Essential Latin Grammar: Teach Yourself

Gregory Klyve

• Publisher: Teach Yourself
• Year: 2012
• eBook ISBN: 9781444132168
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Ancient Languages
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

Essential Latin Grammar will help you get more out of your study of Latin. Essential Latin Grammar is an up-to-date introduction to Latin grammar. You don't need to know a lot about grammar before you start. Everything is explained simply and there are lots of examples to illustrate each point. Unlike more traditional grammars, Essential Latin Grammar is structured so that you can look up language forms according to their meaning, even if you don't know the grammatical term for them. Essential Latin Grammar will help you to understand and manipulate Latin grammar with confidence because:
- you need no prior knowledge of grammatical terminology to use it;
- the approach is accessible and supportive;
- the examples are clear and in context;
- exercises help you practise every point.Now in a brand new edition with new, easy-to-follow page design and interactive on-line features: NOT GOT MUCH TIME?
One, five and ten-minute introductions to key principles to get you started.AUTHOR INSIGHTS
Lots of instant help with common problems and quick tips for success, based on the author's many years of experience.USEFUL VOCABULARY
Easy to find and learn, to build a solid foundation for speaking.EXTEND YOUR KNOWLEDGE
Extra online articles at: www.teachyourself.com to give you a richer understanding of the culture of Ancient Rome.

1

Alphabet, pronunciation and terminology

Alphabet and pronunciation

There are 24 letters in the Latin alphabet. The Romans had no j or w. In writing, capitals are used for proper nouns, adjectives and numerals, not to start sentences.

A Pronunciation

There are no silent letters in Latin and long vowels take about twice as long to say as short ones.

A	a as in father when long, but as in act when short
B	b as in but
C	c as in cut, not as in church, cider or loch
D	d as in dog
E	e as in prey when long, but as in jet when short.
F	f as in father
G	g as in goat, not as in genius
H	h as in have
I	i as in machine when long, as in pit when short and as y in yet when used as a consonant
K	k as in king (this Greek letter [kappa] was used only in words of Greek origin)
L	l as in long
M	m as in mother
N	n as in newt, but, before c, g and quit is pronounced ng, as in sing
O	o as in tone (although the French o in chose is closer) when long, as in hot when short
P	p as in pat
Q	q as in queen and always followed by u, as in English
R	r is always rolled, as in Italian
S	s as in sun, not as in was, treasure or sugar
T	t as in top, not as in motion
U	u as in food when long but as in put when short
V	w as in wine, although the Hindi pronunciation of v is closer
X	x as in axe, not as in exact
Y	y as in the French vu (this Greek letter [upsilon] was used only in words of Greek origin)
Z	z as in zoo (this Greek letter [zeta] was used only in words of Greek origin)

B Diphthongs are combinations of vowels making one sound. In Latin they are all long:

ae pronounced ai as in aisle, e.g. praeda → booty

au pronounced ou as in house, e.g. aurum → gold

oe pronounced oi as in boil, e.g. poena → penalty

ei pronounced ei as in reign. Only found in the exclamations ei! eia! heia! → oh! aha!

eu pronounced ew as in pew, e.g. seu → whether

ui pronounced wea as in weak, e.g. huic → to this

The diphthongs ei, eu and ui are rare. Mostly when these vowel combinations are found they are pronounced separately, as in tui → yours (pronounced two-ee), fluit → it flows (flew-it), mei → mine (meyee) and deus → god (de-yus). When the u follows the letter q it is pronounced w, as in English.

C Consonantal i and u

• In some Latin words the letter i is pronounced as the consonant y at the beginning or even in the middle of words, e.g. coniungo (I join together: pronounced con-yungo) and iam (already: pronounced yam). In the English derivatives of many of these words the consonantal i becomes the letter j, e.g. juvenile comes from iuvenis (young man), judicial comes from iudicium (judgement), joke comes from iocus (joke) and the name Julius from Iulius.

• The Romans made no distinction between v and u when writing so, for example, in an inscription you might find EQVVS for equus → horse. Some published texts still make no distinction so you may find uinum for vinum → wine.

D When t, c or p are followed by an h, they are called aspirated consonants th, ch and ph. They come from the Greek letters theta, chi and phi and exist in Latin words which come from Greek. They should be pronounced as an emphasized version of the letters without the h but in practice th and ph are often pronounced as in the English thin and photo and ch as in the Scottish loch.

E Length of vowels and syllables

• In English the stressed vowel of a word is usually lengthened while unstressed ones are not, e.g. cider, boredom. In a Latin word, however, any of the vowels may be either long or short. In dictionaries and textbooks the long vowels are usually marked out by a line over the top of the vowel called a macron (ē). In some cases, it is important to know whether a vowel is long or short, especially in verse, but when you come to read Latin documents you will not find any distinguishing marks over long vowels. In this book there are no marks used over vowels for the exercises and readers do not need to include them. In the explanatory matter, long syllables are marked when they are of importance.

• The length of a syllable, as opposed to a vowel, is important to know for verse. A syllable is long if it has a long vowel or a diphthong, or ends in two consonants, the letter x or a single consonant if the next word also begins with a consonant. All other syllables are short.

F Stress accent

• In Latin the stress accent (ictus) falls on the first syllable of two syllabled words, e.g. pater → father. It falls only rarely on the last syllable, e.g. illic → to th...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• Meet the author
• Only got a minute?
• Only got ten minutes?
• Introduction
• 1: Alphabet, pronunciation and terminology
• 2: Tenses (indicative active)
• 3: Nouns
• 4: Cases
• 5: Adjectives and adverbs
• 6: Prepositions, conjunctions and numerals
• 7: Pronouns and questions
• 8: Passive and deponent verbs
• 9: Subjunctive verbs
• 10: Verbal nouns and adjectives (participles, gerunds, supines and gerundives)
• 11: Infinitives and imperatives
• 12: Impersonal, defective and irregular verbs
• 13: Relative and temporal clauses, ablative absolute
• 14: Final, consecutive and conditional clauses
• 15: Indirect speech
• 16: Other subordinate clauses (clauses of concession, cause, proviso, comparison, fear, doubt and prevention, and the use of quin)
• 17: Miscellaneous (dates, money and measures, names, places, inscriptions, timeline, Latin today)
• Key to the exercises
• Copyright