you for the warm welcome! I did read the rules in the red box above, and as such I do apologize for the titling of the thread. I sitll wanted to introduce myself and my intentions, kind of a wierd thing that I like to do rather than to just bust in and be like "here's the stuff I want translated". I like to get to know people, and for people to get to know me. Anyways, I suppose that the first thing for me would be..

Do not despair, for where there is life, there is hope.

Thanks again, Paul Moore
 

Nikolaos

schmikolaos

  • Censor

Location:
Matsumoto, Nagano, Japan
Perhaps -
Noli[te] desperare, nam ubi vita est, spes est

The "te" is only included if the speaker is addressing more than one person.

South Carolina's motto is "dum spiro spero" - "while I live, I hope". It might be possible to mirror that somehow in the translation.
 
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