Aliquid Amatum.
I harbor a keen interest in K-pop, J-pop, and Western music, with favorites including Enhypen, TxT, BTS, Wanna One, Day 6, Winner, Paul Kim, Crush, Punch, Shaun, BOL4, Jannabi, IU, Aespa, Newjeans, Ive, Illit, G-Idle, Stayc, G-Friends, Weekly, Everglow, Jannabi, Taylor Swift, Extreme, Maroon 5, Jason Mraz, Drake, Niki, The Weeknd, Metro Boomin, Travis Scott, Lil Wayne, Christoph Andersson, Ne-Yo, Cochise, The Weeknd, Chase Atlantic, Ariana Grande, NIKI, John Legend, Coldplay, OneRepublic, SHAUN, CRUSH, The Beatles, Justin Bieber, Radiohead, Max, Keshi, Ali Gatie, James Arthur, Alani, J. Tajor, Krei, T-Pain, Ludacris, Chris Brown, Sezairi, Justin Bieber, Player Two, William Singe, Lil Wil, Kendrick Lamar, Trey Songz, Jaylon Ashaun, Jack Harlow, 21 Savage, Connor Price, Chase Atlantic, Bruno Mars, One Direction, Jeremih, Diego Gonzales, Paul Partohap, Jamie Miller, Lewis Capaldi, Ed Sheeran, Shawn Mendes, John Legend, Lonestar, Coldplay, OneRepublic, Kenshi Yonezu, Yoasobi, Fujii Kaze, Gen Hoshino, Ai Otsuka, Goose House, Payung Teduh, Sheila on 7, Dewa 19, Juicy Luicy, Classical Music (Beethoven, Mozart, Bach, Vivaldi, Handel, Tchaikovsky, Saint-Saens, Rachmaninov, Brahms, Schubert, Liszt, Faure, Schumann, Dvorak) and many more.
I enjoy watching various types of movies, especially in the genres of thriller, science fiction, fantasy, adventure, action, drama, romance, comedy, and more. I also like watching YouTube channels like Windah Basudara, Nessie Judge, and many other YouTube content creators.
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Photo taken from [Baalbek Roman Temple]
Latin was originally spoken by an eponymous group of ancient Italians. One of these Latin cities, the Romans, spread the language by conquering all of Italy, later the Mediterranean, then much of Europe and the Middle East. Although rarely spoken now, it is the mother of all Romance languages and contributes to about a third of English vocabulary. Its influence has since spread across the world through European imperialism; there are few places left that are completely unaffected by the Romans’ language and culture.
This particular post serves as both a beginner’s guide and a taster to what Latin is, with some common vocabulary along the way. Especially since many people are currently stuck at home due to Covid-19, and may like to stay occupied by learning a new language. Hope you enjoy!
N.B. Anything beginning with an asterisk (*) means that you may hear differently elsewhere, for example on Duolingo.
General
Latin is fundamentally a very difficult language, even for academics, and even if your native tongue is Romance. But I am not saying not to try, I am saying it is normal to struggle!
All ‘U’s were then written as ‘V’s, and all ‘J’s as ‘I’s. Modern Latin-learning tends to replace some ‘V’s with ‘U’s in order to facilitate reading. We have lost the exact pronunciations of classical Latin, not to mention differences between dialects, but the following explanations are some of the strongest estimates.
*‘V’ should be normally pronounced as /ʍ/, when between consonants as /u/.
*A standalone ‘I’ before another vowel becomes /j/ or /dʒ/.
Iuppiter servum in exilium pepulit.
[ Ivppiter servvm in exilivm pepvlit. ]
[ Yoo-pi-ter ser-woom in e-xi-li-oom pe-poo-lit. ]
Jupiter drove the slave into exile.
Iuppiter, Iovis (3, m.) - Jupiter, king of the gods servus, servi (2, m.) - slave in + acc. - into, to exilium, exilii (2, n.) - exile pello, pellere, pepuli, pulsum (3) - drive out, push, repel
Latin generally follows a SOV (subject, object, verb) sentence structure:
rex regnum amat.
The king loves his kingdom.
rex, regis (3, m.) - king regnum, regni (2, n.) - kingdom; power amo, amare, amavi, amatum (1) - love, like
There are no definite or indefinite articles (a/the) - normally, you must add them to your translation yourself depending on the context. There are relative pronouns (e.g. qui/quae/quod - who, which), demonstrative pronouns (e.g. hic/haec/hoc - this; he/she/it) and many other pronouns/determiners, but they are not required for every sentence.
*Unlike English, you do not capitalise the sentence’s first letter UNLESS that first letter is part of a name.
Most meanings are conveyed via changes in word endings (i.e. it relies on conjugating and declining) rather than word order. This makes Latin an inflected language.
Nouns
While English uses word order to show how nouns and adjectives relate to a situation, Latin uses endings and cases from different declensions to do the same. Latin uses 7 cases, but 2 of them (vocative and locative) are rarer.
nominative (nom.) - subject
vocative (voc.) - addressee: often follows ‘o’
accusative (acc.) - object
genitive (gen.) - possessor (of/‘s)
dative (dat.) - recipient (to/for)
ablative (abl.) - movement away (from) / instrumental (by/with) / location (at/in)
locative (loc.) - location (at/in)
Here’s an example with all 7 in action:
pater, o Attice, donum Iovis matri cum comite Romae dedit.
Atticus, my father gave Jupiter’s gift to my mother with his comrade in Rome.
pater, patris (3, m.) - father donum, doni (2, n.) - gift, present mater, matris (3, f.) - mother cum + abl. (only used for people) - with comes, comitis (3, m/f.) - companion, comrade, partner Roma, Romae (1, f.) - Rome do, dare, dedi, datum (1) - give; surrender, hand over
Noun endings change in case, gender and number. There are three genders: masculine (m.), feminine (f.), and neuter (n.). The two grammatical numbers are singular (sg.) and plural (pl.). A noun will abide by the endings of one of five possible declensions.
In dictionaries, like above, you will see a noun given as ‘nominative, genitive (declension, gender) - English meaning’. The genitive is always featured because it is the only case whose ending is specific to its own declension (other endings may be seen across declensions but have different cases each time). Therefore, if you know what a noun’s genitive is, you know what declension it is, and vice versa.
Adjectives
An adjective agrees with its related noun in case, gender and number. However, they do not always have the same endings; all adjectives decline as either 2nd m. / 1st / 2nd n. (also seen as 2-1-2) or 3rd.
Here, every adjective agrees with the adjacent noun in case, gender and number, but none has the same ending:
omnis puella, mulier pulchra, homo sapiens, puer stultus
every girl, the beautiful woman, the wise man, a foolish boy
omnis, omne (3) - every, all; whole puella, puellae (1, f.) - girl mulier, mulieris (3, f.) - woman pulcher, pulchra, pulchrum (2-1-2) - beautiful, handsome homo, hominis (3, m.) - man; human being sapiens, sapientis (3) - wise, knowing puer, pueri (2, m.) - boy stultus, stulta, stultum (2-1-2) - stupid, foolish
N.B. With exceptions, most Latin adjectives follow the noun.
However, that is not to say that nouns and adjectives can never have the same endings. They often do: Roman writers used this frequently as a literary device known as homoioteleuton.
equus magnus, feminae parvae, homines sapientes, dona laeta
a big horse, little women, wise men, the happy gifts
equus, equi (2, m.) - horse magnus, magna, magnum (2-1-2) - big, great, large femina, feminae (1, f.) - woman parvus, parva, parvum (2-1-2) - little, small laetus, laeta, laetum (2-1-2) - happy, cheerful, blessed
Sometimes you see an adjective without a noun. When this happens, translate the adjective as an adjective AND a noun:
fortis horrenda diu passus est.
The brave man suffered horrible things for a long time.
fortis, forte (3) - brave, strong, bold horrendus, horrenda, horrendum (2-1-2) - horrible, terrible, horrendous diu (adv.) - for a long time patior, pati, passus sum (3, deponent) - suffer, endure; allow, permit
N.B. horrenda is in the accusative neuter plural, hence ‘things’.
Verbs
The doers of verbs are shown by verb endings, unlike English which requires personal pronouns. Nominative personal pronouns can support a verb in Latin, but they are not required. They are best used to show contrast, unity or general emphasis - as if someone were pointing a finger at you - and this is why they are not seen often. Both sentences below are grammatically correct, but the second flows better:
ego dormire amo, tu dormire amas, nos amici apti sumus.
dormire amo, dormire amas, amici apti sumus.
I like to sleep, you like to sleep, we are suitable friends.
dormio, dormire, dormivi, dormitum (4) - sleep ego, me, mei (pers. pron.) - I, me, my tu, te, tui (pers. pron.) - you, you, your nos, nos, nostri (pers. pron.) - we, we, our amicus, amici; amica, amicae (2/1, m./f.) - friend aptus, apta, aptum (2-1-2) - suitable, apt, appropriate sum, esse, fui, futurum (irreg.) - be; be alive, exist, live
Latin uses the following tenses: present, future, future perfect, perfect, imperfect and pluperfect - and each comes with its own set of endings. There are also participles, supines, infinitives, imperatives, gerunds, gerundives, actives, passives, deponents and other structures to show contemporary, previous, subordinate or hypothetical events - these also come with their own stems and endings, but they often work like adjectives and so are not entirely unrecognisable.
Dictionaries present verbs as ‘present active, present active infinitive, perfect active, supine (conjugation)’. There are 4 conjugations, which are different sets of verb endings.
All Latin verbs come as either 1. active (I kill), 2. passive (I am killed) or 3. deponent (passive in form, active in meaning). Each comes with its own set of endings.
1. hic homo me interficit!
This man is killing me!
2. hic homo interficitur!
This man is being killed!
3. hic homo me interficere conatur!
This man is trying to kill me!
hic, haec, hoc (pron.) - this; he/she/it interficio, interficere, interfeci, interfectum (3) - kill, destroy conor, conari, conatus sum (1, deponent) - try, attempt
N.B. While most verbs can be active or passive interchangeably, deponents never switch. They are never seen with active endings or passive meanings.
The indicative (1) and subjunctive (2) moods distinguish expectations from reality. The indicative presents facts, while the subjunctive anything hypothetical from questions to wishes to fears. Each mood comes with its own set of endings.
1. vir dives me cupit.
The rich man wants me.
2. vir dives me cupiat.
May the rich man want me.
vir, viri (2, m.) - man; husband dives, divitis (gen.) (3) - rich, wealthy; wealthy man cupio, cupere, cupivi, cupitum (3) - desire, want, long for
Learning ancient versus modern languages
I’ve seen language-learners new to Latin comment on the difference in tone and content, sometimes even being discouraged by it.
Learning an ancient language which is no longer spoken today, i.e. ‘dead’, is very different from learning a modern foreign language. Some basic techniques don’t change, such as how to memorise vocab. However, the overall approaches are different because the overall goals are different - unless the goal is simple pure enjoyment, which is in fairness the best reason to learn!
Modern language studies are to encourage international communication and many other reasons.
Ancient language studies are almost entirely to study the ancient world, how it led to the modern world, and this is mostly done through analysing ancient sources in their original languages.
When studying Latin, you therefore are more likely to learn heavy vocabulary such as ‘die’ or ‘sacrifice’ before you learn ‘take a bath’ - some of the examples I use in this post aren’t cheerful. Classicists learn how to translate heavier content first because it is more commonly mentioned in the ancient sources which the entire subject relies upon - death comes up much more frequently in Caesar’s Gallic Wars than greetings.
Recommended resources
- Duolingo Latin course - if you want to learn Latin as you would a modern language.
- Memrise Latin courses - almost infinite number of vocabulary and idiom lists.
- Massolit Classics ($) - online lectures covering Greek and Roman history, culture and literature.
- Amazon page for John Taylor ($) - esteemed author of Latin textbooks from beginner level up.
- William Whitaker’s Words - reliable vocabulary translator in both directions.
- Perseus Digital Library - public archive of ancient texts in their original languages and many different English translations.
- Logeion - online dictionary for Latin and Classical Greek.
Final Word
Absolutely do not fret if anything confuses you; like all things worth doing, understanding and applying it will take time. I am making more in-depth posts on various aspects of Latin grammar and vocab, with exercises, in the very near future, so hold on tight. Thank you for reading!
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