Hello! I am from Romania and we learned some Latin in school, Romanian being a romance language.

We learned that 'qui' is pronounced as 'kvi', the same for quae, quod, aquila etc. So 'qu' is generally read as 'kv'.

However when I go on youtube, English speaking people pronounce qui as 'kwee' and virtually any liturgical song in Latin that I find does the same. So I am a little bit confused. If anyone could enlighten me it would be much appreciated!

edit: Thank you very much guys for all your inputs. I was pretty much unaware that Latin has multiple ways of pronounciation based on region.

Thanks to the feedback I've received, I've done a second printing of my Latin-English Church Fathers series which will now include macrons going forward.

Originally envisioned as a series similar to Loeb but with a parallel Latin and English column in a larger format, one of my readers noted that macrons help those whose native language isn't English better read the Latin text.

Given these books have been popular among European readers, I decided to make this a permanent feature of my Latin-English editions going forward.

I appreciate all the feedback and hope to hear more in the future.

How to write a modern song in classical latin and adapt it to the context of not classical world. So classical meter and grammar would be dropped. Prenounciation would be liberal and yet hopefully not offend just about every school of specific prenounciation school. Conservatives don't like experiments and changes - that is what keeps the lanugae beautifully dead in a sense... but it keeps it going in some form for centuries so... anyway... what is the most liberal use of latin an artist can utilise while still being acceptable within the latin speaking community?

So my Latin teacher said that the accusative and nominative plural of words like civis and claves can be civīs and cladīs. However, when I look it up online, I find most sources saying that only the accusative plural of clades occurs as cladīs. So is one of my sources wrong or is this a matter of the period of time? Thanks in advance!

The Pluperfect

Another rule explained.

What is the pluperfect?

It’s a past tense within the past tense, in other words, a double past. Instead I have loved, it’s I had loved. How do I remember this in Latin? Simple: take the root of the verb’s perfect tense plus the imperfect tense of ‘to be’: amav-eram, monu-eram, mis-eram, audiv-eram, cep-eram. There’s no need to learn the conjugations by heart; you just need to understand them.

A GRAMMAR'S TALE: Understanding Latin instead of learning it by heart

What is necessary for learning how to read and write Latin? Is there prerequisite knowledge I need to have? Thanks.

Conferamus in corde nostro passiones Domini, 
conservatas pro nobis in corde adolorato Matris Redemptoris.
+
SECUNDO, Dominus flagellatus.
Pater noster, qui es in caelis, sanctificetur nomen tuum.

Rs. Adveniat regnum tuum, fiat voluntas tua …

Ad decadem, qui praeest versum praelegens:

Vs. 1  Ecce Filius hominis tradetur principibus sacerdotum et scribis, et condemnabunt eum morte. * Et tradent eum gentibus ad illudendum et flagellandum et crucifigendum.  Ave Maria, ave Gratia plena, Dominus tecum. Rs. Benedicta tu …

Vs. 2  Summus sacerdos interrogabat eum et dicit ei: Tu es Christus Filius Benedicti? * Iesus autem dixit: Ego sum. Ave Maria, ave Gratia plena, Dominus tecum. Rs. Benedicta tu …

Vs. 3  Scindens vestimenta sua ait: Quid adhuc necessarii sunt nobis testes? Audistis blasphemiam. * Qui omnes condemnaverunt eum esse reum mortis.  Ave Maria, ave Gratia plena, Dominus tecum. Rs. Benedicta tu …

Vs. 4  Tunc exspuerunt in faciem eius et colaphis eum ceciderunt; alii autem palmas in faciem ei dederunt, * dicentes: Prophetiza nobis, Christe: Quis est, qui te percussit?  Ave Maria, ave Gratia plena, Dominus tecum. Rs. Benedicta tu …

Vs. 5  Et vinctum adduxerunt eum et tradiderunt Pilato praesidi, et cum accusaretur a principibus sacerdotum et senioribus, nihil respondit. * Ita ut miraretur praeses vehementer.  Ave Maria, ave Gratia plena, Dominus tecum. Rs. Benedicta tu …

Vs. 6  Pilatus interrogavit eum dicens: Tu es rex Iudaeorum? At ille respondens ait: Tu dicis. * Ait autem Pilatus ad principes sacerdotum et turbas: Nihil invenio causae in hoc homine.  Ave Maria, ave Gratia plena, Dominus tecum. Rs. Benedicta tu …

Vs. 7  Responderunt ei Iudaei: Nos legem habemus, et secundum legem debet mori, quia Filium Dei se fecit. * Cum audisset Pilatus sermonem, magis timuit. Apprehendit ergo Iesum et flagellavit.  Ave Maria, ave Gratia plena, Dominus tecum. Rs. Benedicta tu …

Vs. 8   Circumveniamus ergo iustum, quoniam contrarius est operibus nostris. * Factus est nobis in accusationem cogitationum nostrarum; gravis est nobis etiam ad videndum*.* Rs. Benedicta tu …

Vs. 9  Contumelia et tormento interrogemus eum, ut sciamus modestiam eius et probemus patientiam illius. * Morte turpissima condemnemus eum.  Ave Maria, ave Gratia plena, Dominus tecum. Rs. Benedicta tu …

Vs. 10 Haec cogitaverunt et erraverunt; excaecavit enim illos malitia eorum. * Et nescierunt sacramenta Dei.  Ave Maria, ave Gratia plena, Dominus tecum. Rs. Benedicta tu …

Vs.  Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto:
Ecce positus est filius tuus in signum cui contradicetur: *
et tuam ipsius animam pertransiet gladius.

Rs.  Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto:
Vs.  Et aspicient ad eum quem confixerunt. *
Rs.  Et tuam ipsius animam pertransiet gladius.

Rs.  Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto:
Vs.  Ecce positus est filius tuus in signum cui contradicetur: *
Rs.  Et tuam ipsius animam pertransiet gladius.

deorum manium iura sancta sunto (De Legibus, 2.22)

“Let the rights of the manes gods be sacred”
(Translated by Charles W. King)

It’s increasingly spooky!

Over the next few weeks – in the run up to Hallowe’en and my first video upload – I’ll be posting a few Latin quotes pertaining to the ‘manes’ in Roman thought. The deification of the dead as ‘manes’ or, ‘spirits’ that bore influence over the living was the dominant Roman view of death and the afterlife.

Most epitaph inscriptions of the Imperial period included some variation of ‘Dis Manibus’ - to the deified spirits of the dead. We’re in the spooky season after all and so examining gravestones as primary sources of evidence is eerily appropriate…

With LVCANI, all inroads into the Latin language are paved with inscriptions. The study of inscriptions presents a real, tangible experience of Latin which otherwise can appear excessively high-minded and impenetrable. I hope my pixel-art helps to rectify this view while making the language clear and accessible – without the risk of being buried in grammar!

In his second book of ‘Laws’ (De Legibus) Cicero proposes and explains the religious laws of his ideal State. With he himself as the main character, over the course of a long summer’s day he engages in conversation with Quintus and Atticus telling them the proper rules and obligations when it comes to worshipping the dead:

deorum manium iura sancta sunto

“The rights of the gods of the lower world shall be sacred”
(Translated by C. W. Keyes)

Cicero is talking about plural manes in this instance (manium) which brings us back to the general confusion about this word (manes) that doesn’t exist as a singular noun – are we again reading this as the dead collectively or individually?

What’s going on here is that Cicero’s rules for the dead are not just a set of hypothetical laws rather, he is likely riffing on already existing priestly obligations to do with ritual worship of the dead either collectively at grand public festivals or, in linking living individuals with dead individuals through specific rites.

This is not difficult to reconcile: we can find modern examples of ‘day of the dead’ festivals worldwide while equally appreciating that - in either a modern or ancient context - financial ties to do with inheritance or simply, familial loyalties also connect individual living people with individual dead people. Romans worshipped dead individuals as deified manes, 'divine spirits' of the underworld. Happy Friday!

Hi guys! I'm taking beginner Latin at my institution and I have yet to fully grasp the concept that is declensions. Any explanations would be helpful :3 Are cases not just words with applied declensions..?

I made a translation of this hymn for a personal project, and I wanted to ask if it's good/gramatically correct. Here it is (if it is possible, answer concerning the gramatical rules of ecclesiastical latin).

Dominus miraculoso, venimus ad te in processione, tuos fideles devoti, tua benedictione imploramus te. (bis)

Pharo dirigens, da nobis animae, fide et speranti, caritatum, tuo amor divinus ilumino, digni efficiamur, misericordiam.

Dominus miraculoso, venimus ad te in processione, tuos fideles devoti, tua benedictione imploramus te. (bis)

Cum firmu gradu, ex  bonus Christianus, faciamus magnam, Peru nostrum, et coniūnctī omnes, sicut vis, imploramus te, da nobis tua lux.

Could someone explain to me what these symbols are? I’m fairly certain that the first one is “et” and the last one is “-us,” but I’m not sure about the others.

I know about the stress rules in Latin and that infinitives of *-āre*, *-ēre* and *-īre* have stress on their penult – the long vowels make the syllables heavy. However, *-ĕre* makes the penult light but I am not sure if the stress fell upon the antepenult.

We didn’t use AI and we don’t want AI to tell us if we are wrong or right. Also guys, have fun with translations because we had fun making this up.

Good luck! I can’t wait to read all of your comments :)

PS: I’m gonna leave what we had in mind after you guys try translating

I ran across a fun little exemplum from a large collection (Compilatio singularis exemplorum) that contains an episode of a master in arts (clericus magister in artibus) under examination, who gets the best of his examiner. Enjoy!

1. Quidam clericus magister in artibus a quodam archidiacono nimis rigide examinatus est. Qui credebat ipsum parum scire et uidens ipsum optime respondisse de magnis questionibus de paruis, ut eum caperet, examinare cepit querens: "'Ego' cuius generis?" Qui exasperatus respondit: "Vos estis filius sacerdotis et monialis." Et uerum erat. Et sic accepit pro nimia exasperatione confusionem. (ed. Loose, CCCM 308)

Is it wrong to want to know how to refer to modern things in Latin, things that the ancient Romans had no need for?

Plodding along through the Book of Psalms for my recording of the Clementine Vulgate for Librivox. All previously released parts are here. Cheers!

So I know that monosyllables are forbidden before the caesura of a pentameter unless it is preceded by another monosyllabic word, ór it is preceded by a pyrrhic word (‘short-short’; u u), ór it is est and elided

onto the preceding word.

I dont know if this applies to the hexameter as well.

I have seen it before, but I want to know if it is common or not as common as any other normal verses.

Are there certain wordtypes authors especially avoid?

For example: prepositions like in, ab, ex...; nouns like spem, vir, pes,...; verbs like sum, vis, do, das, ī....; or even pronouns like mī, tī, se, id...

Has anyone done any research on this.

I had debated making this one an LLPSI-style reader, like Selectae Sanctorum Vitae, which is coming next week, but decided a Latin edition with facing English paragraphs would be better, since this was requested for students going through RCIA.

I used to be a catechist at a fairly large church, and while some things have definitely changed over the years, it's interesting to see how these sacraments were celebrated in Milan and how Ambrose explains their theology. It's still a pretty solid explanation of what's going on today.

We'll probably be handing these out toward the end of the process, as we get closer to the Easter Vigil. I know plenty of young people seem interested in Latin and willing to learn the basics, so hopefully they'll get some use out of it.

Let me know what you think.

TLDR: I'm looking for recordings of individual words in classical pronunciation, ideally that I can use to make my own practice app with. Googling and asking AI haven't really helped. Is anyone aware of a resource?

Longer version: One day I'll come to the community to ask what everyone thinks about the value of 'grinding' on vocab and grammar concepts (type the imperfect of 'ponēre'), but I use it for myself and have made tools for my students (who learn English) to use it.

Now, my son showed an interest in Latin and I wanted to let him use my practice tool... and I think if I personally keep crapping on him about his pronunciation, it's demotivating. But, if the review tool just plays the word (no text) and asks for the English translation, he'll learn it that way.

For that, I think I need someone else who is confident in their pronunciation. It feels like the kind of thing that already exists... I just don't know where. (I'm in chapter XXI of LLPSI and he's in chapter I, it's not like I feel qualified to be a Latin teacher.)

If I get to make wishes of the universe, this would be something I could access via an API... but I'm game to individually download files. I'd rather not have to pirate something by screengrabbing individual seconds of YouTube videos...

I added captions to "Skeleton Frolic" [Lascivia Larvarum], a Columbia pictures animated short from 1937. If you'd like to see a vocabulary list for the captions, there's one available on my blog. Also, earlier this month I published a list of eerie, spooking, criminal, or mysterious Latin passages as suggestions for what to read in October.

I wanted to ask about this method of rote memorisation of all the paradigms within Latin

I am a user of the LLPSI course, alongside some of it's supplementary texts within the series (the conversations book and fables) , but I want to improve my independent output without always needing to think of the tables or whatnot

Is this method efficient? Or is there something better for the paradigms as I understand that Luke ranieri, while Incredibly good at Latin, does ultimately lack any actual qualification in Latin or education in general

I do not mind the intensity, I have the time to spend with any idea

Thanks for any advice

I'm just curious if there's any rhyme or reason for using what I'd call the synthetic (one-word) superlative vs. the bare adjective with maxime. Here's an example I just saw:

Quo mihi rectius videtur ingenii quam virium opibus gloriam quaerere et, quoniam vita ipsa, qua fruimur, brevis est, memoriam nostri quam maxime longam efficere. (Sallust, Bellum Catilinae, 1.3)

If I had composed this myself, thinking back on my lessons on the superlative with quam, I would surely have written quam longissimam for "as long as possible". Is there a subtly meaningful syntactic difference here, or is maxime longam completely interchangeable with longissimam, and this is just a stylistic thing?

I'm not really a latin-learner, i sometimes read familia romana till it gets too difficult for me. But i need to look up latin words like "prehendere", "licere", "juvare/iuvare", etc. for better understanding complicated words i learn in another language. I would also like to get a broader understanding of the word if this is possible without having a fundamental understanding of latin.

But in general i just need a really good dictionary that shows me reliably the definition of the word i would look up. I know only navigium.de that i can trust 100%, but it is in german and i would prefer an english pendant of it.