http://latinum.mypodcast.com
Latin lessons improve literacy, says MSP
THE traditionalists have been going on about it ad nauseam. Now the campaign to bring back Latin into classrooms is finally gaining strength. Picture: Jane Barlow
"'The downside is that Latin is very boringly taught and it turns pupils off'"
By EDDIE BARNES
POLITICAL EDITOR
THE traditionalists have been going on about it ad nauseam. Now the campaign to bring back Latin into classrooms is finally gaining strength.
Tens of thousands of Scottish school pupils are failing to master basic English literacy skills, leading one MSP to suggest compulsory Latin lessons are the way forward.
Independent MSP Margo MacDonald, who was taught Latin at school herself, is to spearhead a campaign to highlight the benefits the classical language can have in improving basic English.
Studies in the US appear to show that, after just five months study of Latin, pupils who took the course were a full year ahead of fellow children who had not.
It is claimed that, as the root language for most western European tongues, Latin improves pupils' understanding of grammar and extends vocabulary, boosting their ability to read and write.
Latin is still on the curriculum in Scotland, but it is little taught, with around 200 state school pupils across the country taking a Latin Higher. However, headteachers also agree that, if extended, it could improve standards.
It comes as research showed recently that one in five Scots struggle with basic paperwork in their jobs.
MacDonald said: "We have got to be as imaginative as possible in terms of teaching our own language.
"The standards of grammar at the moment are dreadful. The BBC this morning said that cloud is increasing - clouds don't increase. I have been surprised by the poor standards of grammar and syntax on the BBC. I know this makes me sound like Mrs Pernickety from The Grange circa 1958, but somebody needs to tackle this."
She added: "I was lucky enough to be taught Latin and French and English at the same time, and the interlocking of the languages and grammar and the roots of words firstly improved my own grasp of grammar, but secondly gave me a facility to learn a variety of European languages."
Kirkcaldy High, a state school, has chosen to promote Latin, and now has more than 100 pupils learning the language. Teachers say it both improves their English skills and helps develop their basic understanding of European languages.
Latin is also being offered at some primary schools in England, where it is being studied for its effect on literacy.
Dr Peter Jones, a former professor of classics at Newcastle University and spokesman for the Joint Association of Classics Teachers, said: "Latin is a wonderful means of introducing children to the way languages work.
"It is a meta-language and therefore it is bound to have spin-off effects on the understanding of English and of Romance
languages like French and Italian."
Dr Jones referred to a study in Indianapolis in the 1970s which compared the standards of a group of 12-year-olds who studied Latin with those who did not.
After five months' study, the group which studied Latin were found to be one year ahead in reading and languages and eight months ahead on word knowledge. The study even found that pupils who studied Latin had improved marks in maths.
Educationalists in Scotland said they too supported the campaign, but pointed out the practical problems. Bill McGregor, of the Headteachers Association of Scotland, said: "Speaking as somebody who benefited from a classical education, I can well appreciate the benefit it has given to me. The downside is that Latin is very boringly taught and it turns pupils off."
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: "Scotland does not have a statutory curriculum."
The full article contains 587 words and appeared in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
Monday 31 December 2007
Latinum Links
FAQ: http://www.e.millner.btinternet.co.uk/languages/LatinFAQ.html
This FAQ tells you all about the Latinum Podcast, and what is on it.
WEBSITE: http://latinum.mypodcast.com
EMAIL: evanmillner and that is at gmail.com
FORUM: http://www.textkit.com/
There is a forum on here for discussing the podcast.
ONLINE INDEX: http://www.e.millner.btinternet.co.uk/languages/Latin.html
TEXTBOOK: http://www.google.co.uk/books?id=GJgAAAAAYAAJ
George Adler's 'A Practical Grammar of the Latin Language for Speaking and Writing Latin'
TEXTBOOK KEY: http://www.google.co.uk/books?id=jIwAAAAAYAAJ
The key to the exercises to Adler's books contains the Latin examples for the English exercises in the textbook.
узнать латинского языка
http://latinum.mypodcast.com
ラテンの言語を学ぶ
언어를 배우는 라틴어
学习拉丁语言
學習拉丁語言
Aprender lengua latina
Apprendre la langue latine
Why Learn Latin?
There are around 1000 speakers of Latin in the world, this is the people that can hold a fluent conversation in Latin. Around 10 000 are reasonably conversant with Latin.
Here we have a list of the countries that have it as the official language.
1. Vatican City.
However, the number of people that learn Latin as a second or third language is higher than it has been for decades.
Why do all the languages from Western Europe sound so similar?
The answer lies in their common Latin roots. The Roman Empire established itself over all of Europe, except for in the cold lands of the North. As centuries went by Latin evolved, creating what today we know today as the Romance languages, such as French, Italian, Portuguese, Galician, Catalan, Sardinian and Spanish.
In English we find that almost all the difficult or elegant words come from Latin. Around 70% of English vocabulary comes from Latin one way or another.
Why knowing all this will help me decide to learn Latin? Why on earth would I want to learn Latin?
You will be able to read a newspaper and get the gist of any article, in any Romance language, after you have learned Latin. You will also be able to super charge your English with your Latin, enriching your vocabulary and turning your English from a Ford Fiesta version into a Ferrari. Your experience of the world will be the richer for it. Advanced language skills are directly linked to income level, so maybe you'll end up richer in other ways as well. Who knows?
Finally if you actually manage to become fluent, the wonderful and virile language and literature of the Romans will be accessible to you. As if that wasn't reason enough all by itself.
http://latinum.mypodcast.com
Here we have a list of the countries that have it as the official language.
1. Vatican City.
However, the number of people that learn Latin as a second or third language is higher than it has been for decades.
Why do all the languages from Western Europe sound so similar?
The answer lies in their common Latin roots. The Roman Empire established itself over all of Europe, except for in the cold lands of the North. As centuries went by Latin evolved, creating what today we know today as the Romance languages, such as French, Italian, Portuguese, Galician, Catalan, Sardinian and Spanish.
In English we find that almost all the difficult or elegant words come from Latin. Around 70% of English vocabulary comes from Latin one way or another.
Why knowing all this will help me decide to learn Latin? Why on earth would I want to learn Latin?
You will be able to read a newspaper and get the gist of any article, in any Romance language, after you have learned Latin. You will also be able to super charge your English with your Latin, enriching your vocabulary and turning your English from a Ford Fiesta version into a Ferrari. Your experience of the world will be the richer for it. Advanced language skills are directly linked to income level, so maybe you'll end up richer in other ways as well. Who knows?
Finally if you actually manage to become fluent, the wonderful and virile language and literature of the Romans will be accessible to you. As if that wasn't reason enough all by itself.
http://latinum.mypodcast.com
Curso de Latim Gratis
http://Latinum.mypodcast.com
O curso seguirá o método inglês A Practical Grammar of the Latin Language, G.J. Adler.
Curso : Latim
100% à distância, via Internet.
http://latinum.mypodcast.com
Todo o material do curso estará em angles et latim.
O curso baseia-se nos seguintes métodos ingleses:
G.J. Adler: A Practical Grammar of the Latin Language
G.J. Adler: Key to the Exercises.
Esse método distingue-se da maioria dos livros didáticos tradicionais pela abordagem moderna e inteligente do conteúdo gramatical. Na verdade desde o início já se começa com a tradução de pequenos textos em latim simples e a explicação gramatical é estudada após a experiência direta e intuitiva.
Vou aprender a falar latim?
Vou aprender a falar latim?
Aprenda Latim
Lições de conversação latina são parte integrante do curso...
http://latinum.mypodcast.com
podkasti v latinščini
Danes sem izvedela za še en blog namenjen latinskemu jeziku http://latinum.mypodcast.com/
(v trenutku, ko pišem tale komentar stran ne dela, ker posodabljajo strežnik, upajmo, da se kmalu vrne na splet)
Latinum podcast
Latinum podcast
Llevo un tiempo dándole vueltas al uso de 'podcast [lobus disseminuus]' aplicados a la enseñanza del latín y me ha parecido una buena idea empezar por la exercitatio linguae latinae de vives, un humanista muy cercano a nosotros que, junto a Erasmus, Ficinus, Calvin, Stephanus y Comenio inspiró la obra de George Adler.....
http://latinum.mypodcast.com
para o estudo do latim
http://latinum.mypodcast.com/ - podcast com recursos auditivos para o estudo do latim. Excelente.
Sunday 23 December 2007
Latin Language Tutorials
Latin Language Tutorials
Latinum is a comprehensive podcast based website for the learning of Latin, aimed primarily at teaching the language in the same way as a living language might be taught, with an emphasis on speaking. There is material on the site suitable for students of all levels and abilities.
A person who learns the language this way, will have a grater natural facility, and will be able to read important classical texts in less time than the grammar-based route. The podcast also provides grammar and vocabulary lessons, for students who want a more technical base to their study of the language.
Saturday 22 December 2007
George Adler and his Textbook
"A Practical Method for Learning to Speak, Read and Write Latin"
An early 'modern method' teacher, called Jean Manesca, appears to have written the first fully developed modern language course in the early 1820's - designed for French, he was keen to see it adopted for the classics, and actively promoted the idea. His "Oral system of teaching Living Languages Illustrated by a Practical Course of Lessons in the French through the medium of English" was entered at the library of Congress in 1834.
In his introduction, on pg xix, Manesca writes
" If I have not spoken of the advantages that may be derived from the present mode of teaching applied to dead languages, it is not because I entertain the smallest doubt of its efficacy in that particular; for, on the contrary, I am confident that many years of toilsome, tedious, and almost fruitless labours, would be saved by the adoption of such a method for these languages. A well disposed young man, between eighteen and twenty, well versed in the principles of his mother tongue, would, in twelve months, acquire a sufficient knowledge of Latin or Greek for all the purposes of life. Such a consideration well deserves the attention of the few scholars competent for a task which would prove so beneficial to the present and future generation of collegiate students. The present modes of teaching the dead languages are sadly defective. It is high time that a rational, uniform method should be adopted"
Shortly afterwards, Henri Ollendorff adopted Manesca's methodology, and produced the famous series of books using the 'Ollendorff' method, which follow Manesca extremely closely. Ollendorff's books were published for a wide range of languages. I have revived Manesca's course, which I am using together with Ollendorff's French textbook, on http://fancyfrench.mypodcast.com , as it is well suited to podcasting, although the French isn't contemporary street French, it will be good for reading Balzac!
As I sit here, I hold in my hands a copy of the "Nouvelle methode pour apprendre, a lire, a ecrire et a parler une langue en six mois, appliquee au Latin" - by H G Ollendorff, written in the 1840's. Adler's American edition, which I am using, was an extensive revision of Ollendorff's first attempt - Adler includes the grammar - Ollendorff's French text is extremely light on the grammar, and is almost entirely intuitive, learning is based on practice alone, not theory. The book has 600 pages of very fine print, with copious exercises. Adler also expanded the Latin text, resulting a much higher quality textbook, with much more elegant Latin, and a wider variety of examples based on the historical classic sources.
The French-Latin Ollendorff was, as far as I can ascertain, the first textbook written in modern times aimed at teaching Latin as a spoken language, using 'modern' methods - I don't think Manesca's method was ever translated directly into Latin or Greek, although it did appear in a Spanish edition written by Carlos Rabadan. Albert Brisbane's Biography, where he describes in some detail his private classes with Manesca, says that he studied Latin using the same method. If Manesca ever wrote up any Latin exercises, I would be very keen to obtain them - perhaps they only survive in manuscript among his papers. The Ollendorff version went through several editions, and was quite popular for private pupils, but it was never taken up by schools for teaching Latin. Adler's American edition seems to have suffered the same fate, and copies of it are very hard to come by.
So, when people discuss teaching Latin as a spoken language, using modern teaching methods that involve speaking Latin in the classroom, it should be realized that this methodology has a long pedigree, it isn't the new fangled and dangerous thing that some Latin teachers seem to think it is.
An early 'modern method' teacher, called Jean Manesca, appears to have written the first fully developed modern language course in the early 1820's - designed for French, he was keen to see it adopted for the classics, and actively promoted the idea. His "Oral system of teaching Living Languages Illustrated by a Practical Course of Lessons in the French through the medium of English" was entered at the library of Congress in 1834.
In his introduction, on pg xix, Manesca writes
" If I have not spoken of the advantages that may be derived from the present mode of teaching applied to dead languages, it is not because I entertain the smallest doubt of its efficacy in that particular; for, on the contrary, I am confident that many years of toilsome, tedious, and almost fruitless labours, would be saved by the adoption of such a method for these languages. A well disposed young man, between eighteen and twenty, well versed in the principles of his mother tongue, would, in twelve months, acquire a sufficient knowledge of Latin or Greek for all the purposes of life. Such a consideration well deserves the attention of the few scholars competent for a task which would prove so beneficial to the present and future generation of collegiate students. The present modes of teaching the dead languages are sadly defective. It is high time that a rational, uniform method should be adopted"
Shortly afterwards, Henri Ollendorff adopted Manesca's methodology, and produced the famous series of books using the 'Ollendorff' method, which follow Manesca extremely closely. Ollendorff's books were published for a wide range of languages. I have revived Manesca's course, which I am using together with Ollendorff's French textbook, on http://fancyfrench.mypodcast.com , as it is well suited to podcasting, although the French isn't contemporary street French, it will be good for reading Balzac!
As I sit here, I hold in my hands a copy of the "Nouvelle methode pour apprendre, a lire, a ecrire et a parler une langue en six mois, appliquee au Latin" - by H G Ollendorff, written in the 1840's. Adler's American edition, which I am using, was an extensive revision of Ollendorff's first attempt - Adler includes the grammar - Ollendorff's French text is extremely light on the grammar, and is almost entirely intuitive, learning is based on practice alone, not theory. The book has 600 pages of very fine print, with copious exercises. Adler also expanded the Latin text, resulting a much higher quality textbook, with much more elegant Latin, and a wider variety of examples based on the historical classic sources.
The French-Latin Ollendorff was, as far as I can ascertain, the first textbook written in modern times aimed at teaching Latin as a spoken language, using 'modern' methods - I don't think Manesca's method was ever translated directly into Latin or Greek, although it did appear in a Spanish edition written by Carlos Rabadan. Albert Brisbane's Biography, where he describes in some detail his private classes with Manesca, says that he studied Latin using the same method. If Manesca ever wrote up any Latin exercises, I would be very keen to obtain them - perhaps they only survive in manuscript among his papers. The Ollendorff version went through several editions, and was quite popular for private pupils, but it was never taken up by schools for teaching Latin. Adler's American edition seems to have suffered the same fate, and copies of it are very hard to come by.
So, when people discuss teaching Latin as a spoken language, using modern teaching methods that involve speaking Latin in the classroom, it should be realized that this methodology has a long pedigree, it isn't the new fangled and dangerous thing that some Latin teachers seem to think it is.
An Interview with Evan Millner
Why did you set up the Latinum Podcast?
Well, like many things, it happened by accident. I have been studying Latin for some years now, in a desultory fashion, and decided I wanted to rev things up a notch. My natural way of learning a language is to listen to a lot of it. With Latin, this always presented me with a problem, as there was almost no stuff around that I could put on my MP3 player. I don’t like sitting in front of my computer all day,unless I am doing something, like building a website, or making something, or writing.... and I also didn’t want to have my nose in a book for longer than necessary. Grammar books, unfortunately, send me to sleep.
I’d had enough of learning Latin that way, and nodding off over declension tables. So I started to write to people with audio in Latin that was already online, for permission to transfer the files to mp3 format, so I could stick them on my iPod. In the beginning,I was doing this for myself.
Most of the files online in 2006 that were in Restored Classical pronunciation were in realaudio, and these can’t be played away from the computer, or saved in iTunes. I originally set up the podcast just for myself. I wasn’t really thinking that anyone would be massively interested; it was going to be my personal archive of Latin stuff online. Then I noticed it was getting hits, and these were increasing exponentially. There are now a few thousand file downloads per day, and the user base is international. The podcast gives access to a full education in Latin, to students in countries with no tradition of teaching the language, and who otherwise would not have access to anything other than a textbook. This applies to most adult students, everywhere, as there are almost no informal programmes to speak of for teaching Latin to adults outside of the big universities.
I decided to put some serious work into it, and now it is full of wonderful Latin to listen to. I have more students online now, using the podcast, than I would ever see in a lifetime at school. There have been over seven million file downloads since the podcast started in May 2007.
What sort of stuff do you have on the podcast?
The backbone of the podcast is this amazing book by a guy called George Adler that I stumbled across online using Google Books. Adler was one of those super geniuses who was so bright he went nuts. Really, I’m serious; they locked him up in a mental asylum. Once he had left the University, and didn’t have to worry about his career, and he did something totally off the wall – he wrote the first proper book in English for studying conversational Latin as though it were French or German or any other living language. He knew what he was up to, because he had written the first English edition of the definitive 19th Century German Conversational textbook, and a German-English dictionary (both are still in print, over 150 years later). I’m using Adler’s book as the basis for the lessons on the Podcast, and it is proving quite popular.
Do you have other things on there as well?
Yes, quite a lot. Beginning students don’t get to read much advanced Latin, but listening to it is well worthwhile, as your brain can pick out patterns, especially grammatical patterns, even when you don’t understand everything. It’s a great way to learn. The podcast has loads of Horace, Catullus, Virgil and other goodies to listen to, read by a wide range of different people. Some of the readers are quite famous, like Sonkowsky. There is also an entertainment section, with some pretty off the wall things. There is also a lot of 'easy listening', or, in teacher-speak "comprehensible input", which is useful for rapidly building fluency and confidence.
Why listen to a Latin Podcast?
I think the podcast format is great for learning Latin – you just listen to the lesson, and then repeat out loud after the reader, and you can take it with you wherever, on your skateboard, on your bike. The Latin sort of just sinks in by osmosis. It is a great stress free way to study. Latin isn’t difficult at all if it is learned this way. The great thing is that you’ll be able to speak it quite well, if you give it a shot, because the emphasis is on speaking Latin, on conversational Latin, and not on the grammar. This is wonderful if you intend to read Plautus or Terence, or any other Dramatic works in Latin. The only surefire way to get to grips with any language is to surround yourself with it as much as possible. We don’t have time machines to take us back to ancient Rome, but listening to the Latin downloaded from the podcast lets you surround yourself with the sounds of spoken Latin, creating a virtual reality Rome in your head. That’s a real help.
Why should anyone bother with Latin?
Well, as I say, being a European without knowing Latin, is like being a Chinaman without knowing Chinese. You are cut off from your culture. Almost anything worth putting into print in Europe from the time of the Roman Empire, until the late 1700's, was published in Latin. Poets wrote in Latin for an international European audience. Plays were written and performed, orations, political tractates, novels were written, even sci-fi. Most of this material is now simply unknown, there are simply too few readers to read all of it. However, thanks to Google Books, you personally have access at the click of a mouse, to more literature in Latin than you could consume in several lifetimes.
It’s a dead language, but as I always say, it’s dead and kicking.
Well, like many things, it happened by accident. I have been studying Latin for some years now, in a desultory fashion, and decided I wanted to rev things up a notch. My natural way of learning a language is to listen to a lot of it. With Latin, this always presented me with a problem, as there was almost no stuff around that I could put on my MP3 player. I don’t like sitting in front of my computer all day,unless I am doing something, like building a website, or making something, or writing.... and I also didn’t want to have my nose in a book for longer than necessary. Grammar books, unfortunately, send me to sleep.
I’d had enough of learning Latin that way, and nodding off over declension tables. So I started to write to people with audio in Latin that was already online, for permission to transfer the files to mp3 format, so I could stick them on my iPod. In the beginning,I was doing this for myself.
Most of the files online in 2006 that were in Restored Classical pronunciation were in realaudio, and these can’t be played away from the computer, or saved in iTunes. I originally set up the podcast just for myself. I wasn’t really thinking that anyone would be massively interested; it was going to be my personal archive of Latin stuff online. Then I noticed it was getting hits, and these were increasing exponentially. There are now a few thousand file downloads per day, and the user base is international. The podcast gives access to a full education in Latin, to students in countries with no tradition of teaching the language, and who otherwise would not have access to anything other than a textbook. This applies to most adult students, everywhere, as there are almost no informal programmes to speak of for teaching Latin to adults outside of the big universities.
I decided to put some serious work into it, and now it is full of wonderful Latin to listen to. I have more students online now, using the podcast, than I would ever see in a lifetime at school. There have been over seven million file downloads since the podcast started in May 2007.
What sort of stuff do you have on the podcast?
The backbone of the podcast is this amazing book by a guy called George Adler that I stumbled across online using Google Books. Adler was one of those super geniuses who was so bright he went nuts. Really, I’m serious; they locked him up in a mental asylum. Once he had left the University, and didn’t have to worry about his career, and he did something totally off the wall – he wrote the first proper book in English for studying conversational Latin as though it were French or German or any other living language. He knew what he was up to, because he had written the first English edition of the definitive 19th Century German Conversational textbook, and a German-English dictionary (both are still in print, over 150 years later). I’m using Adler’s book as the basis for the lessons on the Podcast, and it is proving quite popular.
Do you have other things on there as well?
Yes, quite a lot. Beginning students don’t get to read much advanced Latin, but listening to it is well worthwhile, as your brain can pick out patterns, especially grammatical patterns, even when you don’t understand everything. It’s a great way to learn. The podcast has loads of Horace, Catullus, Virgil and other goodies to listen to, read by a wide range of different people. Some of the readers are quite famous, like Sonkowsky. There is also an entertainment section, with some pretty off the wall things. There is also a lot of 'easy listening', or, in teacher-speak "comprehensible input", which is useful for rapidly building fluency and confidence.
Why listen to a Latin Podcast?
I think the podcast format is great for learning Latin – you just listen to the lesson, and then repeat out loud after the reader, and you can take it with you wherever, on your skateboard, on your bike. The Latin sort of just sinks in by osmosis. It is a great stress free way to study. Latin isn’t difficult at all if it is learned this way. The great thing is that you’ll be able to speak it quite well, if you give it a shot, because the emphasis is on speaking Latin, on conversational Latin, and not on the grammar. This is wonderful if you intend to read Plautus or Terence, or any other Dramatic works in Latin. The only surefire way to get to grips with any language is to surround yourself with it as much as possible. We don’t have time machines to take us back to ancient Rome, but listening to the Latin downloaded from the podcast lets you surround yourself with the sounds of spoken Latin, creating a virtual reality Rome in your head. That’s a real help.
Why should anyone bother with Latin?
Well, as I say, being a European without knowing Latin, is like being a Chinaman without knowing Chinese. You are cut off from your culture. Almost anything worth putting into print in Europe from the time of the Roman Empire, until the late 1700's, was published in Latin. Poets wrote in Latin for an international European audience. Plays were written and performed, orations, political tractates, novels were written, even sci-fi. Most of this material is now simply unknown, there are simply too few readers to read all of it. However, thanks to Google Books, you personally have access at the click of a mouse, to more literature in Latin than you could consume in several lifetimes.
It’s a dead language, but as I always say, it’s dead and kicking.
A PRACTICAL APPROACH TO THE READING OF LATIN PROSE AND POETRY
This article is intended for use as a student handout. Please feel free to reproduce it.
____________________________________________
A PRACTICAL APPROACH TO THE READING OF LATIN PROSE AND POETRY.
Evan Millner, London, August 22nd 2007.
On Syllables:
Poetry in Latin is quantitative. This means that it depends for its effect on the length of syllables relative to one another, and only secondarily, if at all, on actual word stress. By contrast, English poetry depends for its effect almost exclusively on word stress.
There are two types of syllables in Latin, those that end in a vowel, and those that do not. A “third group” may be one or the other, depending on the need of the poet, and these either-or syllables are called ‘common’.
Those that end in a vowel are called open syllables.
Those that end in a consonant are called closed syllables.
How are such syllables formed?
The Romans, when speaking, ‘opened’ a syllable if the vowel was followed by only one consonant. This consonant was allowed to detach itself from the vowel, and join the following syllable. The result was an open syllable: [1]
i.e. păt-er → pă -ter
This also could also occur if a vowel were followed by a mute in combination with l or r (l and r belong to a class of consonants called liquids).
The mutes
V, B, P, F (labials)
G, C, K, Qu (gutturals)
D, T (linguals)
A syllable that ends in a vowel, and that has a short vowel in it, is going to be shorter than an otherwise identical syllable that ends in a consonant, by the simple virtue that it has fewer letters.
pă is shorter than păt
It is then important to pronounce the syllable with the correct vowel length. If the vowel length is wrong, then the syllable is mangled from a long to a short, and vice versa.
This would be sufficient to destroy a poetical reading, or indeed the intended sound of a passage in prose that relies for its effect on the syllabic structure of the sentence or turn of phrase.
So much for open syllables.
As mentioned above, two syllables with short vowels that differ only in that one has a consonant at the end, and the other does not, share a fundamental, and blindingly evident difference: one is physically short, and the other is, by comparison, physically long. (i.e. it has more letters, so as an object, it is longer than if it had two letters.). As a consequence, the syllable also sounds longer.
pă versus păr [2]
It is vital that the entirety of the syllable is fully pronounced. If the r on par were not pronounced distinctly, the long syllable could easily come to sound like a short one. This is a reason why readers of Restored Classical pronunciation take care to trill their r’s.
When does a syllable become long when reading Latin?
An open syllable automatically becomes long when followed by two consonants. (Except a mute + liquid, in which case this is optional.) [3]
How does it get longer?
The first of the following consonants sticks to it. The open syllable then becomes long, simply because it now has more letters in it – it is physically longer, and it must be pronounced fully.
tem/pe/←stā/ti/bus this gives us: tem/pes/tā/ti/bus
note: pe is short, and open, pes is physically longer, and closed. Because it has more letters in it, it takes longer to say.
a/spér/sus a/←spérsus as/pér/sus
This syllable is now called ‘long by position’. One way to understand this is that you have positioned an extra consonant against it, and so it has become longer.
Here are some more examples:
Before (short)
After (long by position)
s t i /←r p ĭ s
s t i r/ p ĭ s
d i s/ c é /←s s ĭ t
d i s/ c é s /s ĭ t
m ŏ/ d é /←s t ŭ s
m ŏ/ d é s/ t ŭ s
ē /d u/←c t ŭ s
ē /d ú c/ t ŭ s
Double consonants – double trouble
It is not a mere fancy when we are told that the Romans pronounced their double consonants as two distinct sounds. They did, but they did so because each letter of the double consonant ended up in its own syllable, according to the rule we have just discussed.
a/ppa/rā/bat is how we would pronounce it if we did not know any better. However, this is what happens to the double consonant pp:
a/←ppa/rā/bat which becomes ap/pa/rā/bat
When reading Latin, getting the syllabic structure correct is therefore vitally important, otherwise it is impossible to read Latin verse with any degree of authenticity. You need to nurse these habits when reading prose as well, otherwise the transition to reading verse will be a hard and arduous one.
The Third syllable type – Common Syllables.
What is a common syllable?
Common syllables only occur when a short vowel is followed by a mute + a liquid (l or r).
In the ordinary course of things, a mute+liquid behaves like two Siamese twins joined together, and functions as though it were a unit “joined at the hip”.
The poet has the option of performing an operation, and separating the two. Once they are separated, they behave like any two consonants. One of them moves, in the same way we saw above, and closes (and thereby physically lengthens) the syllable immediately in front of the two consonants. The first consonant from the separated mute-liquid moves to the syllable in front of it.
pătrem pă/trem
If tr were a NORMAL consonant cluster, we would expect the t to move to the first syllable, like this:
pă/←trem resulting in păt/rem
This rule would be the same rule as that we saw above, for a short vowel followed by two consonants, and a poet can chose to apply it to a mute + liquid combination if he wishes to.
However, because the consonant cluster is a mute-liquid combination, if he does not perform the operation on the twinned mute-liquid cluster, then things stay as they are, and this results in
pă/trem
How do we know which of the two the poet has chosen?
We need to read the verse aloud that contains a word with a common syllable. It should be apparent which way the poet has divided the word, depending on whether he needs the common syllable to be physically long or short to complete the rhythmic patterning of long and short syllables. Only one reading should sound right. This is a matter of developing your ear. It never will develop if you are not always careful about quantity when reading both prose and poetry.
SYLLABLE QUANTITY
A source of much confusion is the use of the macron and breve to mark out syllable quantity. This may be fine for a speaker with native level fluency, (and to be frank, who speaks Latin with that level of fluency?) who has an instinctive knowledge of the true lengths of the vowels the words would have in ordinary conversation. For a modern second language Latin speaker, this system of marking the syllable long by position with a macron above its vowel spells disaster, and adds unnecessary complications.
While it is true that Latin versification depends on syllable quantity, the underlying vowel quantities of the words remain unchanged.
Syllables with short vowels are either physically long, or physically short.
Syllables with long vowels, are needless to say, always long, as their vowels are long, even if the syllable is physically a short one: pā is long, and so is pāb
Such a vowel that is naturally long, is called ‘long by nature’. Even in a physically short syllable, (one that that has fewer letters) it is still long.
However, with syllables that have short vowels,
pă is ‘physically’ short, and păd is ‘physically’ long. Placing a macron above the a, pād to show it is physically long, invites the reader to mispronounce the syllable and lengthen the vowel, when it is the syllable, not the vowel, that is long. Even worse, it leads people to think that ‘long by position’ means that the vowel is lengthened. This is a not uncommon error, but it is a very serious one.
The use of the macron above the vowel of a syllable that is long by position, gives rise to much confusion, as the same notation is also used for vowel length.
It is not the case that a syllable that is long by position, i.e. one containing a short vowel that is followed by two consonants, has its vowel lengthened. Marking it with a macron only gives rise to confusion, especially in a student reader who does not have an instinctive appreciation for vowel length, but who rather relies on the macrons. Macrons should be used to mark long vowels, and long vowels only, and not be used to serve another purpose.
To avoid this difficulty, some educators have proposed a super- macron, which would be extended over the entire syllable. The vowel length notations would remaining in place below it – however, standard computer word processing software does not allow for this, and nor does html coding.
PROPOSAL:
In order to keep the actual vowel quantities marked, another method needs to be found to show syllable quality that does not interfere with the true vowel markings. This method needs to make use of standard word processing tools that are also available on standard web editing packages. It also needs to be easy to apply when marking up a printed text for reading aloud, or, for that matter, for writing out with pen and ink.
A simple and elegant solution is proposed – that the macron for a long syllable should be placed underneath the entire lengthened syllable cluster, as an underline. The original vowel quantities can still remain marked in their places above the line, as per usual.
a m av i
Marking short or light syllables might also need an intervention that will not interfere with the usual markings; However, it it not really necessary to mark the short syllables, if the long ones are marked. Should, for educational reasons, or otherwise for reasons of clarity be necessary to distinguish them in a positive manner, it is proposed that short syllables be italicised, rendering them visually light, with all the letters in the cluster being italicised. legĕrĕ
The advantages:
This system has the advantage that a syllable that is long by position will not lose its actual vowel length markings, which would be retained in the superscript:
b ô b ŭ s
c ŏ n c ĭ d o
Another advantage, is the ease with which a printed text can be marked up for recital. This system is also easy to apply using handwriting.
It could be argued that italicising the light syllables might be excessive – and indeed, is largely unnecessary if the subscript macron is used, as the correct vowel quantities are then clearly visible in their correct locations above.
A BRIEF NOTE ON ACCENTS:
In monosyllables, vowels that are long take the circumflex, and vowels that are short take the acute.
árs
flôs
fáx
spês
párs
môns
Polysyllables take the circumflex accent when the penult is long by nature (This simply means that it has a long vowel, see above), and the final vowel is short. A circumflex can only appear over a syllable with a long vowel.
jûrĭs lûcĕ mûsă spînă
The circumflex accent is thought to have has a slight up-down tone, the acute a straightforward upwards tone. Final unaccented syllables had a slight falling tone. (This is called the grave accent, but this is not written, it is simply understood to be there.)
These accents were applied by the Romans in imitation of the Greeks, and may have been used when reciting poetry and during orations.
Evan Millner
London
August 22 2007
[1] The resulting ‘ter’syllable on the end is closed. You’ve heard it said that the Romans trilled their r’s. They certainly sounded them one way or another, otherwise,’ter’, if pronounced with an English ‘r’, would be an open syllable as well.
Advice: Trill those r’s.
[2] While counting letters is a simple and efficient way to get the point across, it may be misleading if you look into the matter more carefully, for it begs the question: ‘Is “sti” longer than “i”, since it has more letters?’ In fact, only the vowel and what follows it is relevant. Technically speaking, the beginning part of any syllable is irrelevant for Latin syllable quantity.
[3] If we take the word, say, carmen, the proper syllabification is car-men. Then it is not the case that the first syllable is “followed by two consonants”, as it is not an open syllable. The vowel of the first syllable, for the syllable “car” is followed by only one consonant.
A Letter from a User
re: http://latinum.mypodcast.com
Hi Evan,
I really appreciate your podcast. It definitely helped me prepare for a spoken Latin seminar I went to at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington.
Most of the attendees were teachers and professors. There was also a classics graduate student who attended. There were two days of preparation sessions which consisted of about 6 hours of classes each day. Then 7 days of the conference with about 4 hours of classes and an outing each day. We went to places like museums, an aquarium, a zoo, parks, and on a hike in the mountains. It was really fun and I learned a lot.
I have taken less than two years of Latin but I was able to understand what was going on as well as the graduate student who has much more experience with Latin than I do.
I believe that was because I spent a lot of time listening to your Latin podcast and the graduate student's experience was only with reading Latin.
I really believe that listening and speaking are very important in learning a language.
Thanks,
B.
Latinum Podcast
This is the blog where I will keep a note on progress over at the Latinum Podcast.
Latinum, on http://latinum.mypodcast.com is the largest resource of free audio material for learning Latin presently online. Latinum is a Latin Course. Latinum is also an archive of readings from Classical Texts, both poetry and prose.
Latinum also contains lessons for the complete beginner, that continue through to an advanced level. The site uses a textbook, George Adler's 'A Practical Grammar of the Latin Language'. This is a textbook aimed at teaching Latin orally, and is perfectly suited to podcasting, and for learning on the go.
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