Post: #1

Having gotten more and more interested in Indo European history/language/culture, and reading more and more about this, I am suddenly interested in learning more ancient languages.

Before I jump into Tocharian or Luwian, I think Latin might be more appropriate and easier, since I know some modern romance languages.

I have started doing a couple random "Latin for beginner" type things online. A few exercises about verb conjugation and noun declensions, watching a few videos on youtube, etc.

I know about the Tufts Perseus website to translate texts, which I have tried to do for things like Seneca but it's a bit over my head now, even if I read it in English and compare it side by side.

For all the auto-didacts out there, what resources have you used to study Latin on your own?

Post: #2

"Amo, Amas, Amat and More" by Eugene H. Ehrlich.

Good for the lay person. There is a second book in the series, but can't seem to find it.

Post: #3

As there isn't a spoken element to Latin study, I'd just stick with standard academic text books and work through them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambridge_Latin_Course

These books are massively popular at Latin teaching schools in the UK; I studied using them back in the 90s at a top, top academic school here.

Post: #4

(03-31-2015 05:25 AM)CrashBangWallop Wrote:  As there isn't a spoken element to Latin study, I'd just stick with standard academic text books and work through them.

You don't think I could go to the Vatican and use Latin to pick up chicks?

"Eamus domum, ostendam tibi grata"

Post: #5

There are lots of solid resources at archive.org. Why pay money for Latin materials? Go there and search things like "Latin course" "Latin lessons" etc. When you have the basics there are Latin readers, Gildersleeve's grammar, Student's Series Aeneid, red MacMillans and more.
If you have iOS and want to spend a few bucks, check out SPQR for lessons/texts and Logeion which reproduces standard dictionaries (beware typos.)

Post: #6

Congratulations and good luck for studying what the THE central language of Western civilization. It is mind-blowing and humbling in a way to realize that every educated person in the West knew Latin up to the early 20th century, and now it's pretty much been thrown by the wayside as too difficult or not "relevant" or not useful for the job market.

I've been studying Latin for about ten years and though now I can read it somewhat comfortably depending on the author, I feel somewhat failed by our culture that they didn't have me studying Latin from the age of 5, as was the case in the past. The lessons I've learned from my encounter with antiquity have stuck with me more than many of the supposedly useful subjects I studied in high school like calculus or chemistry.

Anyway, if I were to propose any ideal program for self-study of Latin, it would go something like this. (Keep in mind that everyone has their own learning style, and my method has been honed over several languages -- but this means some things come easy to me that might be more difficult for less experienced language learners).

The classic textbook for beginning Latin is called Wheelock's Latin.
http://www.amazon.com/Wheelocks-Latin-7t...0061997226
It follows the old-school, learn a grammar lesson than translate sentences approach that nowadays has fallen out of favor. But it is the quickest and clearest way to cover the basic structure and vocabulary of the language. And if you're studying by yourself, I think it's useful to have someone lay out everything for you rather than try to guess or "inuit" the grammar as in more modern approaches.

That being said, I am still a big believer in the idea that "you don't learn a language, you get used to it" -- meaning that you need to be exposed to a large quantity of the language in order to internalize it so that it feels natural. This means that you need what they call "comprehensible input," basically easy texts in the language that you can consume very quickly.

I guess the most logical place to start for this is with "Thirty-Eight Latin Stories designed to accompany Wheelock's Latin," since this books is keyed to the vocabulary and grammar you're already learning in Wheelock's.
http://www.amazon.com/Thirty-Eight-Stori...D2H97YMK83

Then one Latin teacher has gone ahead and put together 600 pages Latin text that you will be ready to tackle after finishing Wheelock's. It has the side benefit of teaching you Roman history and mythology as well. The PDF's can be found here:
http://www.johnpiazza.net/latin_hist_reader.pdf
http://www.johnpiazza.net/latin_myth_reader.pdf

600 pages may seem daunting, but this is easy Latin and you could probably read 20 pages per hour, and so get through all the material in 1-2 months with dedication.

Here's where the teacher explains the concept of "comprehensible input" as well: http://www.johnpiazza.net/comprehensible_input

But at this point you're not out of the grammatical woods yet. Wheelock's teaches you the basics, but there are still more advanced grammar points that you will need to learn if you want to read real Latin with understanding and appreciation.

My recommendation for covering this material is Bradley's Arnold Latin Prose Composition. Yes, technically this book is teaching you to write Latin prose, but I don't know of any other resources that really covers these grammatical points that it contains. And translating into Latin does really help you internalize the language. What's more, the book is out of copyright and so available in the public domain here:
https://archive.org/details/practicalintrod00arnouoft

One more book I will recommend either as more comprehensible input or even as a possible alternative to Wheelock's is Hans Orberg's "Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata." This book plunges you into Latin from day one. It includes no English and explains Latin grammar in Latin. I know people who have used it successfully as their main book for learning Latin, but it might be challenging to use for self-study, especially if you haven't studied a language like Latin before. The upshot though is that over its two volumes it gradually takes you from simple sentences like "Italia in Europa est" to reading unadulterated Ciceronian and Caesarian prose -- all through a subtle gradation of readings so that you don't even feel them becoming more difficult.

http://www.amazon.com/Lingua-Latina-Illu...1585104205
http://www.amazon.com/Roma-Aeterna-Pars-...ma+aeterna

There are dozens of more resources I could recommend -- Latin does benefit from the fact that people have been studying it for millennia in that regard -- but this is a good start. Let me know if you have any other questions or would like some more recommendations.

Post: #7

Thanks a ton for the information, looks like I'll be buying an oldschool textbook.

One thing that I enjoyed doing with other languages is learning songs and spending hours trying to understand them. I found this was a great way to cement whole chunks of language into my brain and to this day there are turns of phrase or specific words that I still remember best by singing along to some song.

Anyway, what I hoped to find was simple texts, maybe poetry, things that are short and manageable, to translate, read over and over, and memorize as a way to begin learning something "practical" since after all, the point of this would be to read classical Latin texts.

Thinking in that vein, does anyone have anything excessively short, such as poetry or latin sayings, that would be a good starting point here?

Post: #8

Lingua Latina, as Naswanji pointed out, is stellar. It's a lot of fun to learn with. It starts you out with the bare bones, because there are a few words that still mean the same thing in Latin and English, like "in". As soon as you realize that "est" means "is", just like "est" in French, then you can start getting sentences.

Poetry or sayings will confuse you because you won't have a clue as to how nouns, verbs, and the basics of latin works. The textbooks are just tedius.

Post: #9

Here's a few songs you probably already know. But now you can learn the original Latin:













Then since we're in Holy Week, here's a beautiful Gregorian chant about Christ's entry into Jerusalem:





This one is taken from the Latin version of the Psalms and is also very beautiful:





Then if you want some catchy poems to help memorize Latin vocabulary, there's this old book from the 19th century.
https://archive.org/details/prettylessonsin00colegoog

Finally, if you go to a torrent site and search for "Latin Language Pack," you'll find a whole bunch of resources to explore.

Post: #10

If you really are serious about learning the language, and are prepared to work hard, the best series (in my opinion) is the Hans Orberg "Lingua Latina" series. It uses the "natural language" method to teach the language as if it were still spoken. These books are like gold. I credit them with getting me to the place I am today in the language.

The details:

1. Volume I: Familia Romana. You must buy and use the workbook, the recordings, supplements, companions, glossaries, and the readers. All of them can be found through Focus Publishing, which has its own site.

2. Volume II: Roma Aeterna. Again, you must buy and use the workbook, recordings, and all supplementary materials.


Be prepared to spend several hundred dollars (at least) for all these materials. Be prepared to work every day for at least 18 months to get a good grasp of the language.

If you're not prepared for this kind of investment in time and money, you will probably not be successful, and your knowledge of Latin will be little more than superficial.

But if you work hard, a new universe of excitement, glory, and majesty will open up to you.

Post: #11

Quintus thanks, I have a friend who's a classics scholar and talking with him he just recommended Lingua Latina too.