Latin

I think there's a couple of people on here that do. You can pass the lines via pm me to me if you want. To be honest, it's always good to get two or three eyes on it to make sure it's right.

Although i know latin, though, it's very rare i use it in my writing. Are you writing a period novel?

Post it, and include context, because there usually are several ways to say the same thing in Latin.

I'll see if I can help. I have my Master's in teaching Latin and Classics. PM me if you'd like.

I was 3 credits shy of a masters in Latin when I left for med school. They changed the course schedule and it became an "either or", scenario. It's been a few decades, but post it. As has already been said, include context. It makes a difference.

Domum redi, Luna = come (imperative) back home, Moon

would that work?

I think the other would be:

Ubi vivit Luna?

but please check.

ETA: OK, I wasn't sure if the verb vivir could be used in the sense of "live in a place", but I checked and found this from Cicero: In qua urbe vivimus? which means "in what city do we live?" so it should be fine.

Like I said it's been a few decades. The problem that I see off the bat is that English speakers without knowledge of certain other languages, including Latin, don't understand genders to nouns. They also don't understand the absense in Latin for the article, "the". It simply doesn't exist. A Boy is obviously masculine, wheras the moon is feminine. Hense, if he's addressing the boy, then "moon" should be put into the masculine. That perhaps is why the native speaker would be confused and assume that it was delrium. It also linguistically suggests the connection between the moon and the boy.

I suggest, but will defer to others with more recent schooling and larger dictionairies,

"Lunus ad domum referreas" or Moon (in the masculine) may you (or you may, or might you) return home.

or maybe, "Lunus itinerem ad domum facite," or Moon, make the journey home.

"Ubi Lunus vivit?" Where does Moon live?

Now I'm trying to remember, Facite is probably plural. Singular imperative might be "itinerem ad domum faci". Like I said it's been a few decades. I'll try to look it up, but I have to find the old grammar books first.

why do you use Lunus? I have Luna, Lunae, first declination...

if they are going to say "lunus" as you suggest, then they won't be thinking of the Moon, they will be thinking of something else... But you are right in the sense that Luna, as a name, would be a feminine name; but the boy's name is "born of the moon", so the full name should be something like "natus ex luna" -- the masculine would be in "natus" because that's the part that refers to the boy; Luna is a feminine name and it should be used the right way if you are meaning the Earth's satellite, or at least that's what I thought the OP wanted the misunderstanding to be (between the dying man and the others).

And yes, domum redi means return home, the preposition (ad) can be omitted.
It's the most commonly used with that meaning, just google domum redit (present) or domum rediit (past).
The verb, redire, is irregular, and if you are looking for "may he return home", it should (please check!) be "domum redeat".

OneWriter said:

why do you use Lunus? I have Luna, Lunae, first declination...
.

Click to expand...

But this is a proper name for a boy, not The moon as one would normally interpret it. Romans were rather particular about a lot of things and liked to change declensions when there were notable changes in expected genders. For example, one of Julius Caesar's official titles was "Queen of Bythinia" using regina instead of rex. In the cleaned up schoolboy's edition of Roman History we were told that it was simply a typo. When I got to grad school we got to see the more complete and not so clean versions of a lot of things. That's when we were told that, no, it wasn't a typo. It was that he had an affair with the king of Bythinia and liked to be on the receiving end. His troops thought it was so hilarious that they sent the title back to Rome and it stuck.

By using the second declension masculine, it would mark this as a proper name and add to the confusion that a native speaker would have, but someone with Latin as a second language might likely miss and therefore ask a concrete question to what the other Roman would regard as delirium.

but then it would no longer carry the meaning of born of the moon, nor would lunus mean the moon...

you can't just change gender and expect the word to have the same meaning, in fact, there are words that have different meanings in different genders, like animus (spirit) and anima (soul).

If you use the word natus then there won't be any confusion on the gender...
and it woudl be acceptable that a dying man omits the word natus and only says luna, triggering the misunderstanding.

If I understand your dilemma...

HI all -
I'll be on for longer tomorrow and will weigh in more then.
Some quick thoughts:
The command for return (I think the verb redire is fine) should be in the Jussive Subjunctive. Let him (the moon)...

And I'm not sure what I think of the masculine v feminine issue you're bringing up. Hmmm...There are a slew of masculine words--almost exclusively male jobs--which are designated in the first declension (a mostly feminine declension). Words like pirate, farmer, scribe, charioteer, etc. So I could see that there could indeed be this feminine name on a boy (Caligula? That's a feminine ending for that dude). I don't know.

Must run. I'll check in tomorrow with some Latin!

Spring said:

HI all -
I'll be on for longer tomorrow and will weigh in more then.
Some quick thoughts:
The command for return (I think the verb redire is fine) should be in the Jussive Subjunctive. Let him (the moon)...

And I'm not sure what I think of the masculine v feminine issue you're bringing up. Hmmm...There are a slew of masculine words--almost exclusively male jobs--which are designated in the first declension (a mostly feminine declension). Words like pirate, farmer, scribe, charioteer, etc. So I could see that there could indeed be this feminine name on a boy (Caligula? That's a feminine ending for that dude). I don't know.

Must run. I'll check in tomorrow with some Latin!

Click to expand...

No, a command will use the imperative, as in my first translation: domum redi. However, depending on what the OP means, a subjunctive would be just fine -- though, they are both "exhortations", there's a fine shade between the two, and the imperative is usually stronger.

As for the name, you bring up an excellent point. In Italian we still have many masculine names that end in -a (Andrea, Nicola, etc). However, Caligula, like you point out, is masculine, while Luna is feminine. So, for example, you would say, Caligula albus est BUT Luna alba est, which is where the caveat arises.

If I understand the problem right though, the meaning of the boy's name is not just "Moon", it is "born of the moon", which could be something like Natus ex Luna and natus here would definitely be masculine. It could also be Filius Lunae as in son of the moon, where filius is again, masculine.

it's not fillies, it's FILIUS, I don't know why it came up that way in your quote...

Thanks!

So then maybe you could use locus natalis for birthplace.
In your original query:
Locum tuum natalis redi == return to your place of birth.

Spring said:

HI all -
I'll be on for longer tomorrow and will weigh in more then.
Some quick thoughts:
The command for return (I think the verb redire is fine) should be in the Jussive Subjunctive. Let him (the moon)...

And I'm not sure what I think of the masculine v feminine issue you're bringing up. Hmmm...There are a slew of masculine words--almost exclusively male jobs--which are designated in the first declension (a mostly feminine declension). Words like pirate, farmer, scribe, charioteer, etc. So I could see that there could indeed be this feminine name on a boy (Caligula? That's a feminine ending for that dude). I don't know.

Must run. I'll check in tomorrow with some Latin!

Click to expand...

True, although caligula was his nickname. His real name was Gaius. He got the nickname in Germany where his dad was stationed as the commanding general. He'd prance around in his little army uniform as a boy and the toops thought it was cute that this little tyke even had military boots or caliga, the diminutive of which was caligula. That said, it doesn't refute you at all since that too is a feminine first declension noun.

Again, I would use the Jussive Subjunctive. It makes the most sense for what you're trying to say, in my humble opinion.

Redeat Luna domum.

The other sentence could read quite well as a previous poster stated: Ubi luna vivit? Or you could do: Ubi luna habitat? That means more like Where does the moon dwell. Not quite the same, but similar.

Good luck.
I'll let the others continue with the shades of gray and all the possibilities. Enjoy!

They are both correct, but if you use the imperative you are giving a "strict" command, as for example a dominus to his servant, he wouldn't use the subjunctive, he'd use the imperative; if however you want to be more formal and give an exhortation rather than a command, then you use the subjunctive. See the difference?