Is there Latin language scholar in the house?

[Stik]

I'm looking for a translation of the titles "First King" and "First Queen".

Google translate gives me "Primus Rex" for First King, which makes sense, but gives me "Regina Primum" for First Queen. I get that the adjective has a female conjugation, but why does the word order change?

[mgbevan]

Not a scholar by any means but Rex and Regina are correct. Perhaps the word order changes to agree with gender?

[Breila]

I'm not a scholare either, but I have a book about Latin Grammar, and I can ask people who have been or are studying Latin (it is a regular subject in schools in Germany, like any living language).

My first hunch is that in "Primus Rex", the noun actually is "Primus", as the first among equals, and "Rex" is more like an adjective (the first among the kings), whereas the "Regina Prima" has the normal word order of noun first, adjective second, that is still the rule in Romanic languages.

[Stik]

Just to clarify: "First King" in this case means the first man to wear the crown.

[Breila]

The first man to wear the crown would then most likely be the "Rex Primus".

My latin grammar specifies that the adjective is generally set after the noun, but can be placed before the noun for special emphasis.
So, if this first King was someone very special, important to the national legend, he might be known by a kind of honorary title as "Primus Rex".

You may have noted that in my earlier post, I wrote "Regina Prima" and not "Regina Primum" as google gave you, But the endings of the nouns and edjectives change with the grammatical construct (things like "of the queen" or "by the queen" are expressed like this, not with prepositions) and I always mix them up, and with the Italian forms, since I never have studied any of that formally.

Also, Latin has changed in the ~2000 years it was used regularly. A true scholar once told me that Medieval Latin and Classic Latin are really two different languages. Also, many people who used Latin made mistakes. So I guess you can use whatever feels right for your purpose.

[temnix]

Maybe this will help you: in the days of the Roman Empire, "rex" was the word Romans used for monarchs of outlying countries, whom they considered barbarians, and for their own monarchs from before the republic. They hated the idea of a hereditary ruler lording it over them again, and Caesar was accused of that intention, so senators murdered him. When Octavian established the empire, he was called Augustus, that is, "grand," and "princeps civitatis," that is, "first citizen" (supposedly among equals). Never "rex." From that point onward ruling emperors had the title "augustus," along with "princeps," and "princeps" was the common word for a lord of any level. This was conveniently equivocal. "Dominus" is another one. Eventually the title "imperator" (conqueror) became the regular designation, but on the whole the word for "ruler" in antiquity you need is "princeps."

It was used in the Middle Ages too, for lords and officials of every caliber; but it basically stood for "lord of," so without other explanations it means a royal title. It's the origin of "prince" in the old sense of "lord." But if you want to underscore the fact of a crowning, then "rex" is the right choice. So-called barbarians had no qualms about being called "rex" or "regina" in the Latin language, because "king" was then more dubious, in Germanic languages it just means "ruler of (some) people." Any warchief powerful enough could be called a king, crown or not. Romanic languages took over from Latin in parlance in the 9th-10th centuries, but rulers wanted more legitimacy and a symbolic connection with everything Latin represents, so they continued to be called "rex Francorum... " etc. in documents, which continued, of course, to be written in Latin for centuries afterwards.

So: princeps for antiquity, unless it's about barbarians. There is no female form, because it just means "citizen." Rex Primus and Regina Prima for the Middle Ages (when queens came about).

Edit: hmm, the question was asked months ago. Oh well.