# Winter is coming



## StargazerT3

Hi everyone,

I'm just having a question with translating English mottos to Latin. So for example, how would I translate "winter is coming" to Latin?

I know "winter" is hiemes or so, but should it be in nominative, accusative, or provocative? (And do we always translate nouns from English mottos into that case?)

Also, how do we translate the "is coming" part?

Thank you very much for your help in advance!


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## Copperknickers

StargazerT3 said:


> Hi everyone,
> 
> I'm just having a question with translating English mottos to Latin. So for example, how would I translate "winter is coming" to Latin?
> 
> I know "winter" is hiemes or so, but should it be in nominative, accusative, or provocative? (And do we always translate nouns from English mottos into that case?)
> 
> Also, how do we translate the "is coming" part?
> 
> Thank you very much for your help in advance!



The most simple translation would be 'venit hiems'. I'm not a hundred percent sure on the idiom in this context however. And as for the case, it depends on the syntax of the sentence in question, whether it is a motto or not is irrelevant. In 'Winter is coming', 'Winter' is the subject of the sentence so the Latin word should be nominative.


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## StargazerT3

Copperknickers said:


> The most simple translation would be 'venit hiems'. I'm not a hundred percent sure on the idiom in this context however. And as for the case, it depends on the syntax of the sentence in question, whether it is a motto or not is irrelevant. In 'Winter is coming', 'Winter' is the subject of the sentence so the Latin word should be nominative.



Thank you very much!

And just a question concerning the syntax problem: would [Winter is coming!] and [Winter is coming.] be translated differently?

I have no clue about it since the components of the sentence (subj. v. obj.) doesn't change at all, but the tone changed dramatically.


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## Nino83

May we use a periphrastic conjugation?
Bruma ventura est. Hiems venturus est. Hibernum venturum est.


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## Penyafort

Julius Caesar wrote _iamque hiems appropinquabat, _and now winter was near.

So I'll follow him and translate it as _*I*_*am hiems appropinquat*.


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## StargazerT3

Thanks a lot for the help!


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## Pugnator

Penyafort said:


> Julius Caesar wrote _iamque hiems appropinquabat, _and now winter was near.
> 
> So I'll follow him and translate it as _*I*_*am hiems appropinquat*.


I don't think it will be idiomatic or good sounding. We are speaking about a motto of an house (The Stark house) and "appropinquat" simply look bad put on a motto. I would go with the passive periphrastic and do as @Nino83  said:
"Bruma ventura (est).
Hiems venturus (est).
Hibernum (tempus) venturum (est)."
I've put the verb to be in bracket because you could omit it but it's better put it or the sentence would be ambigous and have also a meaning of "The winter which is about to come". Hibernum technically is the neuter of the adjective hibernus,a,um but on neuter it can also be used alone to imply "Hibernum tempus" which mean Winter, so there is no difference between "Hibernum tempus" and "Hibernum" itself and you can decide freely without change the meaning to imply "tempus" or not.


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## Copperknickers

StargazerT3 said:


> Thank you very much!
> 
> And just a question concerning the syntax problem: would [Winter is coming!] and [Winter is coming.] be translated differently?
> 
> I have no clue about it since the components of the sentence (subj. v. obj.) doesn't change at all, but the tone changed dramatically.



Well, there are various well known ways in the Latin language of being emphatic or exclamatory, but we don't have a full picture of tonality, since Classical Latin did not have punctuation marks and we don't know how ancient Romans utilised tone of voice. The ways of expressing emphasis and emotion are manifold: if you want something to sound exclamatory in an epic sense, you can use serious, epical vocabulary (something to the effect of 'woe, soon the icy North wind will replace the hot Southerly breeze and the swift warships shall no longer carry fearsome warriors on Summer campaigns': that's probably how Horace would say 'Winter is coming' although I guess it's not quite what you want  ). Or you could use some kind of interjectory particle: perhaps 'heu, venit hiems': 'Alas, Winter is coming!' if you want to sound particularly sad/afraid.

But now we are getting into the realm of poetry rather than simple translation. In general, adding an exclamation mark to 'Winter is coming' does not require a change in the Latin translation in and of itself, since Latin does not have any semi-compulsory exclamatory particles as exist in some Asian languages.


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## Pugnator

Classical latin has no exclamation point but medieval writer used to write Io at the end of some sentence to express joy or surprise on a sentence. (Io mean only "Hurray!"). This later on late medieval become an exclamation mark.  I don't suggest to use it because it is a very late use.


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