The Everything Essential Latin Book

All You Need to Learn Latin in No Time

Richard E Prior

• Publisher: Everything
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781440574221
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Ancient Languages
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

The basics of Latin made fun--and fast! Learning the basics of Latin can vastly improve your vocabulary and even provide keys to understanding legal, medical, and scientific terminology. The Everything Essential Latin Book is your perfect introduction to this fascinating language. With easy-to-follow instructions and simple explanations, this portable guide covers the most important basics of Latin, including:

• The Roman alphabet and translation
• The all-important syntax of Latin
• Getting someone's attention and giving commands
• Common questions and answers
• Describing people and places
• Verb tenses
• Grammatical voice

With The Everything Essential Latin Book, you'll be speaking like an ancient Roman in no time!

CHAPTER 1
The Key to Understanding Latin

You’re all set for some hot coffee, but one sip makes you spit and declare that it’s horrible coffee … even though you know it’s tea. Studying Latin is a lot like that. If you insist that Latin is a substitution code for English, you’ll only get more and more ready to spit. There are some crucial differences in the way English and Latin operate as languages.

The Significance of Syntax

The most striking difference between English and Latin lies in syntax—the way words show their relationship to each other in a sentence. A word sitting by itself has a meaning, but that’s all. When it’s in a string with other words, though, it has to have a way to show how it interacts with the other words around it. Exactly how that relationship is shown doesn’t matter. What matters is that all the speakers of the language agree on the rules.

When you speak or write English, words just seem to come out and fall into place in a way that makes sense. In fact, the key to English syntax really is “place”! Consider these two sentences:

Money the gave Jeff me when at were yesterday party the we.

Jeff gave me the money yesterday when we were at the party.

Take a closer look at those examples. Who did something? What did he do it to? Who benefited from his action? Where did it happen? Now for the big question: How do you know any of these things? Both sentences contain the same words; the only difference is word order. Languages that rely on word order to make sense are called analytical.

Using word order to show the relationship between words is an arbitrary way to do it. It’s just what English speakers all agree to do. Take a look at the concept of this sentence: Mark loves the dog. Does Mark come first in time? Does the dog? They are all there; they all “happen” simultaneously. Since they are all there together at the same time, there is no real reason for Mark to have to come first in the sentence. The only reason he comes first is because the rules of English dictate that if he is the one with the affection, he has to come before the verb in the sentence. Swap the word order—the dog loves Mark—and the meaning changes dramatically.

How Latin Syntax Works

Latin’s MO (modus operandī—way of operating) is based on quite a different system of rules. Let’s visit Mark and his best friend again, but this time in Latin.

Marcus canem amat. (Mark loves his dog.)

Canem Marcus amat. (Mark loves his dog.)

Amat canem Marcus. (Mark loves his dog.)

Marcus amat canem. (Mark loves his dog.)

Canem amat Marcus. (Mark loves his dog.)

Amat Marcus canem. (Mark loves his dog.)

How can all six mean the same thing?!

Here’s another example. See if you can figure out what tiny change in the Latin made such a big change in the meaning.

Marcum canis amat. (The dog loves Mark.)

Canis Marcum amat. (The dog loves Mark.)

Amat canis Marcum. (The dog loves Mark.)

Marcum amat canis. (The dog loves Mark.)

Canis amat Marcum. (The dog loves Mark.)

Amat Marcum canis. (The dog loves Mark.)

In the English version you know who’s doing what to whom based on which noun comes before or after the verb. The doer comes first, then the action, then the doee. In the Latin version, what comes first really doesn’t matter. The position may change, but as long as the endings don’t, the meaning remains the same. Inflected languages like Latin use word endings as flags to show who’s doing what to whom.

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Although word order is not crucial to Latin syntax, it does suggest a bit of nuance. A grammatical subject has immediate association with a verb. A topic, however, comes as if an answer to a question—the most important bit. Marcum canis amat would stress whom the dog loves. Canis Marcum amat, on the other hand, tells who loves Mark. Different order, same endings, different emphasis.

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Learning Endings

Since Latin depends on endings for words to show their relationships to one another in a sentence, two things should be immediately clear. First, knowledge of English grammar is extremely important. There will be plenty of review along the way, so even if you are learning it for the first time, there is no need to worry.

Second, since there are many ways words can show their relationship to one another to make up a sentence, there will be a lot of endings. A whole lot. But again, not to worry! As you move through this book you’ll encounter sets of endings bit by bit. While it may seem a little rough going at first, you’ll be getting a feel for them and recognizing their patterns in no time.

Your best approach to learning endings is to take each set as they come, chapter by chapter; learn to recognize or even memorize them; and practice working with them in the exercises provided in each chapter. The more practice you get, the better your chances of internalizing them and making them virtually instinctual. Since the entire Latin language operates on a system of inflections (i.e., endings), these inflections cannot be dismissed as insignificant pains in the neck. They are the keys to understanding!

By now you may be wondering if you are up to the challenge of learning endings so well that they become second nature to you. Rest assured that you can. In fact, you already use endings without thinking about it. Here is a little experiment that will highlight the existence (and importance!) of word forms in English. Read this little sentence out loud and listen closely:

Me sended he Seth checks for we these morning.

Unless you’re Tarzan, this sentence doesn’t sound quite right. What makes it sound off kilter is that the forms are either incorrect or not there. Here is the same sentence with the endings adjusted to conform to the rules of English grammar:

I sent him Seth’s check for us this morning.

Can you hear the difference? If you compare the two sentences, you will see that each contains the same words in the same order. The only thing that varies between them is word form. For example, “I” and “me” both refer to the same person. They aren’t two different words; they are two different forms of the same word.

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Inflected languages have a habit of slowly changing to analytical ones, then back again. A couple of thousand years ago (i.e., about the same time Latin was spoken), ancient English was also highly inflected. Over time it lost most of its endings and had to add helping words and count on word order for syntax. Now, in modern English, some of those helping words are becoming new endings. For example, look at the way the word “would” contracts to form “I’d,” “you’d,” “she’d,” and so on.

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Now that you can see how English has different forms and endings much like Latin does, how do you know which is correct? Read those two examples again and consider how you know which is the better sentence. When you read them, you didn’t stop at each word to scrutinize and analyze and recite grammar rules. You just knew, didn’t you? The second atte...