Learning Latin?

[damooster]

I am thinking about taking Latin at the local community college, but I’m wondering how much I’ll have to take before I’m considered “fluent” (I never learned a second language).

The class meets every Tuesday and Thursday, from 7pm to 10:20pm, for five weeks. The school offers Latin II, but I’m wondering if that’s going to be enough.

Anyone here speak Latin?

 

[Traddy]

I have over 7 years of Latin instruction, and I am not fluent. I took it from grade 7-12, and in university year one. It’s one thing to learn it, and it’s a whole other thing to learn how to speak. I can speak some, yes…but I mostly just know the grammar, sentence structure, etc.

 

[damooster]

I have over 7 years of Latin instruction, and I am not fluent. I took it from grade 7-12, and in university year one. It’s one thing to learn it, and it’s a whole other thing to learn how to speak. I can speak some, yes…but I mostly just know the grammar, sentence structure, etc.

It’s that tough huh?

Another (possibly silly) question: does the Pope usually speak in Latin i.e. addressing the crowds at the Vatican, or does he speak his native tongue?

Thanks.

 

[mystified]

The Pope speaks present-day language(s) when addressing people on St. Peter’s Square.
Am not sure how many languages HH Benedict XVI speaks, but have read that his English reflects his native Bavarian German. He was a member of the Roman curia for many years, so it can be supposed that he may often speak Italian.
Pope John Paul the Great was known as a linguist, reasonable fluent in about eight tongues, with a smattering of others.
It would be expected that the popes would use Latin for some liturgical functions, and their official documents are almost always issued in Latin.

 

[CHRISTINE77]

I am thinking about taking Latin at the local community college, but I’m wondering how much I’ll have to take before I’m considered “fluent” (I never learned a second language).

The class meets every Tuesday and Thursday, from 7pm to 10:20pm, for five weeks. The school offers Latin II, but I’m wondering if that’s going to be enough.

Anyone here speak Latin?

I bought a workbook and a dictionary and am listening to Latin Catholic songs. There are four types of Latin and the pronuciation is different.

.
The ancient Roman pronunciation wasn’t accurately reconstructed until about 1900. Before that, scholars in every European country pronounced Latin as if it were their own language. With English this gave particularly comical results because English pronunciation had undergone drastic changes at the end of the Middle Ages. Here’s an
example:

Julius Caesar = YOO-lee-us KYE-sahr (reconstructed ancient Roman)
YOO-lee-us (T)SAY-sahr (northern Continental Europe)
YOO-lee-us CHAY-sahr (“Church Latin” in Italy)
JOO-lee-us SEE-zer (“English method”)

Today, we still use the English Method to pronounce historical and mythological names in Englishcontext. The constellation Orion is called O’Ryan, not o-REE-on, and Caesar is called SEE-zer.

Italian “Church Latin” is widely used in the Catholic Church and in singing.

I have memorized Pater Noster (Our Father) and Ave Maria (Hail Mary) and can sing a lot of Latin songs now - such as Panis Angelicus.

I took French in high school and college, so the verb conjugations are not unfamiliar to me, but I have to be careful not to pronounce Latin words with a French accent! I am pronoucing words in Church Latin, since prayers, songs and Masses are what I am most interested in learning.

 

[mystagogia]

I am thinking about taking Latin at the local community college, but I’m wondering how much I’ll have to take before I’m considered “fluent” (I never learned a second language).

The class meets every Tuesday and Thursday, from 7pm to 10:20pm, for five weeks. The school offers Latin II, but I’m wondering if that’s going to be enough.

Anyone here speak Latin?

Let me share something exciting and wonderful in the world of Latin study for those who may not have heard about the revolution that has occurred there. Check out the Latina Linqua titles from Focus Publishing. This series of books is quite astounding and has really caused a stir.

The books present Latin with a “full immersion” program. Each textbook is written entirely in Latin, 100%. You bootstrap youself into learning the language much like a child does learning. Now I took 9 years of Latin in school, all the way up through college, learning the old fashioned way. First, memorization of all the declensions and conjugations, exhastive vocabulary drills, and extensive study into grammatical forms. Then, slowly approaching old Latin texts, fighting one’s way through Caesar’s Gallic Wars and eventually the complex prose of Cicero or golden poetry of Vergil. This is tedious and daunting, and it takes a long, long time, it takes years of study, to get to the point where you are “conversant” in Latin, where you can pick up any given Latin text and really say that you are “reading” it and not tediously parsing it. The thrust of it is grammar first, reading later.

The Latina Lingua program is exactly opposite of that. The intent is to get you minimally conversant first, then actually teach you the grammar in Latin.

I bought books of the program and have shared them with people. Everybody has raved about them and been fascinated by them. I had my 9-year old nephew reading Latin, figuring out the story told in the book, entirely in Latin, by himself. And he thought it was fun. There’s a challenging puzzle/game aspect to it which rewards at a level unheard of by those of us who would have been churning through rote drills of the first declension at the equivalent point of Latin study.

Good, good stuff!

If you are thinking about taking a Latin course, see if you can find one based on the Latina Lingua curriculum. If you are thinking about self-guided study, this is the method for you. You won’t be sorry.

pullins.com/txt/LinguaLatina.htm

 

[amsjj]

The only person I know who was fluent in Latin and Greek was my professor; she started when she was very young in Austria (elementary school level here in the States, I guess). My first language was Spanish and I’ve noticed that if there’s doubt for me, I just automatically go into “Spanish” mode. I do ecclesiastical Latin for the most part, but I was taught in the classic style; the one thing I can’t seem to get say properly at Mass is “ventris” during the Salve Regina!

 

[CHRISTINE77]

The only person I know who was fluent in Latin and Greek was my professor; she started when she was very young in Austria (elementary school level here in the States, I guess). My first language was Spanish and I’ve noticed that if there’s doubt for me, I just automatically go into “Spanish” mode. I do ecclesiastical Latin for the most part, but I was taught in the classic style; the one thing I can’t seem to get say properly at Mass is “ventris” during the Salve Regina!

“Et” (meaning “and”) is one ot the hard ones for me. I want to pronouce it “Ay” like it is pronounced in French, but it’s pronounced “et” like Yet. Also, all the syllables are pronounced in Latin, unlike French, where many are silent.

 

[Lancer]

The Pope speaks present-day language(s) when addressing people on St. Peter’s Square.
Am not sure how many languages HH Benedict XVI speaks, but have read that his English reflects his native Bavarian German. He was a member of the Roman curia for many years, so it can be supposed that he may often speak Italian.
Pope John Paul the Great was known as a linguist, reasonable fluent in about eight tongues, with a smattering of others.
It would be expected that the popes would use Latin for some liturgical functions, and their official documents are almost always issued in Latin.

FYI… (as I understand it and have seen)…ALL official Latin (Roman) Catholic Church documents are published in Latin…which is still the official language of the Church.

Pope Benedict XVI, as well as the Curia Officials (ordained and civilian), normally speaks Italian…the language of the Country “surrounding” the Holy See State…and from which comes 90+% of the workers in The Holy See/The Vatican.

I once heard a high level and “upper crust” Italian official say that (then) Cardinal Ratzinger’s Italian (spoken, written, and grammar) is absolutely and unquestionably exquisite…he shames native Italians (especially Officials, Professors and Media experts)…the same is said about his German and French. Even though his English is heavily accented…his mastery/usage is also impeccable.

Lastly, I simply marvel at the gift of JP-II and B-XVI to be consecutive Popes for the Church…besides the work of the Holy Spirit…there is “…genius in Catholicism!” (Matthew Kelly – Catholic, Aussie, Evangelist)

Pax Christi

 

[Sister_G]

Latin is the “Mother Tongue” of the Church. All official documents are written in that language, and other than that the Papal Masses at the Vatican are either partially or totally in Latin - this is from my experience of living in Rome in Vatican City last year. Also, when the Holy Father addresses the crowds in St Peter’s Square, he speaks Italian, check out his channel on YouTube. He then greets various pilgrims in their native languages at the conclusion of whatever talk he is giving (Angelus, Regina Coeli, Wednesday Audience). It is good to know Latin, for sure, as it is useful for deepening your faith. May God bless your efforts!

 

[pipper]

Is there an on-line Latin course, so that you don’t have to buy a lot of books?

A friend is learing Welsh thru an on line course. My reasoning is if there is one for such an obscure languague as Welsh (most in Wales speak English of course) then there has to be for Latin.

With the movement to restore the Latin Mass, I had better learn Latin so as not to be left out at church.

 

[mystagogia]

Is there an on-line Latin course, so that you don’t have to buy a lot of books?

A friend is learing Welsh thru an on line course. My reasoning is if there is one for such an obscure languague as Welsh (most in Wales speak English of course) then there has to be for Latin.

There’s www.textkit.com, pipper. They have a very helpful and friendly forum. You might go on there and pose your question to get some handy Latin resources. Here’s the link to their “Learning Latin” page:

Some Online Learning Latin Resources

 

[pipper]

Thanks.

 

[Cranch]

Is there an on-line Latin course, so that you don’t have to buy a lot of books?

Here are some online options:

Simplicissimus

A short course from Sci-Fi author C. J. Cherryh

The LatinStudy List is an email list where self-study participants do lessons from a common textbook then send in their answers which are collated and published to the list where they can be compared. List members ask and answer questions about the work.

Linney’s Latin Class.com, designed to be used with the book Getting Started With Latin, available for under $20.00 from Amazon.

 

[Shin]

I bought a workbook and a dictionary and am listening to Latin Catholic songs. There are four types of Latin and the pronuciation is different.

.
The ancient Roman pronunciation wasn’t accurately reconstructed until about 1900. Before that, scholars in every European country pronounced Latin as if it were their own language. With English this gave particularly comical results because English pronunciation had undergone drastic changes at the end of the Middle Ages. Here’s an
example:

Julius Caesar = YOO-lee-us KYE-sahr (reconstructed ancient Roman)
YOO-lee-us (T)SAY-sahr (northern Continental Europe)
YOO-lee-us CHAY-sahr (“Church Latin” in Italy)
JOO-lee-us SEE-zer (“English method”)

Today, we still use the English Method to pronounce historical and mythological names in Englishcontext. The constellation Orion is called O’Ryan, not o-REE-on, and Caesar is called SEE-zer.

Italian “Church Latin” is widely used in the Catholic Church and in singing.

I have memorized Pater Noster (Our Father) and Ave Maria (Hail Mary) and can sing a lot of Latin songs now - such as Panis Angelicus.

I took French in high school and college, so the verb conjugations are not unfamiliar to me, but I have to be careful not to pronounce Latin words with a French accent! I am pronoucing words in Church Latin, since prayers, songs and Masses are what I am most interested in learning.

This is very informative! Do you know of any online resources that teach pronunciation of Latin in Church and/or ancient Roman? I’m particularly interested in both.

 

[CHRISTINE77]

This is very informative! Do you know of any online resources that teach pronunciation of Latin in Church and/or ancient Roman? I’m particularly interested in both.

Check out the post 14 by Cranch. “Simplicissimus” looks good.

 

[shuzo1189]

I am thinking about taking Latin at the local community college, but I’m wondering how much I’ll have to take before I’m considered “fluent” (I never learned a second language).

The class meets every Tuesday and Thursday, from 7pm to 10:20pm, for five weeks. The school offers Latin II, but I’m wondering if that’s going to be enough.

Anyone here speak Latin?

So is your goal to understand Church Documents/Extraordinary Form of the Mass or just Latin in general?

My Priest recommended this book for me:
amazon.com/Primer-Ecclesiastical-Latin-John-Collins/dp/0813206677/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1241543826&sr=8-1

It’s good if your purpose is to learn Ecclesiastical Latin, There is also a Series by Scanlon as well.

 

[Traddy]

I used Henle’s Latin, and Wheelock’s Latin. Very good books! then I translated the Gallic Wars, Livy, and other authors’ works.

 

[Jimzz12]

It’s that tough huh?

Another (possibly silly) question: does the Pope usually speak in Latin i.e. addressing the crowds at the Vatican, or does he speak his native tongue?

Thanks.

Il Papa Benedetto XVI is on record as being a fluent Latin speaker.

I have an uncle priest that used to be fluent in Latin, Greek, French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Irish, and a great smattering in other tongues. Fortunately he is still fluent in English. And I can still talk to him in Italian and Spanish. That hasn’t left him yet.

It seems to me that priests are sometimes given the gift of lingue by God.
It’s the only reasonable explanation how so many of them manage to accomplish in relatively short periods what the lay person normally struggle years for.

 

[tee_eff_em]

This is not, as you might imagine, the first time this question has come up. A tags search for learn latin will lead to a number of useful threads. A number of resources can be found on the thread [thread=173658]Latin resources[/thread].

And there is the recent addition of the [group=26]Latin Lately[/group] group, where some camaraderie may be found.

tee