Description and Objectives

Students will continue their overview of all the grammar and morphology of the Latin language begun in Elementary Latin, and begin reading some unadapted ancient and medieval texts (e.g. Vergil, Catullus, Caesar, the Vulgate, medieval texts, etc.).

Students will begin taking the quarterly Morphology Exam, a 100-point multiple choice exam comprehensive of all the forms of nouns, adjectives, pronouns, and verbs of the language administered to Latin students at all levels.

Two semesters. Offered every year. Prerequisite: Elementary Latin.

Textbooks

Required

Jerome’s Introduction to Latin. Lionel Yaceczko.

Students will be given a personal copy of the textbook, which must be brought to class every day. New copies may be purchased for $9.99 (ebook) or $24.99 (paperback).

A Slave of Catiline by Paul Anderson.

I: Slave of Catiline Chapter One

Recommended

• one of the many Latin-English dictionaries available—especially recommended is the C. T. Lewis Elementary Latin Dictionary available from Oxford University Press. This book will cost about $60 new, but will last and potentially be used for decades.
• a standard reference grammar—for example Allen and Greenough’s New Latin Grammar (many publishers’ editions available from the original typesetting).

These are reference works to be used for a lifetime, and the student is strongly urged to make these purchases rather than relying on the free, digital versions available online (even though these are also to be used by beginning students as a last resort and by advanced students as needed).

The reasoon for this is that digital versions of reference works are not equal to codex versions (a “codex” is a book with a spine and quires, or bundles of pages).

This is because they lack the essential characteristic of delay, the interval between the time when the question arises in the mind and the time when the question is answered. This is the time period in which the space in the memory where new information will dwell is created.

One way to think of “learning” is: the expansion of the capacity for memory and the actual exercise of memory. Using digital reference works causes us to skip this essential step of the learning process.

For example, ask yourself: how many phone numbers have I learned?

Course Requirements

These course requirements may be slightly different from one year to the next, but the tasks are essentially the same.

Students will be expected to memorize paradigms for quizzes. On paradigm quizzes, the student will need to be able to reproduce the paradigm as it appears in the textbook.

Students will be expected to memorize vocabulary lists for quizzes.

Students will be expected to prepare sentences for in-class translation on most days when there is not a quiz or test. This means being able to look at the Latin sentence in class and give an English translation, without looking back at your notes or hand-written translation.

Students will take at least four tests, usually one per quarter. These tests will be comprehensive of the sentences, vocabulary, and paradigms of several chapters. If the student is consistently preparing for daily translations and quizzes, he should not need to study for these tests.

Goals for Student Learning

Why do we do this?

The goal for student learning is to ensure that you either 1.) have mastered the morphology and the base vocabulary of Latin, or at least 2.) know what exercises are necessary to accomplish this goal by doing these exercises.

These goals will prepare you for any Advanced Latin course.

• Master the 1,000 most common words in the Latin language. This vocabulary is based on word frequencies in the Latin literature of the first two centuries of either Era. The list, originally compiled by the University of Liège, was digitized by the Classics Department of Dickinson College, and may be found here:

http://dcc.dickinson.edu/latin-vocabulary-list

• Master all the morphology of the Latin language:

Nouns: be able to decline all 1st–5th declension nouns.

e.g.

1st: terra, -ae, f.

2nd masc.: animus, -i, m.

2nd neut.: bellum, -i, n.

3rd: rex, regis, m.

4th: manus, -us, f.

5th: res, rei, f.

Adjectives: be able to decline all adjectives, those of the 1st-2nd declension, and those of the 3rd declension. Be able also to form the comparative degree and superlative degree from the lexical form of an adjective. Be able also to form the positive, comparative, and superlative degrees of adverbs from the lexical form of an adjective.

e.g.

1st-2nd declension: altus, -a, -um, high; altior, altius, higher, rather high, too high; altissimus, -a, -um, highest, very high (quam altissimus, as high as possible)

alte, highly; altius, more highly, rather highly, too highly; altissime, most highly, very highly (quam altissime, as highly as possible)

3rd declension adjectives: gravis, -e, heavy; gravior, gravius, heavier, rather heavy, too heavy; gravissimus, -a, -um, heaviest, very heavy (quam gravissimus, as heavy as possible)

Pronouns and Demonstratives (collectively considered “demonstratives” for the purposes of doing a DAN): be able to decline all the demonstrative pronouns and adjectives:

• hic, haec, hoc, this (in front of me); the latter

• iste, ista, istud, that (in front of you)

• ille, illa, illud, that (in front of him); the former

• is, ea, id, this/that (an adjective of weaker identity); he/she/it (the most common form of the 3rd person pronoun)

• qui, quae, quod, who/which; that (the relative pronoun)

Verbs: be able to conjugate verbs of all conjugations, 1st–4th as well as irregulars.

e.g.

1st: puto, putare, putavi, putatus, think

2nd: doceo, docere, docui, doctus, teach

3rd: lego, legere, legi, lectus, read

3rd (-io): capio, capere, cepi, captus, take

4th: aperio, aperire, aperui, apertus, open

The five aspects of a verb are: Person, Number, Tense, Voice, and Mood.

• Person: 1st, 2nd, 3rd

• Number: Singular, Plural

• Tense: Present, Imperfect, Future (the Present System); Perfect, Pluperfect, Future Perfect (the Perfect System)

• Voice: Active, Passive

• Mood: Indicative, Subjunctive, Infinitive, Participle, Imperative

There are thus approximately 172 forms for any regular Latin verb.

Successful Students

• Study Latin at least fifteen solid minutes every day of the week, (that means tunnel vision from 0–15, no distractions, no touching or looking at a phone, not even a bathroom break.
• Re-translate, as soon as possible, on the same day, what we have translated together in class, to consolidate and firmly establish new knowledge.
• Seek extra help—don’t wait until you have a problem!—outside of class, not only from the instructor, who is available before/after school every day, but also from classmates. Students in advanced Latin classes will be happy to help!
• Do synopses and DANS, at least one per week.