Latin Language and Script:

Place names may appear in Latin in various grammatical contexts. If the place name looks like a Latin word, it will change (or "decline") according to one of the 5 "DECLENSIONS" of nouns (but some place names don't follow the rules!). Sometimes a place name doesn't look like a Latin word at all, and the scribe will just leave it unchanged.

If the place name consists of more than one word, or it is a compound word, all the separate parts may change depending on the case.

When a person is said to be from a particular place, there are several different ways to express this fact in Latin. You can say the person is "of" or from a place by using the genitive case, without using a preposition. You can say exactly the same thing by using the preposition "de" with the ablative case. You can also say the person resides in a particular place by expressions such as "residens in", "residens apud", "morans in", "commorans apud", etc. The prepositions "in" (when used this way) and "apud" take the accusative case. (It is also possible to turn a place name — a noun — into an adjective, meaning of or from that place, by adding the suffix -ensis. The -ensis suffix itself will then have to change according to the case and number of the noun that it modifies. We won't complicate matters by explaining that here! Besides, the -ensis suffix is often abbreviated in such a way that you won't see the endings anyway!)

Here are some examples of how this works out for four towns in the region near Morat, Switzerland. The modern names are Saint-Aubin, Dompierre-le-Petit, Avenches, and Montagny.

When you translate a Latin text, you can either use the modern name, if you know it, or you can use the nominative case for the place name, which you will usually have to deduce or look up, because in genealogical records you won't normally find the place name in the nominative case — it would have to be used as the subject of a verb!

• Saint-Aubin:
  • Nominative case: Sanctus Albinus
  • Genitive case: Sancti Albini
  • Ablative case: de Sancto Albino
  • Accusative case: morans apud Sanctum Albinum
• Dompierre-le-Petit:
  • Nominative case: Dompnuspetrus Parvus
  • Genitive case: Dompnipetri Parvi
  • Ablative case: de Dompnopetro Parvo
  • Accusative case: morans apud Dompnumpetrum Parvum
• Avenches:
  • Nominative case: Adventhica
  • Genitive case: Adventhice
  • Ablative case: de Adventhica
  • Accusative case: morans apud Adventhicam
• Montagny:
  • Nominative case: Montagniacus (there is a large group of medieval Latin place names ending in "-iacus", often derived from family names)
  • Genitive case: Montagniaci
  • Ablative case: de Montagniaco
  • Accusative case: morans apud Montagniacum