1	YOU ARE NOW IN THE LATIN ZONE But where are we going? Here’s your road map:
2	Your Mission (the TEKS) Communication (listening, speaking, reading, and writing ) Cultures Connections (with other subject areas) Comparisons (to own language & culture) Communities (A) engage in oral and written exchanges of learned material to socialize and to provide and obtain information; (B) demonstrate understanding of simple, clearly spoken, and written language such as simple stories, high-frequency commands, and brief instructions when dealing with familiar topics; and (C) present information using familiar words, phrases, and sentences to listeners and readers.
3	Is Latin Hard? Is playing soccer hard? Is playing a musical instrument hard? Is learning a new computer game hard? Is reading a good book hard? IT JUST TAKES CONSISTENT PRACTICE! The more you try, the better you’ll do.
4	It starts easy… Cerberus est canis. Metella est māter. Caecilius est pater. Cerberus is the dog. Metella is the mother. Caecilius is the father.
5	Latin is Inflectional: It’s all about the endings! Metella est māter. Caecilius Metellam videt. Caecilius sees Metella. Caecilius est pater. Metella Caecilium videt. Metella sees Caecilius. canis est Cerberus. māter canem videt. The mother sees the dog. 1^st declension (Amazons) mainly feminine 2^nd declension (Dudes) mainly masculine 3^rd declension (Mixers) can be either gender
6	How important are the endings? The slave gives the dog to the girl. The girl gives the slave to the dog. The dog gives the girl to the slave. These sentences all mean different things because of the word order. servus puellae canem dat. puellae canem servus dat. canem servus puellae dat. These all mean the same even though the word order is different: The slave gives the dog to the girl. The endings not the order give meaning to Latin.
7	How do the endings work? Nominative = subject -a -us -is Accusative = direct object -am -um -em Dative = indirect object -ae -ō -ī The slave gives the dog to the girl. servus puellae canem dat. The girl gives the slave to the dog. puella canī servum dat. The dog gives the girl to the slave. canis servō puellam dat.
8	How many endings are there? Lots…but we only learn them a few at a time. If you don’t learn them when you are supposed to, then you will have A LOT to learn later on and you might find it confusing. By the end of the year you will know all of these endings:
9	Will we have to study grammar? Yes, but we will be moving slowly through terminology and concepts. You’ll actually like it too because things that never made sense in English will now be clear. Concepts covered this year: Subjects = The dog is asleep. Predicate Nominative/Adj = The dog is Cerberus / brown. Direct Objects = The dog bit the boy. Indirect Objects = The boy gave a bone to the dog. Prepositional Phrases = The dog is in the street. Dependent clauses = The dog barked because a thief entered the house.
10	What about verbs? Verbs in Latin are, for the most part, all-in-one. There are no helping or auxiliary verbs, nor a need for pronouns to indicate who is the subject. The person or subject, if not indicated by an actual noun or pronoun in the nominative case, will be on the personal endings.
11	What is Subject/Verb Agreement? It’s when the ending on the verb changes to match up with the subject. In English, we see it mainly in 3^rd person singular (she/he/it): I see. You see. He sees. We see. Y’all see. They see. In Latin, subject/verb agreement is critical and exists for each person (1^st, 2^nd, & 3^rd), singular and plural: ego videō. tū vidēs. servus videt. nōs vidēmus. vōs vidētis. servī vident.
12	Other Verb Forms You’ve Heard Imperatives: used for giving orders ENGLISH: Look at the jobs. (both singular and plural) LATIN: spectā officia. (singular) spectāte officia. (plural) Infinitives: the “to do” form ENGLISH: It’s necessary for you to look at the jobs. LATIN: necesse est tibi spectāre officia.
13	How do you change tenses? The Present tense (happening now) is the present verb stem (imperative sing.) plus endings. spectō. spectās. spectat. spectāmus. spectātis. spectant. The Imperfect tense is the present verb stem, a tense indicator (ba) (“was” -ing), & endings. spectābam. spectābās. spectābat. spectābāmus. spectābātis. spectābant.
14	What are derivatives?
15	Why are languages related? These are ROMANCE languages, not because they are romantic, but because they are all descendents from the Romans who brought Latin to most of western Europe. Latin was also the international language for nearly 2000 years—up until the 18^th century.
16	Where did the Romans rule? The Roman Empire at the time of Trajan, 116 AD This includes: Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, in the West where Latin was spoken. . . .
17	How Latin got into English Latin entered English twice. First through French via the Norman invasion of 1066; then straight into English during the Renaissance. Over 60% of English—90% if we are talking words of 3 syllables or more—and 80% of Spanish is from Latin.
18	What else will we learn? Roman daily life from food & clothing to gladiators & bathhouses A little bit of Roman history A little bit about the Olympian gods And, we will clean & study real Roman coins!
19	Why do we want to read Latin? Why can’t we just read a translation in English? Can’t we just study roots, prefixes and suffixes? The real reason to study Latin is to read what people who lived before us wrote, in their own words, expressing their own thoughts and emotions in exactly their own way. ōdī et amō. quārē id faciam, fortasse requīris. nescio, sed fierī sentiō et excrucior. If Latin is useless, then so is J.K. Rowling or Stephen King. And so is popular music, which many of us could not live without. The mind and soul need to be fed constantly, authors need to speak to us whether its from 2000 miles away or 2000 years away.
20	What is certamen? JCL? CERTAMEN is a team competition where students answer a variety of questions on topics such as Mythology, Roman History, Roman Social Life, Vocabulary, Derivatives & Grammar. Each team has four players. Practice has yet to be determined (probably during B lunch). There will be three tournaments before Area JCL competition in February. JCL is the Junior Classical League. Competitions are at the area, state and national level. We usually only go to area but state is not out of the question. Other competitions include a variety of written tests, art, dramatic interpretation, and athletic events.
21	Can I join Latin Club? ABSOLUTELY! Any 7^th or 8^th grade Latin student is welcome to join. It costs $1 this year. Latin club is mainly about going to competitions, but this year (with the help of our new officers) we may have more after school functions, such as: Making signet rings Playing “Go Fish” and other card games in Latin Watching classically themed movies Certamen games for the fun of it Participating, perhaps, in the Austin Kite Festival or some other local events Whatever we think up!
22	7^th graders, you are ready! Here’s what you need to do to succeed: Pay attention to the endings of words from the very beginning! (spectā caudam!) Learn your vocabulary; always participate and try your best during flash card drill. Do all the warm-ups, even if you are afraid you might get it wrong. That’s how you learn. Enjoy the thrill of learning a new language!
23	"© 2005." © 2005. Magistra Ginny Lindzey, Porter Middle School, Austin, Texas.
24	8^th Grade: That’s where we’ve been; where are we going next? Perfect the Perfect tense Principal Parts of Verbs Infinitives Irregular Verbs Pluperfect Tense Imperatives Positive Negative Genitive and Ablative cases Noun/Adjective agreement Relative clauses and the agreement of relative pronouns with their antecedents Participles
25	Will this year be different? The stories are longer. If you don’t practice and use the reading skills I am teaching you, you will find this aspect daunting. You should instead view this as an indication that you are indeed mastering more Latin —which is wonderful! The vocabulary quizzes may seem a little more difficult because there are more details to provide (singulars/plurals, tenses, etc). Therefore we will prepare for quizzes using quia.com. You cannot treat quizzes lightly anymore!
26	What can I do to make sure I do well this year? Work diligently to master your vocabulary. Try your hardest on all warm-ups. Work cooperatively within your century/row. Use “accountable talk” to ask the kinds of questions that will help you learn. Do all conjugation worksheets, assignments, etc. Use rigorous reading on your tests and quizzes Do all extra credit on tests and quizzes. TAKE RISKS! Don’t be so afraid of making mistakes that you never learn!
27	Will we review? Of course. We will focus especially on the perfect tense at first which we learned at the end of the year. Remember VLSUX-ed? Reduplicatives too? Can you sing the song? (ī, istī, it….)
28	Remember Principal Parts? We touched on these at the end last year, when I introduced the verb conjugation review sheets. The first new concept to master is the infinitive, the “to do” form of the verb. videō, vidēre, vīdī, vīsum I see to see I saw (seen)
29	The infinitive with a couple of very important irregular verbs possum = I am able possum potes potest possumus potestis possunt Bregāns amphoram portāre potest. Bregans is able to carry the amphora/wine jug. volō = I want volo vīs vult volumus vultis volunt Bregāns amphoram portāre vult. Bregans wants to carry the amphora/wine jug.
30	What’s the pluperfect tense? The pluperfect gives us the “had -ed” form of the verb. It uses the 3^rd principal part (perfect stem) Plus the tense indicator (-era-) Plus the regular “most, must, isn’t” personal endings laudāveram = I had praised laudāverās = you had praised laudāverat = he had praised laudāverāmus = we had praised laudāverātis = y’all had praised laudāverant = they had praised
31	Haven’t we learned imperatives? Sure, informally, but not formally in the text. Positive imperatives are formed from the infinitive by dropping the -re: spectāre > spectā! (look!) Negative imperatives are formed with nōlī plus the infinitive: nōlī (tempus) terere! (Don’t waste time!) Listen to and practice the imperatives I use in class now so that they will seem very easy when used in the text.
32	What are the new cases? The ablative case you’ve seen a lot in some prepositional phrases already. The genitive case shows possession. In English we say “of” or use ’s. in villā = in the house in villā feminae in the house of the woman in hortō amīcī in the garden of the friend in nave senis on the ship of the old man
33	What is adjective agreement? Adjective agreement is when an adjective and a noun go together. To go together they must be in the same case (nom., acc., etc) same number (sing./pl.) same gender (m, f, n) They can be in different declensions! Grumio cēnam optimam parāvit. Grumio prepared the best dinner. magna amphora servus defessus amphoram gravem servī tristēs
34	Sounds complicated. Can I just fake it? Actually, no. Understanding the concept of adjective agreement will be critical to understanding relative clauses and participles as well. What will make this easier to learn? Mastering your model sentences (and phrases) as quickly as possible! Paying closer attention to concepts of gender (masculine, feminine and neuter)! Focusing on those endings/cases!
35	What are relative clauses? Relative clauses are what we think of as WHO or WHICH clauses. They RELATE or describe the word they follow (the antecedent). To fully understand relative clauses, you have to master the concepts of case (nom, acc, dat), number (s/pl) and especially gender (m/f) The slave, who was carrying the amphora, was tired. servus, quī amphoram portābat, erat dēfessus. The slave girl, who was carrying the amphora, was tired. ancilla, quae amphoram portābat, erat dēfessa.
36	What’s a participle? Participles are half verb and half adjective. That is, they have objects like a verb but they modify like an adjective. Are they really that important? Yes, most of Latin literature is full of them. But if you master your endings and the concept of agreement, you can do participles too! Here is an example: The slaves, carrying the master, entered the house. servī, dominum portantēs, vīllam intrāvērunt. VERB-like: portantēs has dominum as its direct object ADJECTIVE-like: portantēs agrees in case, number and gender with servī.
37	Where’s this book set? Unit 2 opens in Roman Britain, the barbaric, uncivilized part of the Roman Empire, and ends up in Alexandria in Roman Egypt.
38	Does anything exciting happen? A slave tries to kill the new master A bull breaks loose and destroys a building There’s a king A boat race and a wreck A performing bear A bear attack A trip across the sea Gang violence Mob attack Murder, mayhem An attacking cat A crazy astrologer A crocodile hunt on the Nile River
39	This all sounds overwhelming! But remember, we’re taking it one step at a time, building our muscles slowly and steadily. You must work hard every day to keep up your strength! There will always be quia review games to help you master concepts! Do all the things I suggested previously. (Oh, what are they again?)
40	Tell me again what to do!!! Work diligently to master your vocabulary. Try your hardest on all warm-ups. Work cooperatively within your century/row. Use “accountable talk” to ask the kinds of questions that will help you learn. Do all conjugation worksheets, assignments, etc. Use rigorous reading on your tests and quizzes Do all extra credit on tests and quizzes. TAKE RISKS! Don’t be so afraid of making mistakes that you never learn!
41	"© 2005." © 2005. Magistra Ginny Lindzey, Porter Middle School, Austin, Texas.