Intensive Basic Latin

A Grammar and Workbook

Jean-François Mondon

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• eBook ISBN: 9781317579403
• Topic: Lingue e linguistica
• Subtopic: Lingue

Intensive Basic Latin: A Grammar and Workbook comprises a dynamic reference grammar and related exercises in a single volume. The book presents forty individual grammar points, covering the core material which students would expect to encounter in their first year of learning Latin. Grammar points are followed by contextualised examples and exercises which allow students to reinforce and consolidate their learning.

There is a particular emphasis throughout on familiarising students with real, unadulterated Latin and the task of teasing information from the Latin via translations. To this end, there are matching exercises with unedited Latin excerpts and rough English translations in the chapters, encouraging students to take a hands-on approach in their learning. In addition to this, a short reading relating to the adventures of Hercules is presented at the end of almost every chapter; these readings, which become progressively more complex, give the course a strong sense of narrative cohesion and interest and provide students with opportunities to develop their comprehension and translation skills.

Key features include:

• Clear, accessible format and jargon-free explanations of grammar
• Many useful language examples
• Abundant and varied exercises with full answer key
• Controlled usage of vocabulary throughout, allowing students to concentrate on building up their grammatical knowledge
• Review chapters at intervals throughout the text, providing exercises specially designed to consolidate knowledge of language points covered
• Useful English-Latin and Latin-English glossaries at the back of the book

Written by an experienced instructor, Intensive Basic Latin: A Grammar and Workbook is an ideal resource for beginning students of Latin. It can be used as a textbook, grammar reference and practice resource and is suitable both for class use and independent study.

Unit 1
Pronunciation and stress

I. Pronunciation

Background

Knowing how a word is pronounced in Latin is much easier than in English since the spelling system is so regular. One letter equals one sound. Nothing like English read exists in Latin, where the same word can be pronounced two different ways each with different meanings: You read it now. vs. You read it yesterday.

There are two ways to pronounce Latin:

• classical pronunciation
  • The way the language actually sounded in the first century BCE
• Church pronunciation
  • This is very similar to Italian, differing from classical pronunciation in a few key spots. It reflects the pronunciation of Latin after the Roman Empire (c. 500 CE) and is the standard used today by the Vatican.

In what follows classical pronunciation is presented alongside a transcription into the international phonetic alphabet for those readers who may be familiar with it. Unique developments of church pronunciation are indicated after each section.

Vowels

The pronunciation of the models reflects a northeastern American accent.

Latin		International Phonetic Alphabet
a	a in ago	[ǝ]
ā	a in father	[a]
e	e in bet	[ɛ]
ē	a in made	[e]	NB: this is not an exact correspondent since the a in English made is a diphthong (see below)
i	i in in	[ɪ]
ī	ee in meet	[i]
o	o in bought	[ɔ]	NB: many English dialects lack this vowel, using [a] instead
ō	o in most	[o]	NB: this is not an exact correspondent since the o in English most is a diphthong (see below)
u	oo in took	[ʊ]
ū	oo in moon	[u]

Diphthongs

The movement of the tongue in the pronunciation of a single vowel is a diphthong. Some diphthongs in English occur in I, my, die, how, mount, tone, show, doe, bay, mate, boy, toil.

The principal diphthongs of Latin are:

ae	y in my	[aɪ]	oe	oy in boy	[ɔɪ]
au	ow in how	[aʊ]	ui	wea in weak	[wi]

Church pronunciation

ae	a in save	[e]
oe	a in save	[e]

Consonants

Those consonants for which nothing follows are pronounced as in English.

Latin		International Phonetic Alphabet
b		[b]
c	always as a hard c, like the c in cook	[k]
d		[d]
f		[f]
g	always as a hard g, like the g in gate	[g]
h		[h]
i	like the y in yes	[j]
l		[l]
m		[m]
n		[n]
p		[p]
qu		[kw]
r	trilled as in Spanish rojo	[r]
s		[s]
t		[t]
v	like w in wet	[w]
x	like x in ax	[ks]

Note that i may be used to write both a vowel and a consonant.

As a rule of thumb i is a consonant when it occurs first in a root:

• this corresponds to the start of a word:
  • iubeō I command has 3 syllables: iu-be-ō
• this also corresponds to a root which follows a prefix such as con-
  • coniūrātiō...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• CONTENTS
• Introduction
• Latin sources
• 1 Pronunciation and stress
• 2 Present tense: conjugations I, II, IV
• 3 Present tense: conjugation III
• 4 1st declension
• Review of units 1–4
• 5 2nd declension
• 6 1st and 2nd declension adjectives
• 7 Prepositions
• 8 Uses of the ablative I
• 9 Imperfect tense
• 10 Future tense
• Review of units 5–10
• 11 Irregular verbs I: esse and posse
• 12 Uses of the genitive
• 13 Perfect active
• 14 Pluperfect and future perfect active
• 15 3rd declension
• 16 3rd declension i-stems
• 17 3rd declension adjectives
• Review of units 11–17
• 18 Uses of the dative
• 19 Passive voice
• 20 Passive of the perfect system
• 21 Demonstratives I
• 22 Demonstratives II
• Review of units 18–22
• 23 Irregular verbs II
• 24 Pronominal adjectives
• 25 Relative clauses
• 26 Direct questions
• 27 Personal pronouns
• 28 Imperative mood
• Review of units 23–28
• 29 Vocative and locative
• 30 Uses of the accusative
• 31 Indefinite pronouns
• 32 Indefinite adjectives
• 33 Participles
• 34 Ablative absolute
• Review of units 29–34
• 35 Verbs that take the dative
• 36 4th and 5th declensions
• 37 Comparatives
• 38 Superlatives
• 39 Adverbs
• 40 Uses of the ablative II
• Review of units 35–40
• Key to exercises
• Dictionaries