How fluent are you in Latin?

[ProVobis]

Classical Latin is the original way it was before it was modernized by Italians!

Veni, vidi, vici is a wonderful quote from Caesar and I prefer it to be pronounced
“WEENEE, WEEDEE, VEEKEE”

not the Italian version

“venee, veedee, veechi”

Now that I think about it, wasn’t it Vulgar Latin that Caesar and the Romans spoke? Wasn’t Classical Latin more in line with the written language Cicero et al codified?

What difference does it make, you may ask. Well, Vulgar Latin became the parent of the Romance languages and itself did not survive any more as a spoken language than Old English, for the lack of a better comparison.

 

[ocleirbj]

Salvete omnes!
I write from Lexington, Kentucky, where I am taking a break this afternoon in the middle of a week-long workshop on spoken Latin!
mcl.as.uky.edu/conversational-latin-seminar-2013
I am one of the poorest speakers, as I haven’t done much Latin conversation, but I can read a text with the dictionary open beside me. Trying to talk to other people in Latin is a great way to start remembering things!
We have a great variety of accents here, partly depending on a person’s home and first language, and partly on whether they learned classical or church pronunciation. We all understand each other, and no one complains, which is a miracle of charity, because this question has been hotly debated all around the world for decades, if not longer!
I recommend the instructional series Lingua Latina by Hans Orberg. You start reading right from the start. All the explanations are in Latin but introduced so well that everything is understandable. It would be great for home schoolers or the very self-motivated.
I met a young man once whose spoken Latin was remarkably good, and he put it down to saying the Daily Office in Latin for several years. This would definitely be worth a try.
Optime valete!

 

[anonymous1995]

My Latin literacy is 0%. I can sort of guess the meanings of words in the missal of an EF Mass, but most of the time I rely on the English translation.

Learning Latin has often been my desire. Yet, I lack a self-sufficient textbook available in a library. I tried an online version of Wheelock Latin but grammar rules seem to be unhelpful for me to comprehend Latin prayers or Church documents, in particular literature of the past Ecumenical Councils and the Missale Romanum.

I am now a college student. First year freshman.

Any advice as to how I deal with written Ecclesiastical Latin first before I really move on to the pronunciation part?

 

[GangGreen]

Well… If you’re going to put it that way… Yes. Yes I do think he was wrong. If the Pope declared 1 is a prime number he would be wrong. Just because he’s the pope doesn’t mean he’s always right.

I’m pretty sure that for any type of activity for the Catholic Church, the Italian pronunciation is the only pronunciation that can be used.

 

[Mike30]

I’ve been studying Latin on-and-off for several years now, and I can very barely read some of the Gallican Psalter (I still need to consult with the dictionary for a lot of the vocabulary that I have yet to devote to memory, but for the most part I feel like I have the grammar down). I’d really like to be able to just pick up a Breviarium Monasticum or maybe some complex text by St. Augustine and read through it fluently, but I’m barely above novice-level.

It’s frustrating that I feel like I’ve put so much effort into Latin and yet and I’m nowhere near my goals. And – It really blows my mind to think that every Latin-rite priest prior to Vatican II had to be fluent enough in Latin to pray all eight canonical hours and celebrate Mass in Latin every day.

So, CAFers, would you like to share what your skill level in Latin is, and how long it took you to get there?

God bless!

Latin Latin woe is me
It killed the Romans, now it is killing me.

Old Latin students saying.

I took it for two years in High School. It is not an easy language to learn or to speak. The grammar rules are , to put it mildly, a real challenge but, the vocabulary not so much.

I got interested in the language from being an Altar Boy although I found out that clerical Latin is somewhat different then Latin itself.

I would put my fluency somewhere around 60% comprehension and much less in speaking.

Except for the Mass:thumbsup:

I know that one perfectly.