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Introduction to Latin

I have observed that many people on eRepublik have taken an interest in Latin. Many use Latin mottos for their newspapers such as one I recall that used their Scottish clan’s motto, “Fac et Spera.” Many more use it for their businesses, such as Domus and still others use Latin names like Mercatoria and Antonius. It’s all around us.

In the RL, it is just as pervasive. Sixty percent of all vocabulary in the English language, by some estimates, is derived ultimately from the Latin language or “lingua Latina.” It is also the basis for what are called the Romance languages – Spanish, Italian, French, Romanian, Portuguese and all derivations thereof. They’re not called “Romance” because they pertain to love, but because Latin was the language of the Roman Empire, so they are all Roman languages.

It’s an important language to know and it can boost your SAT scores more than any of language. Knowledge of Latin can also improve your English writing ability, understanding of language in general, and increase your vocabulary.

It is a good idea to have a general idea of what Latin is, where it came from, and how it developed over time. It began as you may already know in an area of Italy known as Latium of which Roma, an Etruscan city, was a part. These peoples were known as the Latins. It is of the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages (there are eleven other branches such as Semitic, Teutonic, and the oldest being Indic).

Eventually, the Etruscan Kings were overthrown and a republic was established. In fact, this is where the term republic comes from, “Res Publica.” The city grew in power and began to slowly take over other Italian areas, first Latium, then central Italy, and so on. And they took their language with them. We know very little about this early period of Latin because very little of it survives. It is known as the archaic period of Latin.

Beginning in the 3rd century BCE, Latin becomes a literary language. This is equivalent in English to the 14th century CE when Chaucer becomes the first literary icon in English. Prior to this, Latin or French was dominant in politics and literature. It is the same with Latin, poets and playwrights begin (or at least, these are the earliest known authors) to write literature including a well known author named Plautus. His work would later influence Shakespeare.

I will cut short this history of Latin at this point and will return to it in a later article. For now, let’s look at the structure of Latin. It’s a little different from English. In modern English, word order determines the meaning of a sentence. In Latin, however, this is not the case. It generally follows the pattern Subject Object Verb (or SOV) but if you reverse the sentence, it will mean essentially the same. Here is an example:

John gave Julia a rose.
A rose gave Julia John.

They mean completely different things but use the exact same words. In Latin, however….

Castra errant Alba Longa

Alba Longa errant Castra

They both translate to, “the camp was Alba Longa.” The reason for this difference is that Latin relies on a system known as declensions, -us, -is, -as, -um, -em, -am, -ae, -at, -i, -a, -o are all examples of declensions. These declensions modify the meaning of a word, making it singular or plural, subject or object.

Exampli gratia (e.g.)

Singular
amo – I like; am liking; do like
amas – you like; are liking; do like
amat - he, she, it likes; is liking; does like

Plural
amamus – we like; are liking; do like
amatis – you like; are liking; do like
amant – they like; are liking; do like

Pronunciation

Latin is pronounced slightly differently from modern languages. It used a different alphabet and used different sounds for words. Here’s a famous saying:

“Veni, Vidi, Vici. “

Famous words, no doubt. And nearly always mispronounced and misunderstood. I will get to the latter in another article, but for the former Latin had neither “w” nor “u,” and so “v” took the place of both. So you would pronounce this quote we-knee, we-dee, we-key. The author of that remark is known as Julius Caesar, my namesake on eRepublik. In the first century CE his full name was Gaivs Ivlivs Caesar. His name would be pronounced, guy-you-s you-lee-us kai-zar.

I think that is all we will cover today. Stay tuned for the next article in this series. For now, watch this video for the most hilarious Latin lesson in history:

Romanes Eunt Domus?

Links to excellent Latin resources:

Lessons in Latin parsing: containing the outlines of the Latin grammar, divided into short portions, and exemplified by appropriate exercises in parsing

By Chauncey Allen Goodrich of Harvard, 1838

http://books.google.ca/books?id=H6UAAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=latin&lr=&as_drrb_is=b&as_minm_is=1&as_miny_is=0&as_maxm_is=12&as_maxy_is=1960&num=100&as_brr=1#v=onepage&q=&f=false