4 Ways to Learn to Speak Latin

2024 Author: Samantha Chapman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 09:13

Latin is sometimes known as a "dead language", but it can still be learned and spoken today. Not only will you be able to improve your linguistic repertoire, but you will also be able to read the original classics, learn Romance languages more easily and expand your English vocabulary. If you want to start with this language that is truly the mother of many others, here's how you can do it.

Steps

Method 1 of 4: The Basics

Step 1. Familiarize yourself with the alphabet

If you already speak English or any language that uses the Latinized writing of words, you may find it unnecessary to study the alphabet. But the language is constantly evolving, and although most things have remained the same, there are some differences.

• J, V and W do not exist. Well, not really, at least. There were 23 letters in the classical Latin alphabet.
• R has a "rolled" sound, similar to the vibrating consonant in Spanish.
• Y is known as "i Graeca" and Z is "zeta".

• I can sometimes be pronounced with the English sound of Y and Y is pronounced as "u" in French.

  If you know the IPA (International Phonetic Association), the letter I is sometimes pronounced as / j / and the Y is read as / y /. Can you understand the reasoning behind it?

• U is sometimes similar to a W and it is precisely the origin of the letter. It is sometimes written as "v".

Step 2. Learn the pronunciation

Although the Latin pronunciation does not offer reasons to stumble as it does with English, since, generally, each letter corresponds to a sound, there are a couple of details to keep in mind: length and combinations.

• A superscript (´) or acute accent (like the French one) is used to indicate long vowels. The "a" gets its sound as in "father", instead of the sound in "hat". "E" alone is "bed", but with the accent it is more like the sound in "café".

  Unfortunately, modern Latin spelling has made everything very confusing, using the macron symbol (¯) to also indicate the length of vowels, when it is normally used to denote long syllables. Now it seems that noting the syllabic and vowel length is open to everyone and most dictionaries do not do this sufficiently. And, to make matters worse, Spanish uses the same symbol to denote stressed syllables. But, if you are in Italy and squint a bit, you should notice the apexes on the Roman inscriptions (at least from the classical and subsequent periods) in all their legitimate glory

• Different vowel / consonant combinations can change the sound of the letters. "Ae" becomes the sound in "kite" (o / ai /); "ch" sounds like "k"; "ei" makes the sound of "day" (/ ei /); "eu" sounds like "ee-ooo"; "oe" is the same sound as "toy".

  If you are familiar with IPA, this all becomes much easier - there are so many similarities. It goes without saying that the international phonetic alphabet is derived from Latin

Step 3. Find out where the accent goes

English has numerous Latin roots and therefore shares some of the same accent patterns. However, it would be ridiculous to say that everything applies to today's French. For Latin, keep these rules in mind:

• For one-syllable words, the accent is not a problem.
• For two-syllable words, accentuate the first: ("pos" -co: I demand).
• With three syllables, the accent goes on the penultimate if it is "heavy" or long (mind "a" tur: they lie).

• For polysyllabic words that have a light or short penultimate syllable, the accent goes to the third to last syllable (im "for" a tor: commander).

  All these rules are similar to those of today's English. In fact, for a long time English considered the rules of Latin as the "right" way to speak and changed the Germanic roots to fit this ideal. It's the same reason your English teacher tells you not to use the infinitive split rule. Do you know her? The reasoning is Latin and is now archaic

Step 4. Know what awaits you

If you don't already have an inkling, Latin is a very complicated language. You are about to embark on a long uphill battle. Here's an example: Verbs need to consider a couple of things, right? Perhaps plurality, gender and, at worst, chance? No more. But it is possible to manage it, right? Latin verbs must consider the following things:

• Three people - first, second and third;
• Two aspects - perfective (finite) and imperfective (unfinished);
• Two numbers - singular and plural;
• Three finite modes - indicative, subjunctive and imperative;
• Six times - present, imperfect, future, perfect, plumperfect and anterior future;
• Two voices - active and passive;

• Four unfinished forms - infinitive, participle, gerund and supine;

  Did we mention that there are 7 cases? And the 3 genres?

Method 2 of 4: Nouns, Verbs & Roots, …

Step 1. Use your current knowledge

Okay, you may feel the weight of all this effort you have planned so far: after all, this is a language that definitely needs to be understood in depth. But if you are a native speaker of fiction and also English, you are quite well established, at least at the lexical level.

• All Romance languages derive from Vulgar Latin, which here means "common", not gross or objectionable. But English, even if it is of Germanic origin, has a vocabulary that, for 58%, is influenced by Latin. This also applies to French, which is a Romance language and is heavily influenced by Latin.

  • English is full of Germanic / Latin "doublets". It basically means that it has two words for everything; in general, the Germanic one is considered to be the most common and you can also feel the difference. Between "begin" and "commence", which do you think is Germanic and which is a Latinization of the term? How about "ask" and "inquire"? "Aware" and "cognizant"? You will find a lot of Latin words among the English purist alternatives.
  • The roots of English words that come from Latin are practically innumerable. When you see the Latin word, your mind will fill with words that suddenly make sense. "Brev -" is the Latin word for "brief" or "short". So now the words "brevity", "brief" and "abbreviation" make sense, don't they? Fantastic! This will make the vocabulary a much larger slice of a pie and also broaden your English vocabulary.

  

  Step 2. Learn how verbs work

  Latin is a fusive language which, by definition, makes it highly modular. If you have any experience with European languages, this won't surprise you. Although Latin, with its complexities, embarrasses Spanish, French and German, which are simpler.

  • The inflection of the verb in Latin can be defined on four conjugation models. However, it should be noted that the categorization is based only on the behavior of the verb in the present tense; how it behaves in other times cannot be deduced through its grouping. Unfortunately, you need to know several forms of the verb to understand how it behaves and forms in all possible contexts. While most verbs belong to one of the four models, some, such as the verb "to be", do not. It is always the most common verbs that do not follow conjugations: I am, you were? Je suis, tu es? Yo soy, tu eres? The same is true for all languages.

    If you get a little confused, just know that there are four families of verbs and that most verbs fall into one of them, following the pattern of that particular group

  • All tenses use differentiated endings for each person. In the active voice, they are all the same, except the perfect indicative, which is more annoying. Here is the pattern that is followed by the five verb tenses:

    • Present, etc:

      "first person" - ō, - m, - mus, - or, - r, - mur

      "second person" - s, - tis, - ris, –minī

      "third person" - t, - nt, - tur, - ntur

    • Perfect:

      "first person" - ī, - imus

      "second person" - istī, - istis

      "third person" - it - ērunt / - ēre

    

    Step 3. Study your declensions, a fictional term that applies to the conjugation of nouns, pronouns and adjectives

    In Latin there are five declensions. Just like with verb conjugation, each noun fits into a category and its suffixes fit the patterns of that specific noun family.

    • The declension becomes a bit difficult, because nouns, adjectives and pronouns go not only in the singular or plural, but also in the masculine, feminine or neuter. Each noun can be declined in seven different cases, all with different suffixes. "Aqua - ae" is feminine, can be singular or plural and therefore has 14 different possible endings.

      In case you are curious, "aqua" is a noun of the first declension, which generally ends in "- a"

    • Latin has borrowed some Greek words which are quite common and are often declined according to rules of their own. However, some have been regularized.
    • On the positive side, the pronouns of the first and second declension can only be masculine or feminine. Well, right? Negatively, the genders of adjectives are determined by the noun they describe, so they have endings for "all" cases and "all" genders. But there are only three declensions of adjectives, thanks to our lucky stars.

    

    Step 4. Pin cases accurately

    There are seven cases (the main ones are five) and, if you are not tired yet, know that the ending itself is often used for more than one case. You like a good challenge, right? As you study, you will find that they are often shortened to the first three letters.

    • Do you know that in the English plural "book" means "books", but "child" means "child - ren"? What does it mean? The Englishman also had cases, but over time he got rid of them. In case you were a little approximate about your terminology, the cases are distinguished by the endings of the word (noun, pronoun and adjective) that mark its grammatical function. Here is the list:
    • "Nominative": identifies the subject of a sentence. It is used to indicate the person or object that performs the action in the sentence.
    • "Accusative": distinguishes the object of the verb. It has other functions, but essentially it is the object complement. It is also used with some prepositions.
    • "Genitive": expresses possession, measure or provenance. In English, its equivalent would be "of". In Old English, nouns in the genitive had to be marked with "- es". Guess how they evolved …
    • "Dative": marks the indirect object or recipient of an action. In English, "to" and "for" distinguish this case, at least in some contexts and not all, because they are very common words.
    • "Ablative": This case indicates separation, indirect reference, or the means by which an action is performed. In English, the most similar indicators to this would be the prepositions "by", "with", "from", "in" and "on".
    • "Vocative": used in direct speech to refer to someone or something. In the phrase "Gianna, are you coming? Gianna!", The name Gianna is vocative.
    • "Locative": obviously it is used to express where an action takes place. In ancient Latin it was used frequently, but in classical Latin they ended up believing that it was superfluous information and it eventually became extinct. It only applied to the names of cities, small islands - which have the same name as their capital - and a few other specific, probably unimportant words.

    

    Step 5. Forget about the order of words

    Since English has no declension and adequate conjugation, the order of the words is absolutely imperative and necessary. But in Latin, for example, the phrase "the boy loves the girl" can be written indifferently "puer amat puellam" or "puellam amat puer": the meaning is the same because it is all in the endings of the words.

    • Although the second example seems to say "the girl loves the boy", it doesn't. "Girl loves boy" would be "Puella amat puerum." Do you see how the endings change places? This is the beauty of case declination!

      In fact, in Latin, the verb generally moves towards the end of the sentence. It does not follow the order S - V - O (subject - verb - object) as in English, although it may be tempting to say that the sequence does not matter. "Puer puellam amat" is the only authentic reproduction of a Latin phrase

    Method 3 of 4: Self-taught learning

    

    Step 1. Use language immersion software

    Rosetta Stone and Transparent are two software brands that allow you to learn Latin. The Trasparent website also offers free some Latin terms and phrases whose pronunciation can be heard.

    This is by far the easiest way to get started. You can do it at your own time and at your own pace. It's better to study a little bit every day (and you can do it at home!) Than to jot down, really gobble up everything: software products couldn't make this study easier than that

    

    Step 2. Read books in Latin

    Search your public and school library or bookstore for publications that can help you learn the language. Among the possible resources, look for a Latin dictionary or Latin grammar books.

    As an additional resource, let yourself be tempted by the Internet. There are hundreds of videos and sites that can help you get started. Although technically no one speaks Latin, there are still a lot of people around the world trying to keep this language "alive"

    

    Step 3. Read Latin literature aloud

    Classical figures such as Cicero and Virgil wrote in Latin. During the Middle Ages, it was also widely used in educational, legal and religious spheres. How chic would it be to read the classics in their original language ?!

    When you do, don't be tempted to use a dictionary for every word. You risk becoming a crutch you can rely on too often and slow you down. Try to make general sense and only consult the dictionary if you are truly perplexed

    Method 4 of 4: Learning with Others

    

    Step 1. Learn Latin in school

    If the Latin language course was offered at your high school or college, it would be truly fantastic. In this case you would be fine. The classical humanities or the history department are great places to ask to take Latin lessons.

    In addition to attending Latin classes directly, you may want to dedicate yourself to courses in English vocabulary and etymology, classical literature and history of the European language

    

    Step 2. Take lessons from a tutor

    Try posting a print advertisement at your local cultural institute and libraries, looking for an advanced student of Latin or a language teacher who is willing to teach you how to speak and learn it.

    Try to convince someone with some teaching experience. Just because someone can speak a language doesn't mean they can also teach it. If you are a student, ask your teachers if they know of anyone who might be able to help you

    

    Step 3. Attend a Latin language event

    The Rusticatio, held by the Sept Nord Americanum Latinitatis Vivae Institutum (SALVI), is an annual one-week immersion event where participants can converse in Latin. The full name for SALVI translates to Institute of Modern Latinity for North America.

    There are events in California, Oklahoma, West Virginia (USA) in 2013. They also offer an intensive study trip to Rome

    

    Step 4. Join a group dedicated to studying Latin or the classics

    This could be an informal club at your high school, an honorary association at the university or a national or international organization. You may meet others in your group who want to learn and practice Latin with you.

    Working together with others will help you cement the knowledge of the language in your mind. You will also have the opportunity to ask questions and use the knowledge of others to improve yours

    Advice

    • Read related articles on wikiHow to get started learning basic Latin. There are several.
    • Latin students can improve their scores on standardized tests for admission to high school or university, such as the SAT or GRE test in the United States, which often require knowledge of English vocabulary and the ability to understand and write.
    • Latin, at least in part, serves as the basis for the technical English vocabularies of today's legal, medical and scientific professions.
    • Since many English words were derived from Latin, learning this ancient language can also improve your understanding of English vocabulary and help you use words correctly and accurately.
    • Learning the Latin language can help you understand modern Romance languages faster, because they are based on Latin. They include: Romanian, Portuguese, Spanish, French and Italian.
    • It would be a wise idea to learn IPA. This is a system that can be used to study any language and offers all the sounds of universal transcription.