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Welcome to Latin 101. Why learn Latin? Latin you know. 1. Why learn Latin?. The Foreign Language requirement To understand “grammar” “To think more clearly and systematically”
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Welcome to Latin 101 Why learn Latin? Latin you know
1. Why learn Latin? • The Foreign Language requirement • To understand “grammar” • “To think more clearly and systematically” • To learn the history of the Romance languages that descended from Latin (Spanish, Italian, French, Romanian, etc.) • To trace a major historical influence on English language (though not directly “descended” from Latin)
1. Why learn Latin? (cont.) • To know “the lingua franca of western civilization” • To understand specialist vocabularies (medicine, botany, Catholicism, etc.) • “To know a dead language” … • To read: • Harrius Potter et Philosophi Lapis • Alicia in Terra Mirabili • Winnie illePu
1. Why learn Latin? (cont.) • To learn the language of a living ancient community (the Romans): • Inscriptions (graffiti from Pompeii, c. 59 CE) CAMPĀNĪ, VICTŌRIĀ ŪNĀ CUM NŪCERĪNĪS PERĪSTIS “Campanians, in victory you perished together with the Nucerians” Cf. HBO Rome opening credits:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BZmK3_IIZg
1. Why learn Latin? (cont.) • To learn the language of a living ancient community (the Romans): • Literature (from VergiliusVaticanus manuscript, c. 400 CE; Aeneas describes his voyage; Aeneid 3.681–89) praecipitismetusaceragitquocumquerudentisexcutere et uentisintendereuelasecundis. “Our terror drove us headlong—anywhere. We let the sails out for the wind to take.” —trans. Ruden
2. Latin you know What Latin do you know?
2. Latin you know (cont.) • Further examples:
2. Latin you know (cont.) • Further examples:
2. Latin you know (cont.)What do the examples let you say … • About the role played by Latin in modern American and anglophone discourse? • About the ways in which the grammatical rules of Latin may differ from English?
2. Latin you know (cont.)For next class-meeting : Read Intro to Latin pp. 1–3 on pronunciation: How much of Latin pronunciation did you already know, and how much could you have guessed?