Linguistic Quiz

How do you pronounce ghoughphtheightteeau?

Stay tuned for the answer...

Some days I love comics.

Like yesterday - this was the daily Dilbert.

Reading in Latin

Today I read to my daughter in Latin for the first time. I read "Three Blind Mice" - it was a pretty good story. She was quiet through the whole book. Sweet little girl.

Can aliens speak Latin?

We're watching the 4th season of Farscape again (one of the best sci-fi shows ever) and in "A Constellation of Doubt" D'argo uses the phrase ad nauseum. How cool is that? My favorite aliens speaking my favorite language...

Books, books, fun books...

I got 4 books in the mail today and I am excited. Mostly I bought them so I could read them to my daughter, who is only 5 days old. But sooner or later she will be old enough to enjoy (let's hope this isn't just wishful thinking on my part!) the books I'm so excited about. They are...

Winnie Ille Pu - Winnie the Pooh in Latin
Tres Mures Caeci - Three Blind Mice in Latin
Quomodo Invidiosulus Nomine Grinchus Christi Natalem Abrogaverit - How the Grinch Stole Christmas in Latin
Fairy Tales in Latin

I have others, too. The Giving Tree, The Cat in the Hat, and Green Eggs and Ham in Latin. It's wonderful.

Frasier

To my delight I heard a familiar phrase on Frasier the other day...

"Numquam postea"

Ah... music to my ears.

Answer to Tribond

All three are derived from the names of Roman deities:

Veneration: Venus (Veneris, gen, 3rd decl)
Cereal: Ceres
Volcano: Vulcan

You could also add the word 'jovial' to the list... it's derived from the genitive stem of Iuppiter, Iovis.

Congratulations to Kimberlee and Richard for correctly answering... or answering at all. =)

Trivia: honorificabilitudinitatibus

In Love's Labours Lost, Shakespeare uses the longest word in any work of English literature: HONORIFICABILITUDINITATIBUS. What does it mean?

The word "honorificabilitudinitatibus" is the dative singular conjugation of a real medieval Latin word. Dante actually used it more than once, as did other writers of the period. A translation of it would be "the state of being able to achieve honors."

Love's Labour's Lost

Last week we went to see William Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost performed by Montana Shakespeare in the Parks. This has to be one of my all time favorites. Not only is it fast-paced and witty, but it defies the conventional definitions of both comedy and tragedy, falling someplace between the two. Perhaps my favorite aspect of the play is the comic relief that Holofernes presents through his musings on language. He is presented as a Latin scholar, but reveals himself as a linguistical bumbling idiot - it's funny stuff. Act V scene I might just be my favorite scene in the play:

Act 5, Scene 1

SCENE I. The same.

Enter HOLOFERNES, SIR NATHANIEL, and DULL

HOLOFERNES

Satis quod sufficit.

SIR NATHANIEL

I praise God for you, sir: your reasons at dinner
have been sharp and sententious; pleasant without
scurrility, witty without affection, audacious without
impudency, learned without opinion, and strange with-
out heresy. I did converse this quondam day with
a companion of the king's, who is intituled, nomi-
nated, or called, Don Adriano de Armado.

HOLOFERNES

Novi hominem tanquam te: his humour is lofty, his
discourse peremptory, his tongue filed, his eye
ambitious, his gait majestical, and his general
behavior vain, ridiculous, and thrasonical. He is
too picked, too spruce, too affected, too odd, as it
were, too peregrinate, as I may call it.

SIR NATHANIEL

A most singular and choice epithet.

Draws out his table-book

HOLOFERNES

He draweth out the thread of his verbosity finer
than the staple of his argument. I abhor such
fanatical phantasimes, such insociable and
point-devise companions; such rackers of
orthography, as to speak dout, fine, when he should
say doubt; det, when he should pronounce debt,--d,
e, b, t, not d, e, t: he clepeth a calf, cauf;
half, hauf; neighbour vocatur nebor; neigh
abbreviated ne. This is abhominable,--which he
would call abbominable: it insinuateth me of
insanie: anne intelligis, domine? to make frantic, lunatic.

SIR NATHANIEL

Laus Deo, bene intelligo.

HOLOFERNES

Bon, bon, fort bon, Priscian! a little scratch'd,
'twill serve.

SIR NATHANIEL

Videsne quis venit?

HOLOFERNES

Video, et gaudeo.

Enter DON ADRIANO DE ARMADO, MOTH, and COSTARD
DON

ADRIANO DE ARMADO

Chirrah!

To MOTH

HOLOFERNES

Quare chirrah, not sirrah?
DON

ADRIANO DE ARMADO

Men of peace, well encountered.

HOLOFERNES

Most military sir, salutation.

MOTH

[Aside to COSTARD] They have been at a great feast
of languages, and stolen the scraps.

COSTARD

O, they have lived long on the alms-basket of words.
I marvel thy master hath not eaten thee for a word;
for thou art not so long by the head as
honorificabilitudinitatibus: thou art easier
swallowed than a flap-dragon.

MOTH

Peace! the peal begins.
DON

ADRIANO DE ARMADO

[To HOLOFERNES] Monsieur, are you not lettered?

MOTH

Yes, yes; he teaches boys the hornbook. What is a,
b, spelt backward, with the horn on his head?

HOLOFERNES

Ba, pueritia, with a horn added.

MOTH

Ba, most silly sheep with a horn. You hear his learning.

HOLOFERNES

Quis, quis, thou consonant?

MOTH

The third of the five vowels, if you repeat them; or
the fifth, if I.

HOLOFERNES

I will repeat them,--a, e, i,--

MOTH

The sheep: the other two concludes it,--o, u.
DON

ADRIANO DE ARMADO

Now, by the salt wave of the Mediterraneum, a sweet
touch, a quick venue of wit! snip, snap, quick and
home! it rejoiceth my intellect: true wit!

MOTH

Offered by a child to an old man; which is wit-old.

HOLOFERNES

What is the figure? what is the figure?

MOTH

Horns.

HOLOFERNES

Thou disputest like an infant: go, whip thy gig.

MOTH

Lend me your horn to make one, and I will whip about
your infamy circum circa,--a gig of a cuckold's horn.

COSTARD

An I had but one penny in the world, thou shouldst
have it to buy gingerbread: hold, there is the very
remuneration I had of thy master, thou halfpenny
purse of wit, thou pigeon-egg of discretion. O, an
the heavens were so pleased that thou wert but my
bastard, what a joyful father wouldst thou make me!
Go to; thou hast it ad dunghill, at the fingers'
ends, as they say.

HOLOFERNES

O, I smell false Latin; dunghill for unguem.
DON

ADRIANO DE ARMADO

Arts-man, preambulate, we will be singled from the
barbarous. Do you not educate youth at the
charge-house on the top of the mountain?

HOLOFERNES

Or mons, the hill.
DON

ADRIANO DE ARMADO

At your sweet pleasure, for the mountain.

If you are ever presented the opportunity to see this play performed, I recommend it. It is well worth it.

Tribond

What do these three words have in common? (The answer will be posted later...)

1) Veneration
2) Cereal
3) Volcano

Latin on Prarie Home Companion

Everyone knows that Garrison Keillor loves English majors. Or loves to mock them and remind them that they can do nothing with a degree in English. But I didn't know that he loves Latin.

I am an English major. Er, well, I was until I graduated with my English degree, that is. I guess now I am an English degree holder. That counts for something, right? Not if you're looking for a job. As you know, I've become a teacher. A Latin teacher, to be exact. This is my third year and I love it. But imagine my surprise and elation when Garrison Keillor announced that his next guest would be quoting a poem in Latin! Ah... music to my ears, made sweeter by the classical pronunciation to which I adhere, but which is so often discarded for the ecclesiastical. It was beautiful and it made me glad to be addicted to NPR.

I finished it months ago, really...

After a long break, I finally picked up The Fountainhead again. This time it sucked me in and I read incessantly, tumbling through the words like Alice down the rabbit's hole. Ayn Rand always keeps me guessing and I can never predict where she's going with things. Well, that's not completely true. I always know that she's going the way of the individual, in radical defiance of community and altruism. But as far as the plot goes... it's anyone's guess.

After struggling through the first 100 pages, I found the following 450 or so quite intriguing - compelling, really. And I finished it. Check that off my list. I finished it months ago, really.

Rome Alive

Lately I've been reading Rome Alive by Peter J. Aicher. It claims to be "a source-guide to the ancient city," but its benefits go well beyond researching a visit to Rome. The book consists of two volumes. Volume I is the guide and includes maps, summaries, and English translations of the Latin and Greek sources for most of the ancient Roman monuments. Volume II includes the same maps as the first volume, and provides the original language text for the sources quoted in the first book.

As I said before, this book is beneficial not only for the traveler, but for others as well. I would recommend Rome Alive to anyone who teaches Latin (even Greek) or ancient Roman history. The supplementary volume II is an excellent resource for teachers who want to give their students the opportunity to dig out facts and do simplified research from the original language. Aicher's writing style is easy to read and gives the reader such clear and interesting information that it is hard to put the book down! The more I read, the more I wanted to continue. His source translations are also beautifully rendered, consistent with the tone and intention of each author.

Maps
Rome Alive begins with an overview map, which highlights the areas covered by the smaller maps throughout the book. This overview map is helpful for visualizing Rome and its major divisions. It is according to these divisions that Aicher divides his book into chapters. Each chapter opens with a numbered map encompassing the monuments to be discussed within, and the sources are numbered in correspondence to the numbered location on the map. Aicher not only explains the locations of the ancient sites in relation to each other, but also in relation to what stands in Rome today, both on the maps and in his summaries. Additional maps are provided as needed throughout the chapter, again numbered for easy reference to the source texts. Many of the maps in volume I are also duplicated in volume II. This facilitates reading by providing visual context for the explained monument.

Pictures
Peter Aicher includes not only a plethora of maps and illustrations, but of photos of Rome as well. Each picture seems to have been carefully chosen and placed, for each adds to the reader's understanding as he progresses through the book. For a visitor to Rome, these pictures would leave no question in his mind as to whether he were indeed glimpsing the remains of what the ancient Romans described in the sources given. I personally appreciate Aicher's including clear pictures of the aqueducts' channels; despite all of the ancient description I'd read, I did not have a clear idea until seeing the included photo. After reading the sources, referencing the maps, and studying the pictures, I am amazed at how much deeper my understanding of the technology and architecture of Rome is.

Summaries
As each new site is introduced, Peter Aicher begins with a summary of the information about the location. These summaries are short and easy to read, but give the reader a skeletal understanding of the site, which is fleshed out as the reader works his way through the sources. Aicher's summaries are true to the sources, and it is here that he addresses the socio-political issues that often impacted the inception or destruction of Roman buildings. It is in these summaries, also, that he addresses discrepancies in the sources.

Sources
The sources included in Rome Alive are the real reason I am so enthusiastic about this book. The real meat of the book is found in these. Aicher has sifted through mounds of primary sources and extracted just the right amount of the most pertinent information for each of the sites he covers. Because he references not only the author and work but also the line numbers for each source, it is not difficult to look up the complete source elsewhere for greater context of the excerpt. Aicher has translated the sources wonderfully, rendering them into easily read idiomatic English. An example of his careful translation can be seen in the rhyme of this excerpt from Suetonius' Nero (39.2):

Nero proved surprisingly tolerant towards those who made him the target of their witticisms and verse-lampoons. There were many of these in circulation, in Greek as well as in Latin. The following about the Golden House is one example:

Rome is now a private home,
It's time to emigrate -
Assuming other lands exist
When they finish this estate.

While the sources in volume I have been translated into English, I can't begin to express how easy it is to cross-reference them with their original language text using volume II. Because each source in volume I is numbered (according to the monument number on the maps) and the corresponding Latin or Greek source is given the same numbering in volume II, checking the original text is extremely simple. This is my favorite aspect of the set - and what makes these books such an amazing resource for teachers and students alike.

Inscriptions
As a visitor's guide to Rome, some of the most valuable references Peter Aicher includes in Rome Alive are his translations of the monuments' inscriptions. When I visited Rome, I wished I knew what the monuments said. Later, when I had learned Latin, I tried to decipher the inscriptions but found the abbreviations difficult. Peter Aicher has included not only the text of the inscription (with the lengthened forms of the abbreviated words in parentheses), but the translations of the inscriptions as well. Understanding the inscriptions on the monuments makes viewing them more interesting and fulfilling. Having read the history of the monuments, understanding why they were built, and how they impacted the Romans' lives will make a visit to ancient Rome more memorable and substantial.

For anyone interested in learning about Rome or her language, I recommend Rome Alive. For anyone who teaches Latin or Roman history using primary sources, this book is a must-have.

In Catilinam I

This website is a great reference when I begin teaching 9th grade prose.

I put the book down...

... which was something I couldn't do with Atlas Shrugged. Yet, 36 pages into The Fountainhead I was tired, put the book down, and fell asleep. That was a few days ago. I haven't been inspired to pick it up since. Is this a sign? Atlas Shrugged had me captivated at line 1. "Who is John Galt?" and I was hooked. As I sit writing right now, I can't even remember the name of the main character in The Fountainhead. I hope this isn't indicative of what I will find throughout the book. Here I am at page 36 and I must make it to page 694! It's not that the book isn't interesting - it's just not captivating. I should have known; when you begin with an author's masterpiece, all his other works will be inferior to that first.

I'll keep reading. Maybe the pages will fly like the last did. Maybe not. We'll see.

Anthem

Over the Memorial Day weekend I had the opportunity to read Ayn Rand's Anthem. It's a pretty short book, only 105 pgs. I can't say that I enjoyed it nearly as much as I did Atlas Shrugged. I did enjoy the imagery of Prometheus, though. In the book, the main character likens himself to Prometheus for bringing light to mankind. Both were punished for "helping" humanity. Unlike Prometheus, though, Anthem's character was not bound and tortured for eternity - instead he escapes into the Uncharted Forest, with the love of his life, and there sets out to free humanity from its bondage to altruism. Anthem parallels Atlas Shrugged at least in one way, though. In both, the brilliant of mankind are shunned or punished because they are not working to better the brotherhood of humanity or the less fortunate. They respond by removing themselves from society and building a better society based on self-interest alone. When you consider the fact that Rand comes out of communistic Russia, it makes sense that she would see "brotherhood" and "community" very negatively.

Next on my list of Rand's works to read is The Fountainhead. It's another long one, so I'm interested to see how that one compares to Atlas Shrugged.

Wish List

I would like to add this book to my wish list. I get all giddy and short of breath just thinking about reading it. It is A Natural History of Latin by Tore Janson. I know that I spent over $100 on books alone last month... But really, is reading such a horrible obsession? The next time Leif needs some drachenfutter, maybe, just maybe, he will remember reading this and bring me such a gift. =) I can hope, right? 256 pages (80 of which are vocabulary and expressions) - $27. CDB (Christian Book Distributers) has it for $22, hardcover.

Cur trepidi?

Why do we get nervous? Today we had our first elementary Latin vocabulary bee. The 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders have been faithfully learning their vocabulary all year and today was they day they got to demonstrate that to their parents. Now, all year we have been quizzing and testing and chanting vocabulary. We have had class bees and have even had official class bees with prizes. So why, today, did they get nervous? Parents were there - but these were the same parents who have worked with them all year to learn vocabulary. The event didn't count on their grades, so that wasn't it... And why, when we are nervous, do we forget what we know so well on any other day? The kids did great. They had fun; they had wonderful attitudes when they missed a word and had to sit down. The students who worked to learn their words well during the year are the ones who did the best and won. Parents were happy to see their kids reciting individually in front of a group. But isn't nervousness a weird human reaction? Even I was nervous. And I all had to do was say "correct" or "incorrect" after reading the word. But a vocabulary bee is more than that for these kids. And it was more than that for me. This was a display for the parents of what I taught the kids this year. It was a reflection on what I spent months of my time doing. For the kids, this was the first time they'd had to stand in front of a group of adults and recite. They were scared! But they did it. And they did well. They had fun. And next year it won't be so scary.

I'm excited for these kids who are learning as 8 year olds to stand and speak confidently in front of a group. Our goal is to prepare kids to do whatever God has planned for them. It's not to make them into politicians, or writers, or teachers, or engineers - it is to help parents turn out well grounded children who are capable and open for whatever God chooses to do with them. As I heard my students express their fears at doing poorly in front of the parents, I was reminded of Moses, who, when God told him to speak said, "I can't, God - send someone else." And I was proud of my students for stepping out on that limb, even though they weren't sure it would hold. They are one step closer to being ready and willing for God's call, whatever it may be.

Wikipedia Pages on Latin, English, and Language

Here are some Wikipedia links on Latin, English, Anglo-Saxon... Hopefully these will prove useful as I think through my introductory lessons for next year. I want the students to be able to see the profound influence historical events have on the formation of language.

Dual number (not directly related to Latin, but adaptable given the declensions of duo and ambo)
Old English (and how it was influenced by Latin, etc, to become modern English)
Yogh (Interesting article on why night, cough, through all have different 'gh' sounds)
Eth (again, why 'th' is pronounced as it is)
Wynn (runic beginnings of our 'W')
Germanic and Latinate Equivalents (Excellent list of words and roots)
Latin Proverbs (use as quotes)

Home Sweet Home?

Deo volente, this could be the new home of Petra Academy. What an incredible opportunity and a beautiful location!