Learning Latin

[SC7 Fan]

Hey all.

For some reason I want to learn Latin but I can't download anything because i'm not aloud, so I was wondering if anyone on here could help me out?
I already know a few phrases;
Labre lege= Read my lips
Nullo mudo= No way
Draco dormiens nunquam titilandus = Never tickle a sleeping dragon
Quid fit?= What happened?
Fors Fortis = Fat chance
Can anyone help me?

 

[Crazy Flakes]

I've taken a few years of latin at school, and let me tell you, it is NOT an easy language to learn. There are a lot of rules, declensions, etc., so if you want to learn latin, it's best to have a very good memory and be willing to put in a lot of time studying the different conjugations and words. If you're willing to spend a little bit of money, here's a link to a good starting book. If you want to know any words in particular, I found a great site:

Latin Dictionary and Grammar Aid

Also, here are a couple basic rules of pronunciation:

Almost all c's are hard c's (like in "cat.") If something says "placide," it isn't pronounced like "plaside;" it's pronounced like "plakide." There are a few exceptions to this, though.

The V's are pronounced like W's. This drove me INSANE on Buffy (even though Angel did say "the v's are pronounced like w's" to Doyle, which made me very happy...although everyone seemed to forget that rule after one episode.)

 

[NympHadorA]

Aww I think you found a really difficult language to learn, I hope you can learn it easily...

 

[Lindsey McDonald]

Latin is difficult to learn, but if you get a good dictionary and learn the basics it's quite easy to translate mottoes and the like. I learned at school, and I've PM'd you, as I think I have something that might be useful for you.

 

[Rebecca]

I learnt Latin in my first years of high school and most definitely agree that it's a very difficult language to learn! Back when I studied it, and this was over 10 years ago, each lesson consisted of being given a passage in English and then having to translate it into Latin or vice versa. We also had weekly vocabularly tests which were my worst nightmare! Not to put you off though, it really is something worth learning and a lot of fun. Especially since many words from many languages derive from Latin.

 

[Lindsey McDonald]

I learnt Latin in my first years of high school and most definitely agree that it's a very difficult language to learn! Back when I studied it, and this was over 10 years ago, each lesson consisted of being given a passage in English and then having to translate it into Latin or vice versa. We also had weekly vocabularly tests which were my worst nightmare! Not to put you off though, it really is something worth learning and a lot of fun. Especially since many words from many languages derive from Latin.

That's the problem with trying to teach Latin en masse. It just becomes one translation after another. I can imagine it actually being easier on your own, if you have the dedication.

 

[Tueuse de Vampires]

I also would love to learn Latin. I did for some time, only some weeks, at school. My friend and I were both kinda mad they didn't ofer Latin courses at the adult education centre, so we went to our headmistres and asked if it would be possible to found a Latin club with a real teacher and everything for those poor kids like us who chose French instead of Latin in 7th grade. Well, so we got our club, started learning Latn, but then the school year ended. This year this club was pretty popular but neither me, nor my friend could attend anymore, because as seniors we were just super busy.
Well, now I've given up on this because I already have loads of other languages to learn, and while I always say the more te better, I've got to give my poor brain a break from time to time.
Well during that time when I wanted to learn Latin I looked around the internet for some help a bit. And the best I could find was pure grammar, which is probably not the best way to learn. So the best way would probably be to invest some money and get yourself some self-study book.

 

[Washburne]

Hmm, I think I´ll stick to a few phrases myself. Here you can learn a few important ones Latin Sayings

If you for example is a fan of the first years of Simpsons this can come in handy "Vescere bracis meis!" 😉

And if there´s anyone who doesn´t know the meaning of Carpe diem, they should watch "Dead poets society" right this moment.

 

[Aethra]

I took as many Latin classes as I could, I absolutely loved it. It didn't hurt that I had a wonderful, crazy teacher, but I didn't find it an extremely hard language. The only additional phrase I can think of is one we should all know, which is "tabula rasa," and means "clean slate." And Dead Poets Soceity, though a great film, is misleading. "Carpe diem" literally means "pluck the day."

I actually had to proofread my friend's Latin final for him this morning. He was very stressed, as he would like the pass the class, but his was easy. My Advanced Latin Poetry final was probably the hardest assignment I'd had to date. We had to compose three perfect lines of dactyllic hexameter. We all missed at least one ellision.

Oh, one more phrase. It's not mainstream, but the Latin club motto is "meliores te sumus," meaning "we are better than you." 😀

Good luck in your efforts! It's a fun language.

 

[bufsum]

Not to get off topic... but, I wonder if Joss knows Latin... I'm sure the staff studied it some (when they weren't making up their own languages, or using French). I just wonder how much lingustics study went into the verse.

 

[Crazy Flakes]

Not to get off topic... but, I wonder if Joss knows Latin... I'm sure the staff studied it some (when they weren't making up their own languages, or using French). I just wonder how much lingustics study went into the verse.

Yeah, they might have studied it a little, but I know that a good bit of their Latin was really inaccurate. I've only taken it for a few years, but I could tell that their declensions were way off (i.e. they didn't put things in the ablative after prepositions, they put direct objects in the nominative case instead of the accusative, etc.) They probably just used English to Latin dictionaries, online sources, and stuff like that, but there's also a good chance that they had Latin-speaking sources...it was a big TV show, after all.

 

[czarina]

Hmmm, does anyone find it interesting that everybody in Drogyn either has had Latin or wants to learn it. Coincidence? 😀

I've had a load of Latin too. Its not really that bad if you buckle down and have good memorization skills (lots of endings). Plus it helps you improve in your English grammar and it makes learning other languages easier.
I started taking it in highschool from the crazy, eccentric AP English teacher. I'm so glad I took it now. Its been quite useful, especially since one of my majors is Literary Studies, with all of the lit and poetry analysis. Many of those stylistic devices used in lit and poetry have classical roots and it helps that i've had Latin. Plus I always had to do style analysis stuff with Latin passages too.

 

[InsaneMystic]

Yeah, they might have studied it a little, but I know that a good bit of their Latin was really inaccurate. I've only taken it for a few years, but I could tell that their declensions were way off (i.e. they didn't put things in the ablative after prepositions, they put direct objects in the nominative case instead of the accusative, etc.) They probably just used English to Latin dictionaries, online sources, and stuff like that, but there's also a good chance that they had Latin-speaking sources...it was a big TV show, after all.

It's not only their Latin that's off. The on-screen page from the monk's (?) diary in "Gingerbread" makes for involuntarily-hilarious reading if you're a native speaker of German. "Off" doesn't begin to describe it. :wink:

I've had eight years of Latin at school, and I love the language, even though I can nowadays not hold my own anymore constructing Latin sentences without using dictionary & grammar book (which I've done a lot, as I'm a bit obsessed with using Latin phrases in the pictures I draw). Actually, I don't think Latin is that difficult, you guys are just spoiled by the comparatively simple grammar of English. :silly: Coming from native German, the highly regular nature of Latin declensions wasn't too difficult for me; I had more of a problem with French (which I only had for two years, anyway).

 

[Lindsey McDonald]

It's not only their Latin that's off. The on-screen page from the monk's (?) diary in "Gingerbread" makes for involuntarily-hilarious reading if you're a native speaker of German. "Off" doesn't begin to describe it. :wink:

I've had eight years of Latin at school, and I love the language, even though I can nowadays not hold my own anymore constructing Latin sentences without using dictionary & grammar book (which I've done a lot, as I'm a bit obsessed with using Latin phrases in the pictures I draw). Actually, I don't think Latin is that difficult, you guys are just spoiled by the comparatively simple grammar of English. :silly: Coming from native German, the highly regular nature of Latin declensions wasn't too difficult for me; I had more of a problem with French (which I only had for two years, anyway).

Yeah, it doesn't help much that English is a ridiculous language! It also was hard for me because we were never taught English grammar at school beyond the capital letters and full stop stage. That was something we had to pick up for ourselves, which left us confused when it came to all the cases and tenses.

 

[randiann]

Man, now I wanna learn German and Latin so I can join in on the fun. The only latin I know are terms associated with medical vocab, which I took in high school. Also took French in high school, and am learning Choctaw now (hence my sig). I love languages though, would love if I could at least learn some phrases...

Also they taught you NO grammer for English?!? That seems kinda sucky of them.

 

[Lindsey McDonald]

Man, now I wanna learn German and Latin so I can join in on the fun. The only latin I know are terms associated with medical vocab, which I took in high school. Also took French in high school, and am learning Choctaw now (hence my sig). I love languages though, would love if I could at least learn some phrases...

Also they taught you NO grammer for English?!? That seems kinda sucky of them.

It really was. There were people in my class that still believed you used commas to denote where to breathe at Higher English. That's when you are 16/17. We only learned through reading, and eventually basic stuff for the Higher English exam. That only extended to punctuation and sentence structure though. It's not even as if we had sucky (love that word!) teachers either. It just wasn't a part of the curriculum.

 

[Aethra]

We don't do much grammar at my schoolo either. It really depends on the teacher you get, because some love grammar and others hate it. I learned most of my English grammar from learning Latin. The semester after I had to read Caesar's Gallic Wars, I was the only one in my Honors English 11 class who knew what ellipsis was. Caesar was so freaking difficult... he left out half of what he was saying. Needless to say, my teacher was impressed.

 

[SC7 Fan]

Thanks for all the help guys, I really appreciate it.

 

[randiann]

Man, that is so crazy. My school spent alot of time on grammer it seems like. Besides middle school, we had English language in high school (which was alot of the vocab-y stuff as well as grammer) and then English literature. Plus my teachers were all really picky about grammer. But each school is different I guess. It's like my Mom, when she was in high school (in the 70's...I love this story of hers) she went to a little podunk country school and in math they had ONE CHAPTER on algebra and when they got to it, her teacher said "oh you won't ever need that" and completely skipped it. Whereas I had like 3 years of algebra in school. Anywhoo, I digress.

 

[Lindsey McDonald]

Man, that is so crazy. My school spent alot of time on grammer it seems like. Besides middle school, we had English language in high school (which was alot of the vocab-y stuff as well as grammer) and then English literature. Plus my teachers were all really picky about grammer. But each school is different I guess. It's like my Mom, when she was in high school (in the 70's...I love this story of hers) she went to a little podunk country school and in math they had ONE CHAPTER on algebra and when they got to it, her teacher said "oh you won't ever need that" and completely skipped it. Whereas I had like 3 years of algebra in school. Anywhoo, I digress.

I think you've highlighted the problem we had there: we only ever seemed to get English Lit. It was only when it was absolutely required in the exams that we got any English Language. But yes, we are digressing!

So, Shadowcay, how are you getting on? Just remember; amo, amas, amat!

That just reminded me of a tip my latin teacher gave me that I have never forgotten due to it's complete randomness. Imperfect sheep go ba. I'm sure at least a few people in this topic will get it! Then there was that one for remembering how the Dactyl-Spondee ending of a line in Virgil goes: Cheese for my Weasel.


It's scarier in cold hard text. Honest. It didn't seem nearly as disturbing at the time.