Christmas break from Latin classes

This is just a reminder that we are taking a couple of weeks off from our study of Latin to devote ourselves to celebrating the coming of Christ! Saturday class will resume on Saturday, January 1 (kalendae Ianuariae). Class for the filiae Morris will resume shortly thereafter. Those who would like to meet for the Tuesday evening tutorial on December 28 should let me know by Sunday, Dec. 26.

New! Online vocabulary drills for Familia Romana

Discipuli discipulaeque -- remember how I've urged you all to make flashcards to help you learn new vocabulary? Well, I've just discovered that Focus Publishing, the American publisher for the Orberg Lingua Latina series, now has electronic flashcards for the first XXI chapters on their web site: go here. You can use these whenever you have a few free minutes to learn new vocabulary in the current chapter or to review words that should already be familiar.

Adult Class, Saturday, XI December

(ante diem tertium Idus Decembres: Septimontium Agonalia, Sol Indiges, Ianus)

Review in the College Companion the discussion of new grammatical and syntactical constructions in lectio prima of Capitulum Undecimum (XI Corpus Humanum). Then go back over the first lectio in the reader, looking for those new grammatical constructions in context. Finally, prepare the exercitia that correspond to lectio prima (I believe these are I-IV).

We'll pick up with lectio altera (II, part of which we read through on IV Dec.) this Saturday. Adeste!

Adult class: Saturday, IV December

(pridie Nonas Decembres)

This week we will begin a new chapter, Capitulum XI, Corpus Humanum. There is a lot to look forward to: Body parts! The horrors of ancient medicine! More fun with the third declension! A tiny peek at the fourth declension! No sign yet of the fifth declension!
What could be worse for poor Quintus than simultaneously falling out of a tree, squashing to death four pullos avis, injuring his foot, and losing consciousness? You'll find out, as soon as worried mater, Aemilia, sends someone to fetch the medicus (there will be blood!).

Just a reminder that what was the "Sunday class" is now becoming the "Saturday class." From now on, we will meet on Saturday mornings, shortly after the morning Mass. Unless you hear otherwise (have not yet received the go-ahead from On High), we will meet in our usual classroom in the parish house. The Tuesday tutorial group continues to meet Tuesday evenings, after the Mass, at Panera Bakery on N. Collins.

Venite! (Y'all come!) See you Saturday.

Filiae Morris: Tuesday, VII December

(ante diem septimum Idus Decembres: Faunalia Rustica)

In the College Companion, review the new grammatical constructions introduced in lectio prima of Capitulum XIII, Annus et Menses. Then go back through lectio prima in the reader carefully, making sure that you understand the new vocabulary and grammar in context. Then prepare the exercitia that correspond to lectio prima (I-IV).

Filiae Morris: For Friday, 19 November

On Friday, we will run through the Pensa at the end of Cap. XII and the Colloquium Duodecimum in the blue book.

For Sunday Class, 21 November

On Sunday, 14 November, since we were lacking several students, we did some review over the third declension nouns, rather than moving ahead in the reading. Therefore, next Sunday, we will work our way through Lectio tertia (III) in Cap. X.

To make sure you are getting familiar with the forms of third declension nouns (first introduced in Cap. IX), you should review the grammatica latina at the end of C121apitulum IX, and practice making the different case forms by completing Exercitia 9-11 in the workbook:

• Ex. 9 has you producing the forms of the first declension (feminine words like insula), 
• Ex. 10 -- the forms of the second declension (masculine and neuter words like servus and oppidum), 
• And ex. 11 -- the third declension nouns (which may be masculine, feminine, or neuter).

Blog updates! New gadgets!

I've added a couple of doodads to this blog, a new template and some Latin widgets. Take a little time to look around and see what you think.

In the left sidebar, you'll find:

• The Roman Kalendar, which gives you the current date as Romans would have numbered it, along with the (pagan) holiday associated with that date in ancient times. (We'll be learning about the Roman calendar in Capitulum XIII.)
• Below that, a Latin motto that changes each day, along with its English translation. These mottoes will give you a little insight into conventional Roman attitudes.
• Then there is a Latin word of the day, with a little audio gadget that will pronounce it for you and the equivalent English expressions.
• Below this are links to web resources and Latin-related websites that you might like to explore.

In the right sidebar is mostly course-related stuff, including links to "follow" or "subscribe" to the blog -- if you become a follower or subscriber, you will receive notices by email whenever I post something new.

Let me know if you have any questions about anything on the blog, have trouble reading the new color scheme, etc.

Filiae Morris: For Tuesday, 16 November

The first thing to do is to go back carefully through lectiones I et II in Capitulum XII. As you read, pause occasionally to parse a single sentence -- i.e., make sure you know what each word is doing in the sentence, see where the phrases and clauses are, understand which case a given noun is (and why it needs to be that case). Get familiar with any new vocabulary that shows up in the reading, and try to recognize the different cases of third declension nouns when you see them. Take note of the marginalia (marginal notations) and make sure you understand what they are pointing out. You might want to read aloud at least part of the reading and, once you are comfortable with the contents, practice using natural vocal intonation.

Then you may wish to go through the discussion in the College Companion of any new grammatical and syntactical forms in the reading. You'll notice tables that show the case endings for the newly introduced fourth declension nouns, and for adjectives of comparison, which follow the third declension.

Once you are familiar with the new vocabulary and grammar, you are ready to try your hand at the Exercitia 1-4 for the lectio prima of Cap. XII (write these out to hand in, in lieu of a quiz). Here is an overview of what each exercitium requires:

1. The first exercise has you transforming a transitive statement of possession (e.g., Marcus unam sororem habet) into an equivalent statement using the newly-introduced dative of possession construction (Marco una soror est.). Note that what is possessed goes from being a direct object to being the nominative subject, while the one doing the possessing changes from nominative into dative case.
2. The second exercise simply has you giving the third declension nouns that indicate family relationships (pater, mater, frater, soror) the correct case endings, depending on their function in the sentence.
3. The third exercise is an opportunity to start using some of the new vocabulary. The words to select from are given in the margin, but keep in mind that you will need to to put them in the correct form, according to their use in the sentence.

Filiae Morris: For Tuesday, 9 November

Review lectio altera and then read lectio tertia of Capitulum XI. Look for more instances of indirect discourse (poor old Syra is still trying to keep up with what's being said!) and look for new verbs that describe the further horrors that the medicus will visit on poor Quintus.

Prepare for a quiz over the first and second declension nouns introduced in Cap. IX and X. You will need to be able to give both conjugated and infinitive forms, in the passive and active voices.

Filiae Morris: For Friday, 5 November

Salvete, puellae! Don't forget we will have a vocabulary quiz on Friday, covering the new nouns introduced in capitulo decimo. You should prepare exercitia VII & IX in capitulo X, and read lectionem primam in capitulo XI.

Some Latin Prayers

Click here to download a couple of Latin prayers that use a number of words and/or grammatical constructions with which you should already be familiar, from our reading in class. The parts that should be familiar are marked in boldface italics. How many do you recognize? Try learning the Latin versions of these familiar prayers and using them in your private devotions.

Alicia in Terra Mirabili

In case you need a little extra encouragement to persevere in your study of Latin, here's a site where, one day, you may read Alice in Wonderland in Latin.

Learn More About Ancient Rome

As we move ahead in Familia Romana, you will learn a lot about the culture of ancient Rome (as well as the Latin language) by reading the stories in the textbook about the members of the Iulius household. Some of you, however, are already getting a little impatient to learn more about the culture, so here are some reading suggestions that may interest you:

• Read histories by Roman writers, such as Livy's History of Rome (which I've referred to in class) or Sallust's history of the Conspiracy by Catilina to bring down the Roman republic.
• If you have trouble telling the difference between the ancient Romans and the Greeks, you might want to read some of Plutarch's Parallel Lives, biographies of Greek leaders and their nearest Roman counterparts, in which Plutarch compares two similar leaders and judges which of them was greater. There is also one edition that includes just the six biographies of Roman statesmen who put in motion the events that led to the collapse of the Roman Republic (later reconstituted by Caesar Augustus as the Roman Empire).
• Read modern novels that accurately reflect and bring to life Roman culture. On my reading blog, I am currently discussing three series of murder mysteries currently available, which not only tell great stories but also bring to life ancient Roman culture. I can particularly recommend the SPQR mystery novels by John Maddox Roberts for illuminating Roman life and historical events in the day of Cicero and Julius Caesar, and the (quite funny) Marcus Didius Falco mysteries by Lindsey Davis, for giving entertaing glimpse into popular culture in the days of the emperor Vespasian and his sons, Titus and Domitian. Both of these series are not only highly entertaining but also give a fairly accurate view of Roman life in the periods they describe. I can also recommend the historical novels of Robert Harris, including his Pompeii, which takes place the day Mt Vesuvius erupted in A.D. 79.
• If you are interested in the intersection of life in Rome and the early Christian church, there are some novels that illustrate this pretty well. For instance, Quo Vadis, the story of a Roman tribune who falls in love with a young Christian woman during the time of Nero. You'll learn a lot about the trials and heroism of Christians at a time when they were being violently persecuted and martyred. You might also like some of the biographical novels by Louis Wohl that deal with early Roman Christians, such as his The Restless Flame: A Novel About Saint Augustine or The Living Wood: Saint Helena and the Emperor Constantine

Put Audio Files on your MP3 player

Did you know that you can practice with the resources on your Familia Latina CD even when you don't have access to a computer? After you have installed the CD software on your computer, here is where you will find the audio files (assuming the drive to which you installed is drive C):

• C:/Program Files/LLPSI/Familia Romana/latmedia/

The audio files have names like cap1.MP3, etc., and can be played on any device that plays files in the MP3 format. So if you have an iPod or similar player, you can practice your listening and pronunciation skills all through the day, if you just load the audio files onto your MP3 player.

Homework for Week 6 (Class April 10-11)

Nota bene: There will be no Latin class meeting during the Sacred Triduum, so the next time we will meet will be on April 10/11).

Since it will be two weeks before our next class, you would be well advised to spend some time during Holy Week practicing everything we've been reading and discussing in class, to get it really well ingrained in your memory, before concentrating on the current lesson, Lectio Secunda in Capitulo Secundo (vv. 25-61 in Cap. II). Then, in the week after Easter Sunday, you should complete the following:

• Cap. II, lectio II (vv. 25-61)
• Exercitia 5-9 for Capitulum Secundum
• The relevant portions of the instructions for Chapter 2 in Latine Disco (this will be everything for Chapter 2 except the last two paragraphs).

Just a couple of reminders to help you keep up or catch up during the next two weeks:

• You will learn more easily -- and more permanently -- if you use the "slow drip" method: a little at a time, with plenty of mental repetition and practice. Therefore, it is better to study and practice for twenty minutes a day over six days than to cram in 2 or 3 hours of intense study the night before class.
• But don't simply do the same thing every day; vary your activity and build from passive familiarity (reading the lectio) to active use (making up a little dialogue or monologue about the contents of the reading). Active use will be more challenging, but if you can spontaneously produce a correct and complete answer to even a very simple Latin question (such as, "Cuius filia est Iulia?") you will know that you are mastering the material.
• Give as much time and attention (or even more!) to learning and using case endings (or other relevant grammatical constructions) as you do to learning new vocabulary. Since Latin creates meaning through inflection (word endings that vary according to how the word is being used) rather than through word order, accurately use of word-endings will be more and more important as we progress in our study.
• Have fun with your study. See if you can find ways of practicing Latin that will make your time with Latin interesting and pleasurable rather than letting it become tedious drudgery. If you come up with any fun study techniques , let the rest of us know! You might be able to inspire others to do likewise.

Homework for Week 5 (Classes March 27 & 28) -- Capitulum Secundum

First, those who missed class on March 20/21 and did not take the quiz need to be prepared to take it this week. It's crucial that, before we move too much ahead, we all see what problems from the first chapter may need to be dealt with. Each chapter will be building on the previous one(s), and we need to make sure that we are building on a foundation that is rock-solid, not shifting sand!

In class, we began reading Lectio Prima in Capitulo Secundo, "Familia Romana," in which we are introduced to the Roman family whose life we will be following through the rest of the book. As should be almost routine by now, you should:

• First, look at the illustration at the beginning of the chapter carefully, trying to understand what it is depicting. This is a visual introduction to the written narrative that follows.
• Read through the lectio (vv. 1-24) carefully, perhaps first silently but later aloud (to practice pronunciation), pausing at the end of each paragraph to take note of the new vocabulary and grammatical features that are being introduced.
• Pay attention to the marginal notations, which point out the significance of new grammatical instructions. Try to figure out what they are pointing out, and make a mental note. Re-read relevant sentences to see if the context in which new things occur helps you to understand what they mean.
• After you have digested the reading, move on to the Exercitia in the workbook for the lectio you have just finished (for this week, exercitia I-IV on p. 4). Practice these orally before writing them out. Remember that even in the exercitia, there are marginal notations are there to help you -- they indicate the possible answers for the blanks to be filled in, so that you don't completely have to guess what is being asked for. 
• Write out the exercitia after you have practiced them to the point of ease and familiarity -- write the entire sentence or, if answering a question, a complete sentence that provides a factually and grammatically correct answer. Bring your work to class.

Nota bene [Note well]: If you have time, you should also try discussing the subject material spontaneously in Latin, just summarizing or paraphrasing the information contained in the lectio. This week, you can quiz yourself on the identities of Iulius, his wife Aemilia, and their children, Marcus, Quintus, and Iulia. Be sure to use the proper word endings, especially the new endings that indicate relationship (casus genetivus or genitive case: Iulius pater MarcI, Iulia filia AemiliAE, etc.).

Homework for Week 4: Review Capitulum Primum (for class March 20/21)

In class, we have completed all III lectiones in capitulo primo, so this week you should review and practice. We'll have a written quiz in class this week. Here's a study plan you can use:

• First, complete any written exercitia that you have not yet done.
• Then, practice orally the pensa at the end of Capitulum Primum (as we did in class). Notice that these are similar to the written exercitia you have been doing, but are designed to be practiced aloud (which may be a little more difficult than writing them).
• While doing the pensa, try to avoid looking back at the lectiones for answers. All of the vocabula introduced in the chapter are listed in the margin beside Pensum B, so use that list to help you decide what should go in the blanks of Pensum B -- but remember to use the correct endings!
• When you get to Pensum C, answer in complete sentences that are both factually and grammatically correct.
• Finally, spend some time spontaneously generating discussion IN LATIN of the map of the Imperium Romanum at the beginning of Capitulum Primum. Imagine you are describing it to someone who can't see it: ("Britian is a large island in the Atlantic Ocean; Sicily is also a large island. Melita is not a large but a small island," et cetera.
• Or, even better, speak both sides of a dialogue in which one person is asking questions and the other is answering: "Where is Delphi? Delphi is in Greece. What is Delphi? Delphi is a small Greek city. Is Delphos in the Roman Empire?" etc.

After we practice a bit of this orally at the beginning of our next class, we will have a written quiz that will include the following:

• Dictation. I will say a Latin sentence, and you will write it down. This will test your recognition of correct Latin pronunciation, as well as spelling (including macrons over long vowels).
• Q & A. I will ask a question in Latin, and you will write a sentence that answers the question. This will test your understanding of spoken Latin and your ability to answer questions spontaneously in that language.
• Translation. I will give you two or three sentences in English, for you to render into Latin.

As you can see, if you practice (aloud!) using the plan I suggest above, you will be well prepared for the written quiz. Good luck!

Familia Romana CD user tips

If you are using the Lingua Latina CD, you may have noticed that the user interface is somewhat primitive and seems to lack features that have come to be standard in most Windows-based software. If you are having any problems finding your way around, you may be interested in the following tips:

• Understand the Latin labels. Like the textbook, the software interface is all in Latin, so you need to know (or figure out) what the Latin labels mean. "CAP. +" and "CAP. -" will take you to the beginning of the following (+) or previous (-) capitulum. "VOX" will play a recording of Hans Orberg reading aloud the current chapter. "FIX" will allow you to set up to V (5) bookmarks. "PENSA" will allow you to complete a written version of the pensa exercises at the end of each chapter -- with immediate feedback to let you know if your answer is correct. If you want to go back to the reading when you've finished the pensa, just click the "TEXT" button.
• Menus. At the top of the screen, you can use the "CAPITVLA" menu to go directly to the desired capitulum; the "TABVLAE" menu gives access to all the indices and appendices found in the back of the reader.
• Changing pages. While you can change pages by manually entering a page number in the little circle next to the word pagina, that can be cumbersome if you simply want to go to the next page. Instead, just LEFT click on the current page image, and you will see it change to the following page. To go to the previous page, RIGHT click on the page image.

Homework for Week 3: Capitulum I, Lectio III

Homework preparation for class on March 13/14: Finish the final lectio of Cap. Primum (Litterae et Numeri), and then practice, practice, practice what we've been learning! Do the written exercitia as usual (the ones marked for Lectio Tertia, sets 8-11). Take some time to look at the Grammatica Latina section at the end of the chapter, which summarizes all the new grammar and syntax introduced in the chapter, and the Pensa, which are practice exercises similar to those in the written Exercitia.

You'll notice that this week's lectio is short and introduces only a few new things -- but don't forget to read the relevant section in Latine Disco, to make sure you are noticing and understanding the new material. Since the lectio is relatively short and simple, we will be able to take some time in class to practice everything in Capitulum Primum before going on to the next chapter.