Hi guys. I’m starting to learn latin on my own witht he ‘latin: an intensive course’ book, and i’m looking for a book to accompany it that will teach me spoken latin. any help will be appreciated. Thanks!
I always recommend spending a semester in a Latin-speaking country. You’ll be amazed how much your Latin will improve.
are you joking or are there countries that speak latin as their national language? what countries did you have in mind?
I think he was joking. Hehe.
The only place where Latin is official is the Vatican. Though it is said that Italian is used for most ocassions, they still use Latin for all the official things, and of course, mass in Latin.
Not many people who study Latin see the point in learning to speak it like you would any other language, which is unfortunate, at least for me.
If you’re wondering about the pronunciation of Latin, this has been discussed on this board before. The Vatican uses a pronunciation based on Italian; in other countries, it is usually pronounced with the phonetic inventory of that country’s language; and yet others, follow a Classical pronunciation, but even this one varies in different countries and/or schools.
Here’s a post in which Benissimus was compiling sites with spoken Latin:
http://discourse.textkit.com/t/latin-audio/3356/1
Unfortunately I do not believe there is a book from our era that teaches Latin in such a way that you will be able to speak it easily.
How about from the 16-17,00’s?
It occurred to me in my last reply that that would probably be the case, but I have seen no such textbook. I imagine the ones that do survive are in terrible condition.
I doubt they would be of much help anyway, since the pronounciation of latin would be taught by comparison to english, which would have been pronounced quite differently than it is today. Look at some earlier threats, we can’t even agree how english is pronounced today!
i’m no so much concerned with the pronounciation in those books, as there are many good books today on pronounciation, but more interested in the grammar beyond reading, being able to hear it, understand it, and speak it. maybe it’s not possible.
Conversational Latin for Oral Proficiency: Phrase Book and Dictionary
by John C. Traupman, Laurie Haight Keenan, Georgine Cooper
I saw it at the store, but did not really see the point in having it.
i heard that for many years students at harvard would only speak latin while on the campus. anyone else heard this story?
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