Found in Antiquity

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multae vaccae sunt in terrā! In Minecraftium ep 3, Christopherus shows me how to get lots of cows, but a creeper sneaks into my field... I hope it doesn't explode our precious cows...

Friendly Latin stories from 1934: A Roman Matron and her daughter. I talk to some tiny students in this video, and do a little picture-talk with the illustration.

It’s no wonder that reconstructed Latin is so often pronounced with an English or German accent when our textbooks are all written with advice like “c as in cat” (making you do an aspirated c) or “o as in pot” (a sound which varies according to English accents). Mapping Latin sounds onto English sounds inevitably causes students and teachers to reuse their not-quite-the-same native sounds instead of hearing and learning Latin sounds. I made this pronunciation video series to fill that gap and provide a way of demonstrating Latin pronunciation while staying 100% in the target language.

Does Grammar Analysis matter, if our main goal is being able to actually understand stuff written in Latin? Does putting labels on the ablative have any bearing to translating? Not much at all, it appears (at least in my small sample of student test scores).

I’ve changed my mind - the comprehensible input stuff is actually incredibly powerful for learning language, even dead languages like Latin, Ancient Greek, and Biblical Hebrew. The one thing I can’t even make myself enjoy is the poster-child of CI in Latin, Orberg’s Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata. I compare the pedagogy of this textbook to the pedagogy of Aleph with Beth’s video series of Biblical Hebrew, and explain how well-crafted video resources may have a far greater impact on language acquisition than print textbooks. 

In this post, I discuss some of the problems in teaching Latin via comprehensible input, specifically in getting students to even notice the accusative case if too many predictable SOV sentence patterns are used. For example, in the introductory chapter for the accusative in Orberg’s Lingua Latina, students can guess correctly 88% of the time that the subject is the first word in the sentence, and in the remaining 12% the context doesn’t make it obvious that they have made a mistake in comprehension. I propose ways we can write sentences that solve this problem.

The rhythm of poetry arises from the natural long and short sounds of the language, but the way it is often taught is in the reverse: learn these rules and use puzzle-logic to figure out where the macrons are. In this post I explore what it is like to teach Latin scansion by starting with a text with all macrons printed. 

How fast can you put a toga on? Quite fast, it turns out. I feel like I take longer to put on layers of pants and shirts to be honest, but maybe that’s just me being lazy.

Latin adjectives come before the word they describe more often than they come after! It was all liiies!

A look at past and present views, and an analysis of -que words in Aeneid book 1.

"No one volunteers for res," she says, a little ruefully.’

But there was one Julian, a centurion, that came from Bithynia... This man... leaped out, and of himself alone put the Jews to flight, when they were already conquerors; and made them retire as far as the corner of the inner court of the temple. From him the multitude fled away in crowds: as supposing that neither his strength, nor his violent attacks could be those of a mere man. Accordingly he rushed through the midst of the Jews, as they were dispersed all abroad, and killed those that he caught. Nor indeed was there any sight that appeared more wonderful in the eyes of Cæsar, or more terrible to others, than this. However, he was himself pursued by fate; which it was not possible, that he, who was but a mortal man, should escape. For as he had shoes all full of thick and sharp nails; as had every one of the other soldiers; so when he ran on the pavement of the temple, he slipped, and fell down upon his back with a very great noise which was made by his armour. This made those that were running away to turn back. Whereupon those Romans that were in the tower of Antonia set up a great shout, as they were in fear for the man. But the Jews got about him in crowds, and struck at him with their spears, and with their swords, on all sides. Now he received a great many of the strokes of these iron weapons upon his shield, and often attempted to get up again: but was thrown down by those that struck at him. Yet did he, as he lay along, stab many of them with his sword. Nor was he soon killed; as being covered with his helmet, and his breast-plate, in all those parts of his body where he might be mortally wounded: he also pulled his neck close to his body, till all his other limbs were shattered, and no body durst come to defend him; and then he yielded to his fate.

Latin has six tenses and Ancient Greek has seven, but how many tenses do you think English has? In this post, I consider how languages might be more or less precise than each other in different ways, and compare the number of tenses available in English, Greek and Latin.

For more thoughts on how well these little kids are doing in Latin, check out my latest blog post (http://foundinantiquity.com/2015/05/01/a-latin-counting-song-and-thoughts-on-primary-latin/)