Latin Language

Kitty27 · Mar 24, 2012

I am asking anyone with experience in translating Latin to help me with the title of my new novella.

I wish to know how "Night Servants" would translate into Latin.

Any help would be greatly appreciated and rep points given.

Thanks in advance!

Drachen Jager · Mar 24, 2012

Google Translate is usually pretty good for these things, it often gets the words in the wrong order though.

It says: nocte Servi though, as I say, it's not 100% accurate.

Hope that helps.

Kitty27 · Mar 24, 2012

Drachen Jager said:
Google Translate is usually pretty good for these things, it often gets the words in the wrong order though.

It says: nocte Servi though, as I say, it's not 100% accurate.

Hope that helps.

Thanks,Drachen.

I tried and got something similar. I want to make sure the title is right.

Maryn · Mar 24, 2012

My Latin was a lot of years ago, so if I'm wrong, I'm all right with that.

But as I recall, servi would be the possessive of the singular and the plural of the nominative (subject). Nocte is the ablative case, used as the object of a preposition, so nocte servi is more like Night of Servants. (Which I am way, way overdue to have.) Also acceptable would be Servants' Night.

If your meaning is multiple servants who serve Night itself, that would mean you'd want to translate servants of night/night's servants. Which I think would be Servi noctis. But if your meaning is servants by night, i.e., they're servants only at night but in daytime are not servants, then you'd want servi noctu.

Maryn, surprised to remember anything after so many years

Snick · Mar 24, 2012

I think that you would want nocturnal servants or attendants, rather than slaves of the night.apparitio -onis f. [waiting upon , serving]; meton., plur. [servants]
nocturnus -a -um - nocturnal

apparitiones nocturnae

Kitty27 · Mar 24, 2012

Maryn said:
My Latin was a lot of years ago, so if I'm wrong, I'm all right with that.

But as I recall, servi would be the possessive of the singular and the plural of the nominative (subject). Nocte is the ablative case, used as the object of a preposition, so nocte servi is more like Night of Servants. (Which I am way, way overdue to have.) Also acceptable would be Servants' Night.

If your meaning is multiple servants who serve Night itself, that would mean you'd want to translate servants of night/night's servants. Which I think would be Servi noctis. But if your meaning is servants by night, i.e., they're servants only at night but in daytime are not servants, then you'd want servi noctu.

Maryn, surprised to remember anything after so many years

Thank you,Maryn! The book is about people who are enslaved by vampires and serve them at all hours. So I think Servi Noctis will be my new title.

Snick said:
I think that you would want nocturnal servants or attendants, rather than slaves of the night.apparitio -onis f. [waiting upon , serving]; meton., plur. [servants]
nocturnus -a -um - nocturnal

apparitiones nocturnae

Awesome,Snick. Thanks for responding. I will keep your translation for the book as well.

Snick · Mar 24, 2012

Kitty27 said:
Awesome,Snick. Thanks for responding. I will keep your translation for the book as well.

I hope that I got the form correct. But if they are the slaves of vampires, then you might mean "slaves of the night".

Kitty27 · Mar 24, 2012

Snick said:
I hope that I got the form correct. But if they are the slaves of vampires, then you might mean "slaves of the night".

That's it! I find Latin to be quite out of my league.

Thanks again for helping.

Siri Kirpal · Mar 24, 2012

Sat Nam! (Literally "Truth Name"--a Sikh greeting)

You might want to run it by Rufus Coppertop. He's the Latin expert on this board.

Blessings,

Siri Kirpal

Maryn · Mar 24, 2012

Even though it's not my title, thanks, Siri. It's good to be reminded who our experts are.

Maryn, not really an expert at anything

Rufus Coppertop · Mar 25, 2012

Kitty27 said:
The book is about people who are enslaved by vampires and serve them at all hours.

Well that's the kiss of death to using ministri tenebrarum! - (public) servants of darkness/night/shadows.

Snick and Maryn's suggestions are definitely good. Familiares Noctis might be worth considering as well.

Latin Language

Kitty27

So Goth That I Was Born Black

Drachen Jager

Professor of applied misanthropy

Kitty27

So Goth That I Was Born Black

Maryn

Baaa!

Snick

Kitty27

So Goth That I Was Born Black

Snick

Kitty27

So Goth That I Was Born Black

Siri Kirpal

Swan in Process

Maryn

Baaa!

Rufus Coppertop