Anybody know a little Latin?

[Ry]

I was wondering how to say

The Principles of the Structure of the Setting

in latin.

Principia Structura Settinga just isn't doing it for me.

 

[carborundum]

There's a nice little dictionary at THIS PLACE .

Didn't have setting, but locus is a nice word (location, place).
For principles, formulae or decreti and for structure, there was aedficium and compages . First one's structure like a building. Also framework, I suppose - hmmm.

I'll be hornswoggled if I can remember the right tenses for putting it all together though! Is it dative? Lordy, it's been 22 years!

Decreti aedificium locum?

 

[Jack Daniel]

I was wondering how to say

The Principles of the Structure of the Setting

in latin.

Principia Structura Settinga just isn't doing it for me.

How does "Principia ædificii loci" strike you? (The case you're looking for for the latter two words is genitive, by the way.)

 

[Cheiromancer]

"Setting" is really the tricky word. Maybe episcenium? Literally the background of a stage. I don't think that Latin has the concept of a game setting. What is their word for where the action of a play is supposed to be taking place? (E.g. As Venice is for the Merchant of Venice, Denmark for Hamlet, Scotland for MacBeth... So the _________ is for any play?)

Principia would work; that or synopsis. "Principles" is the English translation of principia, so back-translating it would be fine. The emphasis would be on getting a solid beginning. Synopsis, a word borrowed from Greek, would be if you wanted to cover the highlights, but not in a complete or exhaustive fashion.

Ratio (procedure, theory, system, manner, method, procedure, manner) might convey what you mean by "structure". An aedificium is an actual building; I don't know if it has a metaphorical sense. But a theoretical structure would be ratio, I think.

How does "Principia Ratio Episcenii" sound?

I'm sure some Latin scholars will be along shortly, but if I had to fake something, that's what I would use.

 

[Arbiter of Wyrms]

"Setting" is really the tricky word. Maybe episcenium? Literally the background of a stage. I don't think that Latin has the concept of a game setting. What is their word for where the action of a play is supposed to be taking place? (E.g. As Venice is for the Merchant of Venice, Denmark for Hamlet, Scotland for MacBeth... So the _________ is for any play?)

Principia would work; that or synopsis. "Principles" is the English translation of principia, so back-translating it would be fine. The emphasis would be on getting a solid beginning. Synopsis, a word borrowed from Greek, would be if you wanted to cover the highlights, but not in a complete or exhaustive fashion.

Ratio (procedure, theory, system, manner, method, procedure, manner) might convey what you mean by "structure". An aedificium is an actual building; I don't know if it has a metaphorical sense. But a theoretical structure would be ratio, I think.

How does "Principia Ratio Episcenii" sound?

I'm sure some Latin scholars will be along shortly, but if I had to fake something, that's what I would use.

"Principia," as in "In principia erat Verbum?" ("In the beginning was the Word") "principia" is roughly equivalent to "the first." I think to apply it in the way we do "principle" is too much of a stretch.

"Episcenium," though, is an inpired choice.

"Artificum" is "makes," but as I was typing it, I realized that "artificum" and "aedificum" are different words, so that has no bearing on the discussion. . .

To me, "decreti" for "decree" doesn't sound as close as "formulae" for, well "formulae."

Maybe, then, "Formuli Ratio Epescenii."

Ultimately, though, like Cheiromancer, I'm sure a more competent Latin speaker will be along soon. Likely as not, they will beat me to the post.

 

[Arbiter of Wyrms]

Another Request

When that Latin speaker does come along, they can help me with my translation:

My campaign features a city and empire called Mand, analogous to Rome, so how does one say

"For the Senate and People of Mand?"

Would is be "Senatus Populosque Mandus?" Mand?" Mandii?"

Declension of nouns was never my forte.

 

[Cheiromancer]

"Principia," as in "In principia erat Verbum?" ("In the beginning was the Word") "principia" is roughly equivalent to "the first." I think to apply it in the way we do "principle" is too much of a stretch.

I was thinking of Whitehead and Russell's "Principia Mathematica" (Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica) myself. Or "Principia Ethica", an important work in meta-ethics by G.E. Moore. Or even "Principia Discordia" - but that's kinda weird.

"For the Senate and People of Mand?"

Would is be "Senatus Populosque Mandus?" Mand?" Mandii?"

Latin doesn't decline foreign nouns (IIRC). So unless Mand is a Latin word, you wouldn't add an ending to it. If in your world it is a word, then you could. But it probably won't be regular- again "Romae" is in a locative case which is rarely used. (I think is used for home and rome, but not anything else). So you could put a weird ending if you like. But I'd treat Mand as a third declension noun, and slap the genitive ending on it. Mandis.

I found this while googling:

In Europe and beyond, also, SPQ* is sometimes used as an assertion of municipal pride and civic rights. In Benevento, one can find SPQB, standing for "Senatus Populusque Beneventanus," on manhole covers. SPQA can be found at one of the major theatres of Amsterdam. There have also been reports of SPQ* from Liverpool, London, Lucerne, Olomouc, Brussels ("SPQB" found repeatedly on the famous Palais de Justice), Vienna ("Senatus Populusque Viennensis"), Florianópolis ("Senatus Populusque Florianopolitanus") and Florence ("Senatus Populusque Florentinus").

link is http://en.allexperts.com/e/s/sp/spqr.htm

 

[thedungeondelver]

I sure do - there she is, right over there.

 

[Anti-Sean]

As others have said, 'setting' is going to be tricky - I'd recommend subbing in 'world'. Taking a page from Cicero's titling of his works, De Principiis Structurae Mundi would be "On (or concerning) the Principles of the Structure of the World". (The noun with the 'de' preposition takes the ablative case, and the two words following take the genitive case to denote possession.) I'm not entirely happy with 'structure' as structura seems to deal more with the process of physical construction, and aedificium is more of the actual resultant building, but there you have it. Cheiromancer's suggestion of ratio might work; if you want to replace structurae above, you'd wind up with De Principiis Rationis Mundi. I'm on a bit of a sugar rush from Easter candy this morning, and can't think of an alternative quite clearly enough at the moment.

Vale!

 

[Kahuna Burger]

I sure do - there she is, right over there.

excellent, now I don't have to find a good pic of a young Ricky Martin for that joke.