Instruction in Latin

Philosophical aims

Although Latin was once the universal academic language in Europe, academics no longer use it for writing papers or daily discourse. The Roman Catholic Church also modernized its religious liturgies (such as the Tridentine Mass) from Latin into local vernacular languages as part of the Vatican II reforms in the 1960s. Nonetheless, the study of Latin has remained an academic staple into the 21st century.

Most of the Latin courses currently offered in secondary schools and universities are geared toward translating historical texts into modern languages, rather than using Latin for direct oral communication. As such, they primarily treat Latin as a written dead language, although some works of modern literature such as "Paddington Bear", "Winnie the Pooh", "Tintin", "Asterix", "Harry Potter", "Le Petit Prince", "Max und Moritz", "Peter Rabbit" and "The Cat in the Hat" have been translated into Latin in order to promote interest in the language.

Living Latin

Conversely, proponents of the Living Latin movement believe that Latin can be taught in the same way that modern "living" languages are taught, i.e. by incorporating oral fluency and listening comprehension as well as textual skills. This approach offers speculative and stylistic insight into how ancient authors spoke and incorporated sounds of the language, as patterns in Latin poetry and literature can be difficult to identify without an understanding of the sounds of words.

Institutions that offer Living Latin instruction include the Vatican and the University of Kentucky. In Great Britain, the Classical Association encourages this approach, and Latin language books describing the adventures of a mouse called Minimus have been published. The Latinum podcast, teaching conversational Classical Latin, is also broadcast from London. In the United States, the National Junior Classical League (with more than 50,000 members) encourages high school students to pursue the study of Latin, and the National Senior Classical League encourages college students to continue their studies of the language. A complete textbook for spoken conversational Classical Latin, G.J. Adler's "A Practical Grammar of the Latin Language for Speaking and Writing Latin" can be found on Google Books: http://www.google.co.uk/books?id=GJgAAAAAYAAJThis textbook can be heard read out aloud here:http://latinum.mypodcast.com

Influence on artificial languages

Many international auxiliary languages have been heavily influenced by Latin; the successful language Interlingua considers itself a modernized and simplified version of the language. Latino sine Flexione is a language created from Latin with its inflections dropped, that laid claim to a sizable following in the early 20th century.

Order of cases

In modern Latin instruction, there is no single international standard for the sequence of cases within each declension paradigm.

NOM-VOC-ACC-GEN-DAT-ABL-LOC

NOM-VOC-ACC-GEN-DAT-ABL-LOC has been the usual order in the United Kingdom and many Commonwealth countries since the publication of Hall Kennedy's Latin Primer (1866). It is also usual in France, Spain, and Portugal, whose native languages have all largely lost their own case systems. This order reflects the syncretic trends of different cases to share similar endings.

NOM-GEN-DAT-ACC-ABL-VOC-LOC

The alternate sequence NOM-GEN-DAT-ACC-ABL-VOC-LOC arose from Byzantine grammarians who were originally writing about Greek. It is standard in the United States, although modern texts increasingly move the VOC at the end to minimize disruption to the 4½ declensions in which it is identical to NOM; some introductory texts such as Wheelock's Latin almost entirely ignore VOC and LOC except for a few brief notes.

NOM-GEN-DAT-ACC-ABL-VOC-LOC is also used in Poland, as it closely corresponds to the conventional case order in the Polish language, except for the latter's use of an instrumental case instead of an ablative. The same sequence is predominant in the Netherlands, although the modern Dutch language has largely lost its case system; instead, the rationale is that this general order is convenient for the consistent teaching of three different commonly-studied declensive langages: Latin, Ancient Greek, and modern German.

The order NOM-GEN-DAT-ACC-ABL-VOC is also used in Germany itself to echo the conventional order of German noun cases (NOM-GEN-DAT-ACC), and also in Italy despite the disappearance of cases from Italian grammar. This order is also used in Lithuania because the conventional order of Lithuanian noun cases is the same. LOC is dealt with separately as it is seldom used in Latin and might be considered to be on the verge of extinction in Classical Latin.

Most unemphatic sentences in Latin will follow the word order of Nom-Dat-Acc-Abl-V. Vocatives were usually placed at the very beginning or at the very end, or occasionally as a post possitive. Genitives act as Adjectives and thus can go anywhere in a sentence to be near the word it modifies. The Locative was usually used adverbally so it fit into the adverb slot in a sentence where the Ablatives and prepositional clauses would also go. Since grammatical funcion in a sentence was not based on word order but on inflection, this usual word order in Latin is often broken with no detriment to meaning or understanding. Latin being a pro-drop language would often omit the Nominative if it was redundant resulting in two word sentences that were either Adjective Esse "to be" or Accusative plus transitive verb. This basic word order in Latin has been retained in the way Romance languages require pronouns which have kept inflections to be placed in this specific order in a sentence. If a sentence in a Romance Language is made up entirely of Pronouns and a verb, then the pronouns will follow Latin word order and place the Verb at the end of the sentence with the pronouns arrainged as Nom-Dat-Acc-Abl. The only exceptions to this are the tentencies to place the Pronouns for "I" and "you" before pronouns for "he, she, it". This is however considered emphatic.

Others

Brazilian grammarian Napoleão Mendes uses the unusual sequence NOM-VOC-GEN-DAT-ABL-ACC. In Finland, where the Finnish case system is alive and flourishing, most Latin textbooks use the order NOM-ACC-GEN-DAT-ABL, limiting the study of VOC to second declension and separating LOC into its own chapter.

The Latinum podcast uses NOM -VOC - ACC- ABL- DAT- GEN , as this facilitates memorisation. Latinum deals with LOC separately.

Curriculum requirements in Australia

Latin is not offered by the mainstream curriculum; however it is offered in many high schools as an elective. Many schools, particularly private schools, offer many languages in year 7 to expose the student to languages as possible electives; Latin is often among these introductory languages. Alternatively, many universities or colleges offer the subject for students should they desire to study it.

Curriculum requirements in Europe

Belgium

=Dutch-speaking regions=

Latin is taught, but is optional. Usually a student can choose Latin as one of the two majors. Other majors may be: Greek, Maths, Science, Modern languages.

=Francophone regions=

Latin is taught in secondary schools but is however optional.

=German-speaking regions=

TBA

Britain

In the first half of the 20th century, Latin was taught in approximately 25% of schools. [cite web|title=That'll Teach 'Em 2: Then and Now|url=http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/T/teachem2/thennow/] However, from the 1960s universities gradually began to abandon Latin as an entry requirement for Medicine and Law degrees. After the introduction of the Modern Language General Certificate of Secondary Education in the 1980s, Latin began to be replaced by other languages in many schools. Latin is still taught in a small number, particularly public schools. Only one British exam board now offers Latin (OCR), since 2006 when it was dropped by the exam board AQA. The Latinum Podcast, a successful Latin language outreach programme, is based in London. The podcast is based around a textbook for spoken Classical Latin, G.J. Adler's "A Practical Grammar of the Latin Language for Speaking and Writing Latin" can be found on Google Books: http://www.google.co.uk/books?id=GJgAAAAAYAAJThis textbook can be heard read out aloud here:http://latinum.mypodcast.com

France

Latin is optionally studied in French secondary schools.

Germany

Some 15% of the student population learn Latin, and a Latin certificate (called Latinum) is a requirement for various university courses.

Greece

Latin is compulsory for students who wish to study humanities, and is one of the six subjects tested in Greek examinations for entry into university-level humanities courses. In high school, the subject is taught on a theoretical basis, rather than for practical application.

Ireland

Latin is not widely taught but can be taken as an optional subject in some secondary schools.

Italy

In Italy, Latin is still compulsory in secondary schools such as the Liceo classico and Liceo scientifico, which are usually attended by people who aim to the highest level of education. In Liceo classico, ancient Greek is also a compulsory subject. About one third of Italian certificated (18-year-olds) have taken Latin for five years.

Poland

Latin is a non-compulsory third foreign language that students of some high schools can choose to learn.

pain

Latin is a compulsory subject for all those who study humanities (students can select from three sorts of study: sciences, humanities or a mixture) in grades 11 and 12.

Other countries

In Denmark, Sweden, Iceland, Austria, Switzerland, Republic of Macedonia, the Netherlands, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, and Romania, Latin is studied at high schools called Gymnasia. In Portugal, Latin is also studied. In Finland, Latin is studied at a small minority of high schools.

Curriculum requirements in North America

Canada

Latin is optionally studied in Canadian secondary schools.

United States

In the United States, Latin is occasionally taught in high schools and middle schools. There is, however, a growing classical education movement consisting of private schools and home schools that are teaching Latin at the elementary, or grammar school level. Latin is often taught and is sometimes a mandatory requirement at Catholic secondary schools. More than 149,000 Latin students took the 2007 National Latin Exam. In 2006, 3,333 students took the AP Latin Literature exam.

Curriculum requirements in South America

Venezuela

In Venezuela Latin is taught as a compulsory subject in the branch of humanities of the "bachillerato" for two years. Bachillerato is a segment of secondary education similar to American high schools and is divided into two branches: sciences and humanities. Students learn Latin grammar in their first year of study, then construct and translate Latin texts in the second year. [Duque Arellano, José Gonzalo [http://servidor-opsu.tach.ula.ve/ascen_acro/duque_j/latin/capitulo2.pdf Pertinencia y vigencia del latín en la enseñanza de la lengua española, en las áreas de la morfología y de la sintaxis] ; "Universidad de los Andes" es icon]

At university level, the University of the Andes offers a degree program for "Letras Mención Lengua y Literaturas Clásicas" ("Classical Languages and Literatures"). In this program (the only one of its type in Venezuela), the students learn Latin, Ancient Greek and the literature of both languages for five years. [ [http://loe.cnu.gov.ve/ver_info_carrera.php?cod_carrera=349&cod_area=7&cod_subarea=22 Detalle de la Carrera: "Letras Mención Lengua y Literaturas Clasicas"] ; "CNU-OPSU: Oportunidades de Estudio de Educación Superior en Venezuela" es icon] In other Venezuelan universities, Latin is a compulsory subject of the program for "Letras" ("Hispanic Literature") and "Educación, mención: Castellano y Literatura" ("Education of Spanish language and Hispanic Literature").

Latin is also taught in Roman Catholic seminaries.

Sources