LATN 1001 - Course Overview

The Latin language, pronunciation, fundamentals of grammar, reading, and translation. A cassette recorder is required for this course.

Comeau, Paul, and Richard A. LaFleur. Workbook for Wheelock’s Latin (3d ed., rev.). New York: HarperCollins, 2000.

Groton, Anne H., and James M. May. Thirty-Eight Latin Stories (5th ed., rev.). Wauconda, IL: Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, 2005.

Miner, Mark. Readings from Wheelock’s Latin. Four-CD set. Wauconda, IL: Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, 2006.

Wheelock, Frederic M. Wheelock’s Latin (6th ed., rev.). Richard A. LaFleur, Ed. New York: HarperCollins, 2005.

LaFleur, Richard A. Latin for the 21st Century: From Concept to Classroom. Glenview, IL: Scott Foresman/Addison Wesley, 1998. (For current or prospective teachers, professors, or graduate students of Latin.)

LaFleur, Richard A., and Brad Tillery. Cumulative Vocabulary Lists for Wheelock’s Latin. Wauconda, IL: Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, 2006.

———. Vocabulary Cards and Grammatical Forms Summary for Wheelock’s Latin. Wauconda, IL: Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, 2005.

Latin Vocab Drill. Madison, WI: Centaur Systems, 2005. Specify Wheelock version.

Latin Flash Drill. Madison, WI: Centaur Systems, 2005. Specify Wheelock version.

Course Overview

Introduction

This is the first course in the beginning sequence regularly taught in the University of Georgia Classics Department; Latin 1002 is a continuation of this introductory course and involves increasingly sophisticated readings of extended Latin passages, both prose and verse. Beyond that, four more advanced courses are also available via Independent Study: Latin 2001–2002, which include readings from a variety of prose and verse authors, Latin 3010 on Vergil’s Aeneid, and Latin 4220, an introduction to Ovid’s Metamorphoses and Amores.

The required readings for this course include the preface, introduction, and Chapters 1– 20 of Wheelock’s Latin, selections from Groton and May’s Thirty-Eight Latin Stories, exercises from the Workbook for Wheelock’s Latin, Goldman and Szymanski’s English Grammar for Students of Latin, Antony Kamm’s The Romans, and the supplementary notes in this course guide. The readings in Kamm should adequately provide the background in ancient Roman culture that would normally be developed through classroom comments on the Latin readings, while the Wheelock and Goldman textbooks, with my supplementary notes, will introduce Latin’s place in the Indo-European language family and its relationship to English, the Roman alphabet and pronunciation, as well as four of the five noun declensions, most active indicative verb forms, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, and fundamental patterns of syntax. From Wheelock’s second chapter onward, you will be reading, understanding, and translating into English verbatim excerpts from actual classical Latin; the selections from Groton and May will provide further valuable experience with the reading of continuous narrative passages, all of them stories from classical mythology.

Each of the twenty lessons in this course contains clearly detailed procedures for mastering the chapter(s) assigned. Usually this will include: (1) close study of all the new material, especially grammatical constructions and concepts, presented in Wheelock, Goldman, and this course guide; (2) thorough memorization of vocabulary and paradigms (i.e., sample declensions and conjugations); (3) completion of the appropriate "Optional Self-Assessment Exercises" towards the end of Wheelock’s text; (4) translations from Wheelock and Groton; (5) exercises in the Workbook; and (6) readings in Kamm’s The Romans.

In addition, the first few lessons involve pronunciation practice. A cassette tape with my sample readings from the textbooks should be purchased with this study guide, which should help you prepare your oral assignments. You may also wish to purchase the excellent tape, The Pronunciation and Reading of Classical Latin, by Stephen Daitz. Latin readings from Wheelock’s Latin are also available via a link on my website for Introductory Latin (http://www.classics.uga.edu/latin/); click on "Latin Links," then on "Latin Language Resources," and finally on the first link under "AUDITE!"

Work steadily, and master each new concept, word, form, or grammatical construction, when it is first presented; important new terms are printed in bold letters when first presented and should be carefully studied, with definitions and examples committed to memory. Language learning is cumulative: careful study today will repay you again and again. You should keep a loose-leaf notebook and/or a computer file for this course, so that notes and exercises may conveniently be added or rearranged at any point.

If you own or have easy access to a computer, you should most certainly purchase the recommended computer software published by Centaur Systems. Latin Vocab Drill provides invaluable drill and self-testing of the vocabulary in Wheelock’s Latin, and Latin Flash Drill gives you practice with such forms as verb conjugations, noun declensions, etc.; both packages are designed specifically to accompany Wheelock’s Latin, and both are available in either IBM or Mac versions.

Written Assignments

Only a portion of your work for each lesson will actually be written down and submitted to me via the Independent Study office. This work, which should be typed, or legibly written (printed, preferably) in ink and double-spaced to allow room for my comments and corrections, will generally consist of exercises in declension or conjugation, translation, and your answers to questions on the vocabulary translation, grammar, or other points raised in the textbooks or course guide. All Written Assignments must, needless to say, be prepared independently. Whatever questions you may have that do not seem to be answered in either the textbooks or this course guide should be submitted along with your written work.

Electronic Transmission of Lessons

E-mail lesson submission is an option available for this course. This option must be selected at the time of registration; see your Student Handbook for instructions on submitting lessons by e-mail. If you choose to e-mail your lessons, you will still need to mail in the required cassette tape for the first few lessons, using the envelopes provided. For purposes of electronic transmission, you may use a capital letter instead of a macron to indicate a long vowel. If you have easy access to electronic mail, you may wish to contact me directly with questions or other concerns at rlafleur@parallel.park.uga.edu.

Website

A wealth of information on Latin (including a study guide for Wheelock’s Latin) and on the ancient Mediterranean world is available at my Introductory Latin website at http:// www.classics.uga.edu/latin/. If you have Internet access, be sure to avail yourself regularly of this invaluable resource.

LatIna Est Gaudium! ("Latin is Fun!")

At the end of most of the Written Assignments, I will share with you a Latin motto, famous quotation, or some other tidbit for your interest and delectation. Often these will be related to the lesson’s new vocabulary or other material in the current lesson. These, together with the sections at the end of each Wheelock chapter, will augment what you learn in the course—and add a bit of humor as well!

Scheduling Your Work

Work steadily (,b>at least one lesson every two weeks), thoroughly, and not too quickly —expect to spend eight to ten hours per lesson, including study, memorization, drill, translation practice, and written work, as this is about the amount of time you would spend if you were taking this course in a traditional classroom. One to two lessons per week will, for most students with other obligations, be the maximum feasible rate for adequate study and retention—in no case will more than four assignments per week be accepted. You should not plan to take either the midterm or the final examination until all the prerequisite lessons have been submitted and, ideally, returned with satisfactory grades.

Midterm and Final Examinations

Detailed information about the midterm and final examinations is provided in this course guide, immediately following Lessons 10 and 20. These two examinations are comprehensive in nature and are designed with the assumption that all the requirements of each lesson have been satisfied, not merely the written work. Each of the examinations counts thirty percent of the final grade and the average for the twenty Written Assignments counts forty percent.

It is Independent Study policy that you must pass the final to pass the course, regardless of grades earned on lessons. You are responsible for knowing and abiding by Independent Study policies and procedures. See your Student Handbook for detailed information.

Academic Honesty

Be sure to read the "Reminder about Academic Honesty" at the front of this guide. Additionally, be aware that the use of answer keys or published translations of Latin works is a violation of the academic honesty policy.

Why Study Latin?

Additional and more detailed introductory information and certain special instructions will be encountered in the first lessons and the readings there assigned. But here, in conclusion, I am unable to resist the temptation to ask the question "Why have you decided to study Latin?" and to suggest a number of possible answers, one or more of which may coincide with your own.

The study of any foreign language does, of course, have a certain intrinsic interest. What is alien is mysterious, and in language study the mystery is the intricate working of man’s mind, the reasoning process and its outward manifestation, speech. Language is one of the most peculiarly human behavioral phenomena. Complex and overwhelmingly varied as it sometimes appears, the shape and development of language is nonetheless systematic and predictable. Language study, it has been observed, is at once the most scientific of the humanities and the most humanistic of the sciences.

But why Latin in particular? The reasons and the rewards, I have discovered in over thirty years of teaching, are as many and as various as the students themselves and their myriad interests, from the most pragmatic to the esoteric. You may not have based your decision to study Latin on a desire to refine your study habits; and yet, this will be one effect of your work, however disciplined you may think these habits already are. A survey of law deans some years ago revealed that they were especially impressed by their students who had been undergraduate Classics majors for this reason in particular—their discipline—and for their attentiveness to detail, their keen analytical abilities, and their communication skills generally.

Your study of Latin will also ultimately provide insights into the ancient Roman consciousness that no history book can approximate. You will possess the key to a better understanding of our Roman antecedents and of one of the world’s oldest and most influential and popular literatures. Ancient Italy produced important authors in virtually every discipline, from agriculture to zoology, with architecture, astronomy, botany, drama, law, medicine, philosophy, religion, and rhetoric in between. And then there are the many great works of Latin literature: satire, a literary genre invented by the Romans; the romantic verse of the elegiac poets; Ovid’s handbook of Greco-Roman myth, the Metamorphoses; the sometimes scandalous epigrams of Martial; Petronius’ Satyricon, one of the first novels in European literature; the histories of Livy and Tacitus; the politically resonant speeches and letters of Cicero; Caesar’s detailed commentaries on his Gallic campaigns and on the civil war with Pompey; the biographies of Suetonius; the Church Fathers; and, of course, Vergil’s epic of Rome’s foundation and imperial destiny, the Aeneid, a tremendously exciting, often poignant, romantic, and profoundly moral story, and a masterpiece of structural, aural, and even cinematographic effect. You will become increasingly sensitive to the artistic and rhetorical potential of a highly inflected language and to the importance of reading an author’s work in the language in which it was originally written. You will come to appreciate that a great deal can indeed be "lost in the translation." Certainly for purposes of serious research in ancient Roman history or literature, the primary sources must be examined in the original Latin.

On the other hand, you may see Latin primarily as an aid to the study of modern foreign languages. It will be that, of course. The Romance languages and the Germanic, for example, are the grandchildren and grand-nephews of Latin, so to speak, within the Indo-European language family. Striking correspondences of vocabulary, morphology, and syntax appear again and again. The "Etymology" sections in Wheelock’s Latin will be of special interest to you.

Or, to be more mundane, perhaps you are "burdened" with a college language requirement and hope that Latin at least will help you score a few extra points on your GRE, LSAT, MCAT, or DAT. Those points can be virtually guaranteed, and more than a few. No better understanding of the structure of your native language can be gained than through the study of a second language, toward which your approach must be objective and analytical. The correlation between Latin study and English verbal proficiency has been statistically demonstrated in numerous research studies. One reason for the extraordinary verbal skills of Latin students is, of course, the fact that more than half of our English vocabulary is derived from Latin and many other English words are cognate with Latin.

Pay special attention to the English derivatives found in parentheses after nearly every entry in the vocabulary list in each of Wheelock’s chapters, and your own vocabulary will begin to grow.

Finally, with the renaissance of interest and enrollments in Latin in American schools over the past twenty years, and the resultant demand for more secondary school Latin teachers, many of the persons enrolled in our Independent Study courses have been teachers certified in other fields who are seeking refresher courses as preparation for their new assignments in the Latin classroom. These teacher-students have been particularly recommended text, Latin for the 21st Century: From Concept to Classroom, an invaluable resource for their own classroom teaching.

Whatever your reasons for studying Latin, if you will approach your work with enthusiasm and determination, I am confident that you will find this course to be a valuable and enjoyable learning experience. It is my sincere hope that the course and this courseguide will serve your needs well; if you have any suggestions for improvements, I would be most grateful to have you e-mail me at rlafleur@parallel.park.uga.edu or write to me at the Department of Classics, Park Hall, University of Georgia, Athens GA 30602- 6203.