Hi all,
I’ve been going over my Wheelock’s vocabulary and rememorizing (to make up for a shameful neglect of study over the summer 
), and was wondering- how important is it to memorize the macrons, and what are the rules for placing them? I thought there was a topic on that here, but much searching yielded no results. 
Also, I’m awaiting the first book of Lingua Latina, Familia Romana, and just wanted to make sure that’s the only book in the series I need to start. 
Thanks!
The importance of macrons depends on your own goals in studying Latin. Here are some reasons to learn vowel length:
Proper pronunciation - if you want to venture into conversational Latin, you’ll want to be adept at hearing and using correct vowel quantity.
Poetry - if you want to gain a genuine appreciation for the sound of Latin poetry, you have to understand the meter at work. And the meters, rather than being accentual-syllabic, like English poetry, are quantitative.
However, if you intend to stick with prose for the rest of your life, macrons aren’t really necessary. The vast majority of Latin texts have no macrons, so knowing that the nominative singular of fluctus has a short u whereas the genitive singular has a long u will not be reflected by the texts you’re reading. You’ll still have to guess, just as you will with the nominative and ablative singular of the 1st declension. Let’s look at Hu’s example of malum and mAlum. Yes, it helps to know that the two words have different vowel lengths. But you’ll still have to rely on context to figure out which word is at issue - unless you’re reading Familia Romana or some other graded reader that uses macrons!
Do some searching in the forum archives for “macrons.” There have been some vigorous discussions about their utility in studying Latin that you might enjoy reading.
I admire your persistence and dedication to Latin. May you have continued success and may your study of the classics bring with it immense satisfaction!
David
EDIT: There is one other good reason to heed the macrons. 3) Namely, the accent of Latin words depends largely on vowel length. That is, as you probably know, the accent falls on the antepenultimate (the syllable before the next to last) unless the penultimate (next to the last syllable) is long. However, this doesn’t mean that you have to MEMORIZE the macrons, only that, when you first encounter a word, you should USE the macrons to determine the pronunciation of the word. (And actually, knowing the placement of accent often indicates the length of vowels.)
[edited again for a mistake]
Thank you both for your replies and advice.
I am interested in conversational Latin, and more especially in Latin poetry, so I will go ahead and learn the macrons. It’d be a bit unfortunate anyway, to go to all the trouble of learning Latin and to not be able to speak it!
David- thank you for the kind words and wishes!
Allow me to second the well wishes! It sounds like you’re going on the right path, Fabiola; after having garnered a fine foundation with Wheelock, Lingua Latina is all you’re going to need to get very neary Latin fluency in reading and, with practice, speech. You may know I like to hold Latin conversations through Skype with my friends here, and as soon as you like you’re welcome to join us.
By the way, David, we should arrange another conuenium if you have time.
care Luci,
Yes, that would please me very much. Though, I must admit, I’ve been practing Korean conversation far more than Latin, these days! I try to do a little Latin every morning, though, and having the recordings that you and others have so graciously and gracefully provided helps a lot (prae ceteris longis in subterraneis itineribus, in eo quo anglice “subway” nomen est).
I’ll let you know when my schedule opens up a bit.
ualde uale,
David
EDIT: Fabiola, nihil laboris! mihi ista aufer! gaudium mihi fecisse! And, of course–bonam fortunam!
Thank you both.
Thanks for the invitation to chat, Lucus! I might take you up on that sometime, once I have a better grasp of classical pronounciation. But right now my pronounciation is very.. strange. Think southern/midwestern american girl meets ecclesiastical and classical pronounciation and gets it all royally mixed up.
I got my copy of Lingua Latina- I’m really enjoying it, and it really does help you to develop a “thinking” approach to the language instead of just translating it!
Sounds terrific, Fabiola! Enjoy!