Latin 101?

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penitentman22

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Hello,

Can anyone recommend a website or a book where I can learn some Church Latin on my own? I’d like to be able to say basic prayers and follow the mass in Latin, and gain a basic understanding of the language.

Thanks!
 
I recently purchased a book titled Let’s Read Latin Introduction to the Language of the Church by Ralph McInerny. It starts with the Pater Noster and Ave Maria and works its way through the Creed and some writings of some of the saints. It comes with a cassette tape so you can hear the pronunciations too. Hope that helps.

God Bless,

Stuart
 
Not strictly Church Latin (but neither adverse to it) nor “on your own”, there is a mailing list of many cooperative Latin studying groups. View the web page at LatinStudy for all the FAQs.

Not a website, but a course for self-study (including 13 cassette tapes) can be purchased from Familia Sancti Hieronymi
 
The absolute best source for older children or beginning adults is Henle’s Latin by Robert A. Henle (Loyola Press, Chicago 1945, 1958). Its an older high school series that is still published and used by homeschoolers.

AND, its Catholic - complete with examples and teachings about the Church and the Blessed Virgin along with standard classical examples. Focuses on church pronunciation, but has a guide to the others. Also includes instruction on basic sentence diagramming if you’ve never had that.

Here is the introduction to Reading No. 1 in Lesson 1:
The Language of Prayer

As the light of the sun moves westward it falls upon chapels and cathedrals, hospitals and camps, where in endless repetition the Sacrifice of the Mass is being offered to God. At every moment, somewhere in the world, a priest stands at the foot of an altar and says in Latin, “Itroibo ad altare Dei,” “I shall go in to the altar of God.” Latin is the prayerful voice of the Roman Rite, of tens of millions of Catholics. In the universal offering of the Mass, the prophecy of the Old Testament is fulfilled: "From the rising of the sun to the going down thereof, my name is great amon

The Language of Papal Teaching

When a priest in Chungking receives an official document from Rome, he finds it is written in Latin. From Rome Latin carried the decisions and instructions of the Pope to the whole world, to the bishops of Brazil, to Chicago and South Africa, to Zanzibar and England. Latin, as the official language of the head of Christendom, is today a living and universal force.
You will need the “Grammar” and the “First Year” course. Henle is probably not readily available in your local bookstore on the shelf.

For more information see this homeschool source - Henle Latin: The Next Best Thing to a Latin Tutor:
memoriapress.com/articles/henle.html

You can buy it through Memoria:
memoriapress.com/descriptions/Henle1.html

Also available on Amazon:
First Year Guide:
amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0829410260/qid=1086928473/sr=1-3/ref=sr_1_3/102-2464100-5635328?v=glance&s=books

Grammar Guide:
amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0829401121/qid=1086928473/sr=1-4/ref=sr_1_4/102-2464100-5635328?v=glance&s=books
 
Wheelock’s Latin Text book is the one used in a lot of colleges. It doesn’t teach Church Latin, but the grammer is what you really need and then supplement it with a Latin Church dictionary.
 
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Mjohn1453:
Wheelock’s Latin Text book is the one used in a lot of colleges. It doesn’t teach Church Latin, but the grammer is what you really need and then supplement it with a Latin Church dictionary.
Click to expand...
You may also want to learn the ecclesiastical (as opposed to classical) Latin pronunciations and read the Latin in whatever text you’re using with the church pronunciations.

Davidus Bejus.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mjohn1453
Wheelock’s Latin Text book is the one used in a lot of colleges. It doesn’t teach Church Latin, but the grammer is what you really need and then supplement it with a Latin Church dictionary.
Click to expand...
You may also want to learn the ecclesiastical (as opposed to classical) Latin pronunciations and read the Latin in whatever text you’re using with the church pronunciations.
Click to expand...
Davidus Bejus.
Click to expand...
Good point I didn’t take into account reading or speaking Latin. Wheelock doesn’t work with pronunciation in either classical or ecclesiastical Latin. It still is the best source in learning Latin Grammer. And a good Ecclesiastical dictionary will have pronunciations as well. Someone who wants to learn what pronunciation should sound like should look into pronunciation of Italian since they are almost exactly the same.
 
Wheelock’s was intended for college students and it is widely available today. No doubt, it is a good text. However, it is much harder and less incremental than Henle’s which I describe above.

If you are purely a do-it-yourself beginner, who is not a genius and does not have a tutor, Henle’s is the better choice. Additionally, it is Catholic. Wheelock’s is not.

P.S. If you go with Wheelock’s, make sure you check out the supplemental manual and online resources by Dale Grote.
 
JMJ

Thank you all very much, I truly appreciate the references!

God Bless
**
 
Has anyone looked at the Rosetta Stone latin course? Just curious.
Thanks!
 
tmac1956 said:
Has anyone looked at the Rosetta Stone latin course? Just curious.
Thanks!
Click to expand...
I’m also a member of the Omniglot forum. there was a discussion there about Rosetta Stone, with some quotes from some pros, and the consensus was that it wasn’t worth the money.

DaveBj
 
My university used Wheelock, and it certainly worked although we went at a reall fast pace ( a chapter a week with extended vocab test every friday). Was a lot of work, but paid off. Wheelock will certainly give you a solid foundation.

In addition to Wheelock I had a book called “Latin grammar for English students”. This little handbook was simply indispensable. It explains all the grammatical terms with examples in English, which helps tremendously when you start getting into some of the more complicated conjugations.
 
penitentman22 said:
Hello,

Can anyone recommend a website or a book where I can learn some Church Latin on my own? I’d like to be able to say basic prayers and follow the mass in Latin, and gain a basic understanding of the language.

Thanks!
Click to expand...
Hello.

I’ve been searching the internet the past month or so for the most useful links on learning latin. I compiled all the links that I found *useful * for me onto a rather simple site I created in a few minutes. It’s my own personal journey that I figured others might be able to use too.

Here’s a link to my rather simple site:

sites.google.com/site/latin4allproject/links-1

And here are the two best links that I found useful:

boston-catholic-journal.com/catholic-prayers-in-latin-and-english-in-audio-format.htm

And this one:

franciscan-archive.org/misc/latin1.rtf

This last link is to the actual PDF document. To me, this material is very straight-forward, providing all the detail you need without the dizzying terminology thrown at you.

Hopefully this helps.

Dominus Vobiscum,

MW
 
tmac1956 said:
Has anyone looked at the Rosetta Stone latin course? Just curious.
Thanks!
Click to expand...
If you contact RS, they will send you a demo disk and you can check it out. It has a little bit of the Latin course as well as some of the other languages they offer.

I have the demo and it isn’t bad if your goal is to learn a lot of words, especially if you are a visual learner. The idea is that the words and pictures come up together to form a connnection in your brain. But it isn’t Church Latin and doesn’t seem to teach grammar rules.
 
In the time since this thread was started, I and a couple of others have collected some tips here: [thread=173658]Latin Resources[/thread].

tee
 
I had a year of latin and then I have been studying on my own using A Primer of Ecclesiastical Latin by John F. Collins. I highly recommend it! good luck!

pax vobiscum
 
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