Language of the Catholic Church and Western Civilization
Links are tucked away in the dozens and dozen of posts on this blog. And since sometimes I update old posts months later with related new finds, even if you have read every post here from the beginning, you may find something you hadn't seen in the below new list!
"Church Latin" is the informal, snappier-sounding term for the more scholarly phrase Ecclesiastical Latin, or the occasionally-used Medieval Latin. All of these terms are used to denote something different from "Classical Latin"--the Latin used by, say, Julius Caesar. Church Latin was (and is!) the Latin used by the Catholic Church for two thousand years--thus, where... Continue Reading →
All those busy Latin nouns out there, doing their jobs, using their endings, are often hard to keep track of all at once. To help show the various jobs nouns, pronouns, and adjectives are doing in each phrase, clause, and sentence, I assign a color to each case to visually reinforce what the specific case endings are telling us.
I'd like to build a network of Latin teachers who are Catholic, whether they teach Ecclesiastical or Classical Latin, whether they have a classroom or teach online, whether they help with a co-op or have their own dedicated classes.
It's really a huge project, learning Latin. It, uh...takes awhile. At long last, here is Part 2 of the post about common causes of feeling unmotivated in the middle of your Latin studies.
A dash of verb + a pinch of adjective = a participle. (After declining thoroughly, sprinkle liberally over your sentences.) Participles: Latin has three kinds. These verbal adjectives do everything: sometimes are the main verb of a clause, sometimes serve as the subject of a sentence (and do other noun jobs, when they are substantives),... Continue Reading →
Although I'm currently a small-town American who has never been outside of the USA, I'm lucky enough to have this website which gets views from all over the world. Speakers of many languages are intersted in Church Latin, hurrah! Inspired by this, I am starting a collection of Latin resources for many languages here. Feel... Continue Reading →
I've learned from my students two things that make Latin study tough, which I would like to share with all of you!
Salvete, Omnes! For those of you starting out on the grand old road of Latin study with Fr. William Most and his excellent Latin by the Natural Method as your guide, I present recordings of the Latin texts in the first four chapters of the textbook. (Eventually I hope to have the whole book recorded,... Continue Reading →
Q: What is meant by "case"? (Any why doesn't it matter which way words are arranged in a Latin sentence?)
Here are some places to find Latin words for new things you may need to talk about, such as best-sellers and mountain bikes.
Courtesy of the Teacher's Manual to Latin by the Natural Method, I learned a mnemonic for remembering the gender of many of the Latin nouns in 1st, 2nd, 4th, and 5th declensions. (3rd has many of each gender, so those are a different story!) I have made a PDF of the "Hand Rule" to illustrate... Continue Reading →
Learn Church Latin 