Just recently, I was chatting with a friend who took up an interest in Latin. That friend took up the initiation through a popular language app, and said that although it was very good, it was a struggle with the explanations (and, frequently, the lack thereof).
As I was fortunate enough to learn a little bit of Latin, and as I feel it is a very useful language for everyone to learn, I’m leaving you a few important tips here that, I believe, will help English natives with the language.
It is understandable that Latin can be harder for English natives than, say, Spanish and Portuguese ones. English comes from old Germanic languages, like German, and although it inherited quite a fair portion of Latin words (the estimates give numbers between 15% and 30%), most of it has no direct correlation. And whereas German has the advantage of a closer structure, as it also has Declensions (getting there in a bit), English has not. For those of us who inherited Latin-derived languages, the process of learning is far easier, if anything because the vocabulary is still quite simple. Observe the examples below;
Latin ——– Portuguese
Aqua ——— Água (Water)
Aquila ——- Águia (Eagle)
Rex ———– Rei (King)
Canis ——– Cão (Dog)
Mater ——- Mãe (Mother)
Occulus —- Olho (eye); Óculo (eyeglass)
Aside from the obvious correspondences, we also have derived words with the same meanings. For instance, Domus means House. The Portuguese word for house, Casa, is quite different; but words related to the household have their root in Domus, such as Doméstico (Domestic, of the household). Although this can occasionally occur in English, it is surely not as frequently as it is in Portuguese, and that makes life harder for Native English speakers.
But fear nothing! My Latin teacher was quite brilliant. He once told us to face Latin as a normal language, instead of panicking about it. People were speaking it all those centuries ago, every single day! Although, keep in mind that the Latin spoken on the streets, especially by the poorer extracts of society, was surely not the Latin of Cicero, nor that which the aristocracy usually spoke. But if you understand the harder variety, the rest will come naturally.
First important detail: the alphabet.
The Latin alphabet was, roughly, the same as ours. However, classical Latin did not have the letter V. How is that, you’ll ask me, if we often see capital V in monuments? Well, that is actually a “u”. In Latin, you only have the letter “u”, which, in its capital form, is represented with a V. Therefore, if you see a transcript of a text with words such as “duunviri” (a Roman office), be aware that this is for your own convenience, and that the original Latin spelling would have been “duunuiri”. The introduction of the V is much later, and you will surely find it in Medieval texts written in Latin, but surely not in Cicero.
Secondly, the same case occurs for the letter “J”, which Latin simply did not have. Hence, for words such as Julius (popular commander Julius Caesar, for instance), the correct spelling is actually Iulius. You will also find words with two I in a row. In Caesar’s case, I usually go with the J, as it is so deeply ingrained by now; but for all other Latin words, I prefer sticking to the original I.
Thirdly, I feel it my duty to dispel a common myth. There is no such thing as Caius Iulius Caesar! What you have is Gaius Iulius Caesar. The confusion comes from Epigraphic Tablets (ancient Latin inscriptions in stone): ancient Latin often used abbreviations, and the abbreviation of Gaius is, in fact, a C. When you see a C in a Latin inscription, followed by a dot (C.), you should read Gaius.
Fourthly, punctuation. Ancient Romans did not use punctuation – they did not even have spaces. Writing was just a long continuum of letters, with no interval whatsoever. Any punctuation you find is added during modern-day edition. Be aware that, on occasion, it may change our understanding of a sentence, although this is usually not a big issue nor something to worry about, unless you’re doing an academic translation or doing actual source study regarding those matters 🙂
Ok, now that we cleared that up, let’s look into the first important point regarding the Latin language: Declensions. A fearsome word, if you’re new to it. What does it mean? Well, it means that each word will be said differently, depending on its positioning on the sentence. For instance, if you mean to say “The dog eats the fish”, you will say “Canis piscem manducat” (Canis = dog, piscis = fish). But if you want to say, “The fish eats the dog”, you will say “Piscis canem manducat”.
Depending on whether the word is a Subject, a Direct Object, an Indirect Object, or any other sort of Object (lel), it is said in a different way. Don’t panic, though. The root of the word is always the same, and the usual marks for each case don’t really change much, either. It is perfectly doable! You will need to memorise the declensions, however. And the cases. How many cases are there? Six.
Nominative case: it represents the subject. Example: Julius sent a present to Pompey.
Accusative case: it represents the Direct Object (when you ask the verb “What” or “Whom”). Example: Julius sent a present to Pompey.
Dative case: it represents the Indirect Object (when you ask the verb “to whom?”). Example: Julius sent a present to Pompey.
Genitive case: it expresses a relationship of ownership or belonging. Example: Pompey’s present was not cool. The present is “of Pompey”, it belongs to him. In English, the Genitive case is often represented by the possessive ” ‘s “.
Ablative case: every other Object in relation to the world. If it doesn’t fit anywhere else, it will likely be an Ablative. I will not give an example here, because there are dozens of chances, and you can work by exclusion X’D
Vocative case: an invocation. For instance, when you say : Gaius Julius, go clear up your room! The Vocative case is always identical to the Nominative, except for one particular cade: the masculines of the Second Declension.
Going back to Declensions, there are five. Within these five, there are respective subdivisions, as I will now explain:
Latin has three genders, just like English and German: Masculine, Feminine and Neutral. Most words in the First Declension are feminine (exceptions, for instance, being Nauta, Sailor); even when not, they’re always declensed the same way. Most words in the Second Declension are masculine (exception: tree names, for instance, such as Inuperus, the Juniper tree); they’re all also declensed the same way.
Then, for Third, Fourth and Fifth declensions, you have a division. Masculines and Feminines are declensed one way; Neutrals are declensed another way, and have their particular characteristics. We’ll get there on the following posts, where I will explain more about each particular declension, and then enter the fantastic and frightening world of Latin verbs XD Hope this was useful for someone!
The Historian Chronicles 