Expert: Maria - 10/29/2009

Question
Deus cohabitatoris intus nobis
Est Deus in Nobis

which one is closer to:          God dwells within us..   

and cannot find translation for "live long and prosper"  
One last thing.  Where can I find an archaic Latin alphabet.  Thank you !

Answer
Hello,

The correct translations of “God dwells within us “ are the following:

1-“Habitat Deus in nobis ” (literal)
or:
2-“Est Deus in Nobis”.

As for “Deus cohabitatoris intus nobis” , I’m sorry, but it is absolutely wrong.

With regard to "Live long and prosper", here’s its translation:

-“Diu ac prospere vive” as well as “Diu ac bene vive”, if the pronoun “you” is a 2nd.person singular as it  refers to only one person.

-“Diu ac prospere vivite” as well as “Diu ac bene vivite”, if the pronoun “you” is a 2nd.person plural as it  refers to many  persons.

Finally, here’s the ARCHAIC LATIN ALPHABET  which dates back to the 7th. century BC and evolved from the western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumaean alphabet from Cumae, a Greek colony in southern Italy:

A B C D E F Z H I K L M N O P Q R S T VX    (21 letters)

Note that :
1-the letter C was the western form of the Greek gamma, but it stood also for "G".  
2-the letter V stood for both "U" and "V".
3-the letter Z originally was placed at the 7th. place.

Later the above alphabet became the following CLASSIC LATIN ALPHABET:

A B C D E F G H I K L M N O P Q R S T U V X Y Z   (24 letters)

As you can see, in classical times the Romans added the G, the U, the Y and  changed the position of the Z placing it at the end of the alphabet.

Best regards,
Maria
__________________________________________________________________________________
Note that:

-God = DEUS (nominative, 2nd.declension)
-dwells = HABITAT / EST
-within = IN (preposition which takes the ablative)
-us = NOBIS (ablative of NOS)


-Live= VIVE (2nd.person singular. Imperative of VIVO, I live) /VIVITE (2nd.person plural)
-long = DIU (adverb)
-and= AC
-prosper =PROSPERE(adverb) or BENE (adverb)