Expert: Maria - 11/21/2007

Question
I'm doing a drawing for a class that is basically a tree with intertwined branches and such and I thought it would be cool to work some sort of Latin into the grain of the bark, and with the tree being a common representation of family, I wanted to say something about family or those dear to you, not necessarily just relatives. If you could help me out by a couple possible phrases as well as how to actually write them in Latin, that'd be greatly appreciated.

Answer
Hello,

If you want to say ”Family tree”, you should write “Stemma” in Latin, as the neuter noun STEMMA (nominative case, 3rd.declension) means just “Family tree”.

If you want to say “Family”, you must write “Familia”(nominative, 1st.declension) or “Gens” (nominative, 3rd.declension).

Finally if you want to say “Relatives”/” Loved Ones”, you must  write “Cognati”(nominative plural, 2nd.declension).

Bye,
Maria