"The New God" vs "A New God" (to Latin)

AtypicalIdealist

New Member

The context is someone who sees themselves as a replacement for god, hence "The New God"

I know it's a rudimentary question, but how much does the articles "a" and "the" vary the translated phrase??

Thank you!!
 

Pacifica

grammaticissima

  • Aedilis

Location:
Belgium
In most cases, there will be no difference at all. Latin doesn't have any words directly corresponding to the articles "the" and "a(n)", so "the new God" and "a new God" would usually both translate the same, novus Deus, which is word for word just "new God". In some rarer contexts where the idea of definiteness or undefiniteness is really important, something close to the idea of "the" can be expressed by a word meaning "that", for instance novus ille Deus = "that new God" (= the new God we know about or the well-known new God) and something close to "a(n)" can be conveyed by a word meaning "some/a certain", for example novus quidam Deus = "some new God", "a certain new God".
 

Issacus Divus

H₃rḗǵs h₁n̥dʰéri diwsú

  • Civis Illustris

Location:
Gæmleflodland
Could later types of Latin have unus novus deus as a possibility for "A new god"?
 

AtypicalIdealist

New Member

In most cases, there will be no difference at all. Latin doesn't have any words directly corresponding to the articles "the" and "a(n)", so "the new God" and "a new God" would usually both translate the same, novus Deus, which is word for word just "new God". In some rarer contexts where the idea of definiteness or undefiniteness is really important, something close to the idea of "the" can be expressed by a word meaning "that", for instance novus ille Deus = "that new God" (= the new God we know about or the well-known new God) and something close to "a(n)" can be conveyed by a word meaning "some/a certain", for example novus quidam Deus = "some new God", "a certain new God".

Ahhh, thank you very much!!
 
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