(Part 2) Top products from r/latin

> Aside from "hunt the verb,"

Forget it immediately! And break the habit of doing it! The right order in which to read a Latin sentence is the order in which it is written.

> I have not been presented with any reading protocols, and the ones I've searched for online don't seem to fit the bill. Any suggestions on ways to improve my own Latin would be appreciated!

The whole thing is to understand that the ability to decipher Latin and the ability to read it are two different things. Your ability to read Latin is like a muscle, and it will only get stronger when you exercise it. All you need is reading material appropriate to your level, and I have a few suggestions.

• Familia Romana — This book is meant for absolute beginners in Latin, and you might not need the grammar and vocabulary so restricted in the beginning, but thoroughly reading this book after having studied the grammar-translation way improved my own reading ability. The ancillary volumes in the series would be helpful also.
  
• Fabulae Faciles — Definitely download these stories right away.
  
• Ad Alpes — This is a Latin novel from the 1920s about travellers telling stories to one another designed to help students build their vocabulary without the distraction of puzzling constructions or subject matter. The full range of Latin grammar is used, and the level of difficulty is the same all throughout the book. The author also wrote an excellent First Latin Reader which is more on the level of Familia Romana.
  
• Eutropius is quite easy for real Latin.
  
• Dickinson College Commentaries has a number of other Latin texts with running vocabulary and notes.

I highly recommend trying to fit in upper level Latin classes if you can. Otherwise, what I've done so far in university: Cicero (if you'd like some easier prose), Medieval Latin (a wide variety of stuff, can be tough but we had a great textbook), Roman Elegy (entirely Ovid, though we read some other elegy in translation), and now Satire (Horace, Persius, Seneca).

If you want raw texts, The Latin Library is a favorite of mine! If you have another university near you that offers Classics courses, you might be able to check out their textbook/reader offerings as well for some good texts. If you want to keep studying consistently, you'll certainly have to push yourself to keep whatever pace you're aiming for, whether its 15 lines a night or 40 lines every other night, etc.

Good luck!

One very good source is Sihler's A New Comparative Grammar of Latin and Greek.

In addition to telling you a lot about Old Latin, the index lists Old Latin forms.

A good academic library will have this book, but if you're interested in the pre-history of Latin, you may want to buy it--this book rewards careful and repeated reading.

Edit: Looks like a good deal of the index is available to view on Amazon, so you should check it out. NB: The Old Latin forms are marked by "OL."

Edit II: How could I forget Palmer's The Latin Language (1954), which has a great index of archaic texts. And Baldi's The Foundations of Latin (1999), which I haven't read, but it looks good.

If you want a nice, gradual dip into Latin I highly, highly recommend Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata. That takes you through a very gradual process of reading Latin in its own context; it focuses less on translation and more on comprehension (which I think is very much the right approach).

But if you'd like a very direct, traditionally structured approach, I found Gavin Betts' Teach Yourself Latin to be very straightforward and clear. I actually used that when I had already put about 6 years into studying Latin, but it didn't really click for me until I ventured through that book on my own. Also handy, and used for the same reason, was Latin Super Review.

Hope this helps, and have fun!

And this, this, and this, supplemental reading for chapters I-XXIV, I-XXV, and XXVI-XXXIV respectively.

Colloquia Personarum and Fabellae Latinae contain additional stories about the same characters featured in LLPSI Pars I, but with more emphasis on (and a more sympathetic portrayal of) side characters such as the doctor and the schoolteacher.

Fabulae Syrae is an adaptation of Greek and Roman myths from Ovid. I highly recommend it, as it contains more complex sentence structures, much more practice with the subjunctive in its various forms, and some very cool mythological stories that are fun to read and will come in handy if you want to understand works of literature and art that reference them.

38 Latin Stories is definitely helpful to keep students interested! Some faculty member at my university also found a book called Scribblers, Sculptors and Scribes, which is based on Latin inscriptions and sentences from Latin authors similar to the Sententiae Antiquae. The inscriptions in particular are fun to read and decipher and it can help practice what will become a valuable skill if any students continue on to reading Latin inscriptions later.

http://www.amazon.com/Scribblers-Sculptors-Scribes-Companion-Introductory/dp/0061259187

Thank you so much! This is very useful information.

>LLPSI generally recommend using the grammar companion

Are you referring to this book or this book? It sounds like really sound advice. My only hesitation is that the grammar book seems to be rather short (around 30 pages).

>This didn't go too well and after banging my head against authentic Latin for a while I started losing motivation and eventually stopped Latin. Took me years (and an encounter with Medieval Latin) to become interested in it again

That's really interesting! How did Medieval Latin get you back into Latin? I would assume Medieval Latin is as difficult as authentic latin.

Also, during your journey through Latin, did you ever utilize audio and speaking resources? I've been thinking about getting the LLPSI audio book since it looks helpful. The extent of my speaking is basically reading the words aloud. I don't have the money to attend one of those immersion programs.

Lewis has an abridged version called An Elementary Latin Dictionary which is cheaper, but still kind of expensive. Another solution might be to get something like Cassel's Latin Dictionary for the basics and use the online Lewis & Short as needed.

I also have Lewis & Short on an iPad app, which works great.

This book is just a rebinding and shuffling of a turn of the century book, but for the cheap cost it comes with tons of practice passages and exercises aimed at learning/reviewing students. I like it a lot as a cost effective thing for more interesting review than just staring at tables or breaking your back with an authentic text.

This is probably the best comparative grammar book I've read with a focus specifically on Latin. It is simple enough for a student of Latin to read without having been completely indoctrinated in reconstructive language study, but is also extensively comprehensive. This is the publisher's website, which says there is an updated edition coming out this summer.

Alternatively, Sihler and Buck are both good sources for answering questions of comparative grammar, and you might be able to more easily find those online through various sources.

Updated the quote.

It is more difficult to learn and perfect Latin than to learn English, so there is an intrinsic difference between languages. Even everyday speech in Latin sounds like something that is read at a poetry recital.

The difference can be clearly seen when comparing the 1611 KJV (not the more recently diluted versions) with the NIV. While the KJV is more eloquent it is also only fully readable by the aristocracy. So there is a scale in which a language either promotes the interests of the aristocracy or everybody.

British Council's presentation of how KJV affected the English language.

---

A ted talk on how the English language promotes democracy, a sentiment that is echoed by Akio Morita when comparing English to Japanese.

Perhaps not 'real', but Ad Alpes is a full-length intermediate-level story in excellent Latin. It was written to ease the transition from Caesar to Cicero.

The Lewis's Elementary Latin Dictionary, easily. It's comprehensive without being overwhelming (I'm looking at you, OLD). Before that, when I was first learning, the Cassell's dictionary was surprisingly good for the price. Online, though, Wiktionary is my first choice, followed by whatever Perseus has.

You might also want to have a look at Shelmerdine's Introduction to Latin which is pretty cheap and does a great job of getting you reading quickly. The sentences aren't as dry and meaningless as the ones used by a lot of other books, which helps keep you moving along. Also, unlike Wheelock and many other elementary Latin textbooks, you don't have to wait 25 chapters before the book acknowledges that women exist.

William Whitaker's Words. I use standalone, but Notre Dame has a nice online version. I also have this one in print, which says exactly the same thing. Though neither of them actually list renatus by itself, if natus is from natus sum, and it has renatus sum as a verb from nascor whose appearance is unchanged by the prefix, renatus can clearly exist; at any rate, neither of them claim "renascatus" or even "nascatus" is a word anywhere.

If you pronounce "multum" in the way you normally would, but simply do not close your lips completely when pronouncing the final "m" you will get close the m caduca sound.

Here's a recording of Robert Sonkowsky reading the beginning of Aeneid using the restored classical pronunciation, including m caduca and synaloepha.

If you're interested in how we know what we know about classical Latin pronunciation, you might want to read Vox Latina by W. Sidney Allen.

This has come up a few times before. The usual suggestion is the Oxford Classical Text, which may not be "beautiful" or luxurious but is certainly nice enough.

Try this for free:

https://www.ou.edu/ludilatini/insultshandoutFall2003.htm

I suggest also this inexpensive booklet (if you purchase it used), which I received for my birthday from the secretary, who mischievously selected it, knowing my passion for the language:

https://www.amazon.com/Insult-Abuse-Insinuate-Classical-Latin/dp/076071018X

You mean like the one published in the student's manual or the one in the college companion?

Simplest terms? Given that request and your stated language background, I think English Grammar for Students of Latin would help immensely. A lot of the 'not clicking' part might just be missing out on how grammar works even in your native tongue. You can get it for less than twenty bucks on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/English-Grammar-Students-Latin-Learning/dp/0934034346/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1549069987&sr=8-2&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=English+grammar+for+students+of+Latin&dpPl=1&dpID=41VGnfQiBBL&ref=plSrch

Like this? https://www.amazon.com/Opera-Oxford-Classical-Texts-Latin/dp/0198146531

You may like Latin For All Occasions . Beard actually gives a translation for that.

Futue te ipsum atque equum in quo vectus est.

Here are audio files for the first 31 chapters of Familia Romana. Read by Orberg himself in restored pronunciation.

Conte's recent Teubner edition may be what you're looking for. Here is a link to it on Amazon. It is also on Archive if you want to check it out beforehand.

You may be interested in a newely-published book by Stephan Beard titled Capti: Fabula Mineppeo-Hoffmanniana Americana, published in 2013 and available in physical and e-book formats on Amazon.

I confess, I use it and Harrius Potter for pronunciation practice to start my Latin studies, so my comprehension is (still) quite poor. However, it is a 600+ page published Latin novel with accents which you may be intrigued by!

Familia Romana by Hans Ørberg is the one that I see recommended the most often around here. It takes a more immersive approach to learning Latin where you jump right in and start reading rather than focusing on grammar tables right off the bat. The Exercitia and Latine Disco books go with it.

https://www.amazon.com/Familia-Romana-Hans-H-Orberg/dp/B0084LQGFA

Orberg himself reading with a classical accent. His v's are a little more v- than W-sounding and it sounds like he just used a tape recorder in his house but I own it and it gets the job done.

The story of Familia Romana gets better as the book progresses. If you're stuck in the first third, I can see it being a slog at times. It also opens up quite a bit if you read the ancillary materials, which flesh out the characters and introduce various subplots with overlapping timelines and such. There are three:

Colloquia Personarum is a collection of readings meant to accompany the first 24 chapters of Familia Romana

Fabellae Latinae is a similar but open-source (nisi fallor) supplement with readings that correspond to the first 25 chapters of FR.

Fabulae Syrae is a collection of adapted myths of Ovid; it follows Colloquia Personarum and the readings correspond to the final ten or so chapters of FR.

I remember hating "Ecce Romani!" in hgihschool, but I found I (re-) learned faster with Introduction to Latin.

I do admit I got myself Whelocks's workbook but haven't cracked it open; maybe when I get a seat in Latin 3 finally.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/055359012X/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_2?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=0877205612&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1SR61TPHB6X2C29VB9TD

Basically any country you go to has a tradition for pronouncing Latin, which predates the reconstructed Classical pronunciation. Usually the words are pronounced according to the phonological rules of the predominant language in that area. The prof I had for intro Latin used the classical pronunciation, but used an Italian pronunciation when we did Mediaeval Latin. And whenever Latin came up in my French literature classes, all of my French professors (who were native speakers), pronounced the Latin completely differently.

See Allen's Vox Latina for more about the reconstructed classical pronunciation (there's also an appendix explaining the pronunciation of Latin in England).

You could try googling for it... http://www.amazon.com/Lingua-Latina-illustrata-Pars-Grammatica/dp/1585102237/ref=pd_sim_b_5?ie=UTF8&refRID=1X59JPC937GWRH972EDD

Word out on the street is that it's also illegally accessible as an ebook.

There’s a great book called How To Insult, Abuse & Insinuate in Classical Latin for reference, it is exactly as it sounds: