Expert: Maria - 7/10/2007

Question
Please help if you can!  I work at a college, and we are developing crests for each of the on-campus dorms, as a creative project.  If you wouldn't mind, please tell me how each of these phrases would appear in Latin:

1) The Lord is my Shield
2) My Victory is in Him
3) God is my Rock
4) We Prevail by Faith
5) Sons of the King
6) We Will Dwell in the City of God
7) We Will Stand in Truth
8) God is My Strength
9) God is My Fortress

I know it's a lot - thanks for your help!

Dave

Answer
Hello Dave,

Here are the translations you asked me:

1)“Dominus meum est scutum” (The Lord is my Shield)
2)“In Eo Victoria est mea” (My Victory is in Him)
3)“Deus meum est saxum” or “Deus mea est petra” (God is my Rock)
4)“Fide praevalemus “ (We Prevail by Faith)
5)“Regis filii” (Sons of the King)
6)“In Dei urbe habitabimus” ( We Will Dwell in the City of God)
7)“In veritate stabimus” (We Will Stand in Truth)
8)”Deus mea est fortitudo” (God is My Strength)
9)“Deus mea est arx” or “Deus meum est castellum” ( God is My Fortress).

As you can see, Latin word order can be different from English.

Best,
Maria
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GRAMMATICAL ANALYSIS
1)"The Lord is my Shield"
-The Lord = DOMINUS (nominative case, 2nd.declension)
-is = EST (from SUM, I am)
-my = MEUM (nominative neuter of the possessive MEUS agreed with SCUTUM).
-Shield =SCUTUM (nominative neuter, 2nd.declension)


2)"My Victory is in Him"
-My = MEA (nominative feminine of MEUS agreed with VICTORIA)
-Victory = VICTORIA (nominative feminine, 1st.declension)
-is = EST
-in = IN  (preposition which takes the ablative)
-Him = EO (ablative masculine of the pronoun IS)

3)"God is my Rock"
-God= DEUS (nominative case, 2nd.declension)
-is = EST
-my = MEUM (nominative neuter of the possessive MEUS agreed with SAXUM) / MEA (nominative feminine of MEUS agreed with  PETRA).
-Rock = SAXUM (nominative neuter, 2nd.declension) / PETRA (nominative feminine, 1st.declension)

4)"We Prevail by Faith"
-We Prevail = PRAEVALEMUS (from PRAEVALEO,2nd.conjugation)
-by Faith = FIDE (ablative of means of the noun FIDES, 5th.declension).

5)"Sons of the King"
-Sons =FILII (nominative plural of FILIUS,2nd.declensions)
-of the King = REGIS (genitive of REX, 3rd.declension)

6)"We Will Dwell in the City of God"
-We Will Dwell = HABITABIMUS(future of HABITO, 1st.conjugation)
-in = IN (preposition which takes the ablative)
-the City = URBE (ablative of URBS, 3rd.declension)
-of God =DEI (genitive of DEUS)


7)"We Will Stand in Truth"
- We Will Stand = STABIMUS (future of STO, 1st.declension)
- in = IN (preposition which takes the ablative)
-Truth = VERITATE (ablative of VERITAS, 3rd.declension)


8)"God is My Strength"
-God = DEUS
- is = EST
-my (nominative feminine of MEUS agreed with  FORTITUDO)
-Strength = FORTITUDO (nominative feminine, 3rd.declension)


9)"God is My Fortress"
-God = DEUS
-is =EST
-my = MEA (nominative feminine of MEUS agreed with  ARX) / MEUM( nominative neuter of MEUS agreed with CASTELLUM).
-Fortress = ARX (nominative feminine, 3rd.declension) / CASTELLUM (nominative neuter, 2nd.declension).