What to say about the greatest interlinear?

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=Ls8NAAAAIAAJ&dq=interlinear+cicero+maclardy&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=SYJlne2LB7&sig=7aQjDdlh8iz4c4lSKFdfGhtGjV4&hl=en&ei=ak4GS6SrA4LKsQPBjZ3ACQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CAgQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=&f=false

Whatever works. I have dallied with the interlinears in the past.

As paulusnb says. Ironically, I’m not sure where the passion is in our responses that passion is where you find it, but you must find it.
Ut dicis, paulusnb, ditto. Ironicè, incertus sum ubi sit responsorum nostrorum ignem, quae ignem necesse inveniendumque esse postulant.

It looks interesting, but that link to Google Books doesn’t give away much.

I like the interlinear for a beginner’s “stepping stone” so to speak. It shows one how to have a good technique of reading/interpretation while reading in the first place, dealing with every word individually, and directly approaching difficult shapes and manners of the language where otherwise he may waste a lot of time reading them over and over again to try to make up his own technique at a stage where his own technique probably won’t be very reliable. It also helps him spend less time opening and closing his grammarbooks and dictionaries in order to find out or remind himself what this means or how to deal with that. As long as it is used as a “stepping stone” and not something one fixes himself on too long, it may be very helpful.

It should give you the whole book which you can download for free. I have the entire text. If it is not showing up, just do a search for “Maclardy Cicero.”

Users who are not in the US can’t always access full-text versions. Because of different copyright rules in different countries (at least, that’s the excuse).
It’s often possible to get around this if you use a proxy.

You can always read the online versions from Google anywhere via http://www.archives.org. Vide http://www.archive.org/details/firstorationcic00cicegoog
Ubicunque es, versiones interretiales (sicut DjVu et caeterae) in Google per hunc situm legi possunt: http://www.archives.org

What’s more, you can download the pdf from the Internet Archive if you choose All Files: HTTP instead of PDF(Google.com).

Ingrid, also not from the US, so looking for ways to get around Google’s strange policies.

There is also the interlinear by William Underwood & Thomas Clark:

http://books.google.com/books?id=RWx0AAAAIAAJ&pg=RA-PA1&dq=Cicero's+orations+interlinear#v=onepage&q=&f=false

It has a few less footnotes :slight_smile:

http://hampie.se/latin/cicero.html

Since I have so many better things to do. Voíla, interlinear in HTML. Only the first paragraph though.