More wired than a Roman Internet café

Latinum Institute's Blog – October 2008 Archive (4)

Reading Latin Aloud

Goals - oral and aural appreciation.

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One thing strikes me - so much of the very substance of a Classical Roman text - for example, Cicero, is determined by technical metrical effects - his very choice of words is driven by the metrical requirements of his prose, especially at the ends of sentences and clauses. I do not believe one can properly appreciate what Cicero, or any Classical author, or poet was doing with language, unless one appreciates the… Continue

Added by Latinum Institute on October 27, 2008 at 6:22am — 3 Comments

You Tube Verb Videos

I have made some movies for learning the Latin verb, based on the concept of a verb wall (c.f. Sam Sams circa 1830) and the Method of Loci (c.f. Simonides circa 500 BCE).
These can be found here.

Added by Latinum Institute on October 14, 2008 at 5:02am — No Comments

Latin Language Nests?

I did my undergraduate studies in New Zealand. In my first year at University, a group of Maori started up a programme, calledTe Kohanga Reo - which translated loosely as "Maori Language Nests". A big political debate raged around this at the time.

Maori as a language was on the verge of extinction. The idea - a brainwave - was to set up kindergartens where the immersion language would be Maori. These kindergartens were for ages… Continue

Added by Latinum Institute on October 14, 2008 at 4:30am — No Comments

The Death of a Language?

Transcript of Latinum Podcast Episode:

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In 2003, Michael Thomas Connaghton published a short thesis on the use of Latin in the Vatican State – in the hope of demonstrating that Latin was still alive. Instead, his thesis outlined the last gasp of Latin as a spoken language – across the Vatican, latin as a language of daily intercourse is now in effect confined to a single room – the so-called “Office of Letters”. The main Latinist, Reginald Foster,… Continue

Added by Latinum Institute on October 5, 2008 at 6:00am — 11 Comments