BEGINNERS GUIDE TO LATIN

[Hawkwood]

QUOTE: At first, it was simply a local dialect surrounded by other languages (often very closely related ones, Italic ones), and then progressively spread throughout Italy and later through Europe as the Romans conquered those territories by fire and sword.END QUOTE.

This is nit picking now & has no benefit to the guide but at end of this paragraph you mention conquest via "fire & sword" where many times 'Roman Genius' & diplomacy was favoured & implemented over 'fire & sword'. I was wondering if diplomacy could also be added to that sentence, just to give beginner another angle in context.
Doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of learning Latin, but while little issues are being addressed, I thought I'd say now.

 

[malleolus]

QUOTE: At first, it was simply a local dialect surrounded by other languages (often very closely related ones, Italic ones), and then progressively spread throughout Italy and later through Europe as the Romans conquered those territories by fire and sword.END QUOTE.

I for one find this ending really funny because, in all honesty, this is exactly what the Romans did. Do you think it might put off beginners?

 

[Hawkwood]

Yes, you're right mate, it has no bearing on this beginner guide & I am nit picking. I probably should of not really raised this as it's not important to the thread.
Probably best to remove all posts once teething issues are sorted.

 

[Anonymous Latin Guy]

gratias tibi!

 

[Honorabili Eques]

"...However, most dictionaries will only provide the nominative and genitive singular forms of nouns, the nominative masculine, feminine, and neuter forms of adjectives, and the four principal parts of verbs."

Any suggestions for a dictionary? (for English speakers)

 

[Pacifica]

Lewis & Short.

 

[Honorabili Eques]

Thank you. Once again you are "at the ready" waiting to help.

 

[Pacifica]

Np. If you need an English-Latin one as well, here's one.

 

[Honorabili Eques]

Excellent, thank you very much.

 

[psukhê]

Thank you so much for this topic and the person who take time to write this!

 

[VINDICATOR CRVX]

Gratias tibi ago. I learned a lot from it.

 

[TimFitz]

Is there a place on this site for vocab lookup?

 

[Pacifica]

Not that I know of, but we might be able to provide you with links to other places online. What sort of vocab lookup are you after (a simple Latin-English or English-Latin dictionary, or a word parser, etc...)?

 

[TimFitz]

Just simply latin for"let us live". My objective is to locate an Ovid poem that begins "Amamus et ........, Lesbia" Translated "Let us love and let us live, sweet Lesbia" My fellow students were give this poem to translate on an open book test just 4 mouths after the start of our latin studies, Those simple words always seemed so beautiful to me in both languages that I wanted to find the entire poem.
I would appreciate any help

 

[Pacifica]

"Let us live" = vivamus

The poem you're after is actually by Catullus, not Ovid. It can be found here.


V. ad Lesbiam
Vivamus, mea Lesbia, atque amemus,
rumoresque senum severiorum
omnes unius aestimemus assis!
soles occidere et redire possunt:
nobis cum semel occidit brevis lux,
nox est perpetua una dormienda.
da mi basia mille, deinde centum,
dein mille altera, dein secunda centum,
deinde usque altera mille, deinde centum.
dein, cum milia multa fecerimus,
conturbabimus illa, ne sciamus,
aut ne quis malus invidere possit,
cum tantum sciat esse basiorum.

 

[TimFitz]

What a great response! Even with the wrong poet, you found my missing poem. Thank you very much. Latin is such a beautiful language. When the Catholic Church completely abandoned it,I thought it was a mistake. The English translations are a poor substitute.

 

[Pacifica]

You're welcome. It's one of the best-known Latin poems, that's why I recognized it at once even attributed to the wrong author.

 

[Lusīfer]

very helpful i like your way of explaining its better than the one in my book