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lacuna mutata

[... ] a wonderful phrase

lacuna mutata

aint no [... ] craze

it means textual emendations

for the rest of your days

it's a source [...] free

ambiguity

lac[... ]

#catullus #sappho #classical greek #classical latin #my brain is so cooked

dum spiro spero

#dark academia #dark academia aesthetic #classical latin #latin #classics #classics major

sometimes i get the urge to translate my fics into classical latin

#ao3 writers #language #languages #latin #classical latin #latin language #clearly a terrible idea #don't let me do this #if i try #i will cry #and i will die #do Not let me do this

Every now and then, when I am feeling particularly brave, I pull one of my old Latin course books off the shelf, open to a random paragraph, and start marking it up and translating.

Just enough to keep the machinery alive. Circle the finite verbs. Bracket the relative clauses. Mutter “purpose clause” to myself. It keeps the brain agile.

It also keeps me humble, because nothing strikes fear into the heart of man quite like seeing five subordinate clauses, a passive periphrastic, and a deponent verb glaring at you.

My handwriting is atrocious.

Some of you may recognise a few familiar names in this photo. That is because this is, in fact, the Latin translation of The Hobbit. Yes. Someone sat down, looked at Tolkien, and thought: “You know what this needs? More declensions.”

#ancient rome #latin #phd life #classical latin #latin killed the romans and now it's killing me

I’m interested in learning Latin, where would you suggest I start?

So exciting! I'll try to keep this short:

I recommend starting with this very short informal intro, especially if you don't have a strong grasp on technical terms about grammar (most textbooks take that for granted). Latin grammar follows a rigid organisational system and the earlier you understand how it works, the easier it will be to learn the rest of the language. The 18-page PDF in the link uses English examples and practice questions to go through basic Latin grammar concepts and tables. It doesn't go through less basic things like participles or conditional clauses, but it does explain everything you need to know in order to learn those more easily. It also includes a hyperlinked list of good online resources for self-taught Latin and Greek students.

If you want to work through a textbook, Wheelock's Latin is probably the most widely used and comes with a lot of accompanying resources and guides (even though the official website looks older than Rome). Ecce Romani may be a bit more approachable and there are plenty of unofficial online lessons and guides made to go along with it. Those are my top two personally; I know some people like Latin Via Ovid because the practice texts are adapted from an actual ancient text about different myths, but imho I don't think it's as good a starting point if you're teaching yourself from scratch. Keep in mind that they'll all follow different formats for conjugation/declension tables, which can make it a bit confusing to switch between them; the short intro in that first link is a good way to understand how these charts work well enough to use them no matter the format.

There are tons of free resources online, even including full recordings of lessons, live study groups to join, communities with forum posting, and written-out explanations. For any individual concept that's troubling you, there are almost definitely multiple youtube videos of someone in front of a whiteboard saying it differently from the textbooks. Again, there's a good list included in that first document.

For practice in reading and understanding without deliberately translating, it's fun to try reading Latin translations of books you already know well in English, like Harrius Potter, Hobbitus Ille, Winnie Ille Pu, Alicia In Terra Mirabili, and many, many more, most of which are free on Archive and/or can be bought as physical copies.

However, this will be much more rewarding once you've built up some vocabulary and grammar, and might be frustrating or discouraging if you try the long ones too early, especially since they sometimes use words irregularly to convey modern meanings.

There are also a handful of recently-written stories in Latin targeted at students who like this kind of practice more. The German Netflix series Barbarians has all the Roman characters speaking in real Latin, and listening to it with subtitles can help build your ear for what sounds right.

Those are my recs for where to start! If you're stuck on something and can't find a good explanation, you can also send me an ask about it and I'm always happy to lay out how I think about it (even if my response times are irregular).

Good luck and enjoy!

#asks #anon #latin #classical latin #latin student #latin students #learning latin #learn latin #latin grammar #classics #ancient languages #ancient rome #beginners latin #latin beginners #latin beginner #latin resources

Marcus Tullius Cicero was an ancient fanfic writer.

Like, what do you mean you take your favourite historical figures and write books about them, having deep conversations about politics, ethics, and philosophy? That's not a scientific monograph! That's historical fanfiction!

#marcus tullius cicero #de re publica #de officiis #classical latin #ancient rome