Of course simultaneous to all this as been the rise of my Latin studies (Greek studies have remained the same, which is to say very early beginner). In large part due to the wisdom provided by Andrew Campbell in his interview posted at The Woodshed, I’ve moved to the center of my studies the practice of listening to Latin. Pretty much every available waking moment I try to listen to Hans Orberg read from his bookLingua Latina. And I have downloaded several of the over 300 podcasts from Evan Millner’s Latinum podcast.
I already see the wisdom of Andrew Campbell’s suggestion to make studying Latin more than merely reading it — which means more than merely looking at it. No, hearing it out loud, whether from a study recording or from talking Latin with another person (which Hannah and I are at the very very early stages of doing) totally brings the language alive. We’ve begun to text to each other in Latin, a bit. I’ve begun to sing simple songs to the girls in Latin; songs of my own creation. And a simple game we play in the family — where’s Oona?/Twyla?/Izzi? . . . There she is! — (as a form of peek-a-boo) — I’ve started to play in Latin, using the same tones of voice, and the girls have already picked up on it, with Twyla already playing the game in Latin. (Ubi Oona? . . . Es te!)
And what strikes me in all of this that all that separates Latin as a dead language from Latin as a living language is people speaking it. That is it. Start speaking it, and it takes on an organic, vibrant character that even the same words written on a page don’t have. Of course, we are still so early in our family speaking Latin — baby steps, quite literally — I don’t want to get ahead of myself. But it is fun, nonetheless.
