Here is a long windeup because I predict that the mere mention of interlinears will provoke some passionate responses, some predictable, some perhaps less so: I'm doing Latin for the second or third time. I stumbled across Maclardy's interlinear of Cicero's first speech against Cataline. I want to believe that there is a best way to learn a language like Latin or Greek for a person who is going to devote, lets say, exactly one hour per day. (Note the careful qualifications!) I think that given the fact that there is a set of methods available, and--what more or less follows from the set of methods having a decent number of members--the fact that the methods will range from the less effective to the more effective (with some variation but not too much from person to person), it would be damn nice to know which methods are more effective cause I'm a busy guy! (The reason we don't know is that nobody has done a full experiment testing possibly one can imagine perhaps as many as 25 methods.) So I stumble across the Maclardy and although I am older now and less tempted by the Byzantine than I might have been at a younger age when I was rasher about pedagogy, I have to confess to being so impressed by Maclardy's Byzantine effort that it is now the central text for this latest go at Latin. Basically, all you need to go with it is a table of paradigms. Here's a link to Google books. Just check out a few of the entries. It never lets up. Greek and Sanskrit etymology. Full Latin identification. Interlinear double text. Translation. Roman history and culture. Please nobody tell me he just did it for the money. (Was there any money in interlinears a century ago?) Anyway, I'm a week into it and I have to say that so far it is a hell of a lot more interesting than either Wheelock or Doge! I just use them on occasion to make sure that I understand my paradigms.
http://books.google.com/books?id=Ls8NAA ... q=&f=false
