Renuntiatio Octava

Did you know that some Roman beach houses had more than 60,000 square feet? (The average American house today has 2,000 square feet.) We will begin the year exploring the Roman house and creating crossword puzzles in Latin. After looking at the picture, what is different about the entryway of this domus romana?Felix Annus Novus!

Septima Renuntiatio

Latin scholars have a second special visitor. Their first, Lisa Simeone of NPR, spoke to them a short time ago about why she decided to start studying Latin over fifty, and her career in radio. The week before mid-terms, as a break from review, Mrs. Lawrence, as a companion piece to the memorization and discussion they are doing in English, spoke to the students about Shakespeare and Latin. Did you know that even though he probably only went to school through what was sixth grade he had several years of Greek and Latin?! After a short discussion, students went on to translate the sonnet which begins: An similem aestivae pingam te, cara, diei? Why not try your hand at it? Visit http://www.slu.edu/colleges/AS/languages/classical/latin/tchmat/pedagogy/latinitas/dv/dv.html to to find all of Shakespeare's sonnets in Latin.

Sexta Renuntiatio

Is the story of Aeneas a myth or history? Actually, it's hagiography. [A worshipful or idealizing biography.] Imperator Augustus hired the poet Virgil to retell the story of the founding of Rome, and asked that he refer to Homer's works. Virgil worked on the epic poem from 30 bce until he died in 19 bce before he was able to visit all the places Aeneas stopped on his journey. Augustus not only left Rome a city of marble, he also left it with a poetic history. Arma virumque cano! Listen to the poem at http://www.rhapsodes.fll.vt.edu/aeneid1.htm .

Quinta Renuntiatio

Salvete Amici --

For the past few weeks we have been learning how to translate Latin sentences. So far we have learned eight (!) steps of the process.

Let's see how it works with a sentence from chapter four of our textbook: Tum Marcus ad arborem currit. Translation begins with finding the verb, and identifying it by person, number and tense; here it is currit -- third person singular present, he/she/it runs. Second identify the subject(s) -- a noun in the nominative case (subject form) which agrees with the verb; here it is the proper noun, Marcus. Then look for complements, additional nouns in the same case and number as the subject, without a conjunction, when the verb is a verb of being; or, direct objects, nouns that do not follow a preposition, which are in the accusative case in sentences with a transitive (action) verb. In the example, there is no complement or direct object. Next, pick out any adjectives; adjectives agree with the nouns they modify and most of the time follow the nouns they modify. Step five is "other" words. These are just vocabulary words that for now will be translated in step eight. In our example sentences, other words are: tum, ad, and arborem. In step six the sentence is translated literally, or word-for-word in the oorder in which it appears: Then Marcus towards tree runs. In the next step, the sentence is translated into good English: Then Marcus runs towards the (there are no articles in Latin)tree. The final step is to identify derivatives, e.g. arborem/arbol (Sp.)/arbor (Eng.), currit/correr (Sp.)/current (Eng.), etc.

Valete --

Funicula

Quarta Renuntiatio

We are learning the details of Latin vocabulary and our Vocab Notebooks. Nouns belong to declensions and have four characteristics: gender, number, case and declension. Verbs belong to conjugations and also have four characteristics: person, number, tense and conjugation. Of course, as in any language, some of the verbs are irregular which makes them harder to learn. Did you know that "sic" is another way to say "yes"?!

Discipuli -- remember to post for extra credit!

Tertia Septimana

This week students received their textbooks. They've had dictation twice and have already begun translating. Students can earn extra credit by submitting Living Latin, e.g. a picture of a book entitled Carpool Diem, followed by the phrase carpe diem, a translation of the same, and an example of the phrase used, or tweaked and used, in English. Extra credit may also be earned by posting specific comments or observations about what we've been doing in class to this blog. All readers of Eugapae Latina! should be reminded that we welcome guest speakers to our Latin class. Finally, you may hear some percussive accompaniment to the video clip -- we are contemplating performing an instrumental work featuring students with their Latin pens during International Week or perhaps at the Holiday Sing Along!

Secunda Septimana

Salvete! This week we used the rules for identifying derivatives when "translating" Carroll's JABBERWOCKY. We also learned about Gregorian Chant and its five tone mode and then applied logic and prior knowledge, particularly of modern Romance languages to translate a Pigorian Chant.

Prima Septimana

Did you know that there are no lower case letters in classical Latin? Or, that you've been mispronouncing J. Caesar's name your whole life -- you should be saying Kaiser (like the roll or Wilhelm!) But don't do it with manducabulla in your mouth!On a more serious note, the Latin that we're learning dates from approximately 500 b.c.e. Latin is an inflected language. Word endings tell you what parts of speech they are and their function in a sentence. 60% of English is derived from Latin. We learned to recognize derivatives using three clues. Orthography -- similar spelling. Homophony -- similar sounding. And, the most important one, shared meaning.REMEMBER... Carp Diem! Carpool Diem! Latina vivit!

Salvete discipuli! When in Rome, "Wear your sandals." Spectate, audite nunc dicite, agite, legite et scribete.