Electron
02-05-2006, 12:12 AM
Ok, this is just an extremely small reference thread, in which I wanted to pass to you some interesting Latin stuff. Do NOT expect to be fluent in Latin by the end of reading this. (this is about interesting sayings, remember?)
Since I'm not allowed to use HTML, I'll try my luck with ASCII table art :D.
+------------------------------------+
| CONTENTS
+------------------------------------+
|
| NUMBERS
|
| USEFUL PHRASES AND SAYINGS
|
| GRAMMAR
|
+------------------------------------+
NUMBERS
Since numbers on latin are not really useful to anyone, I'm integrating them into this reference only because I want you to see how other languages take their very roots from the latin language. French, Spanish and Italian are languages which are based almost entirely on lingua Latina. Take a look for yourself:
/================================================== =====\
(1) I ------ unus, -a, -um
(2) II ----- duo, -ae, -o
(3) III ---- tres, tria
(4) IV ----- quattuor
(5) V ------ quinque
(6) VI ----- sex
(7) VII ---- septem
(8) VIII --- octo
(9) IX ----- novem
(10) X ----- decem
(11) XI ---- undecim
(12) XII --- duodecim
(13) XIII -- tredecim
(14) XIV --- quattuordecim
(15) XV ---- quindecim
(16) XVI --- sedecim
(17) XVII -- septendecim
(18) XVIII - duodeviginti
(19) XIX --- undeviginti
(20) XX ---- viginti
\================================================= ======/
USEFUL PHRASES AND SAYINGS
Ah, now here comes the more interesting part. I'm going to put some standard ("boring") phrases and wise sayings into this, but I'll give a little twist of some things that are modern, but expressed using an old language. I also like to use these phrases quite a lot in my posts on various forums (as well as in everyday life) so you could memorise them and have your friends gasp in awe. I've even used one to insult a forum administrator once, using his poor knowledge of latin to curse him right under his nose.
/================================================== =====\
Stultum est timere quod vitare non potes
"It is foolish to fear what you are unable to avoid"
Ad eundem quo nemo ante iit
"To (boldly) go where no one has gone before"
Adversus solem ne loquitor
"Don't waste your time arguing what is obvious"
Nolens volens
"Whether one likes it or not"
Scire tuum nihil est, nisi te scire hoc sciat alter
"Your knowledge is nothing when no one else knows you know it"
Nill iligitimi carborundum
"Don't let the bastards get you down"
Ne feceris ut rideam!
"Don't make me laugh!"
Age! Fac ut gaudeam!
"Go on! Make my day!"
Meum cerebrum nocet
"My brain hurts"
Intelligenti pauca
"Few words suffice for he who understands"
Si tacuisses, philosophari manisses.
"If you had kept quiet, you would have remained a philosopher"
Pueri pueri, pueri puerilla tractant.
"Children are children, (therefore) children do childish things"
Aeternum vale!
"Farewell forever!"
Ave atque vale!
"Hail and fairwell!" (used as "Goodbye")
Caro putridas es!
"You're dead meat!"
Duc, sequere, aut de via decede
"Lead, follow, or else get out of the way"
Qualem blennum!
"What a doofus!" (commonly: "God, what an idiot!")
Quod iure?
"By what law/authority?"
Stultior stulto fuisti, qui tabellis credentes!
"The biggest of all idiots is he who trusts what is written!"
Nulla regula sine exceptione
"There are no rules without exceptions"
Ab ovo
"From scratch"
Fortes fortuna iuvat
"The brave are helped along by luck"
Omnia praeclara rara
"All that is beautiful is rare"
Quod nocet saepe docet
"That which harms often teaches"
Felix, qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas
"Lucky is he who was able to find out the cause of things"
Ne auderis delere orbem rigidum meum!
"Don't you dare erase my hard disk!" (it is beside me where this could be
used, though.)
In margine
"On the edge" (Unimportant)
Parce tempoti
"Use your time sparingly"
Carpe diem!
"Seize the day!"
Principiis obsta!
"Fight from the very start!"
Latine loqui coactus sum
"I have this compulsion to speak latin."
Saepe mihi idiotae audiendi sunt
"I frequently have to listen to idiots" (this one is my invention ^^)
\================================================= ======/
That was the end of my list. I can't think of any more that would be considered interesting/funny so I'll add to this if I catch any others.
/================================================== =====\
GRAMMAR
Latin has the same classification of word types like any other language. This means that the basic types of words are verbs, nouns, adverbs, adjectives, pronouns, prepositions, etc.
Let's start with nouns. In Latin, there are 5 types of nouns, depending on their structure. These are the five declensions and they all have their seperate case endings. This is difficult to explain because English doesn't have cases. Old English had an extensive collection of cases, but it was abandoned during the transition into modern English (in a manner of speaking).
Now, you recognise a case in latin by the characteristic desinences (endings). Each declension has it's own special ending for every case. Got that? I know it's probably not exactly clear to you, so read this paragraph again until you get it. So, 5 declensions, each has 6 cases.
The cases in Latin are:
Nominative (nominativus)
Genetive (genetivus)
Dative (dativus)
Accusative (accusativus)
Vocative (vocativus)
Ablative (ablativus)
There also exists a locative case (for the record), but it's very, very rarely used so let's not go into that.
Now, nominative is the case in which the subject of a sentence is. This is probably the most well-known case becuase it's used so often.
Mark is throwing the ball.
The subject of the sentence is Mark, so if the sentence was in Latin, Mark would be in the nominative case (in this case "Marcus"). The ball would be in the accusative case because it is the object of the sentence. Mark is preforming an action. In this case, throwing. But what? He's throwing the ball, which is the object. Mark is doing the actual preforming of the action, therefore he is the subject. The ball is not doing anything, but the action of throwing is being preformed ON IT. It is the object. Geddit?
Now, genetive.
It is the fault of the man.
Sounds a bit funny and clumsy, doesn't it? That's because you'd be more likely to say "It is the man's fault" but this way, you'll see the genetive case being used. The genetive case can be translated into an English equivalent by using the "of" preposition, like I did in the example. Genetive indicates a relationship, that is most commonly POSSESSION. It is someone's fault, but whose? Of the man. It is his fault. Not mine, not yours, but his fault. Here's how this might sound on Latin:
Lapsus hominis est.
"Hominis" is the word "homo" (meaning "man") in it's genitive case. Lapsus means "error", "fault", "mistake", and est is the verb "to be" in it's third person singular ("is"). Now, if it was "Lapsus est" it would mean "the fault is" but what? Or in this case, whose is the fault? The genetive hominis indicates that the fault is of the man, that is , it belongs to the man in question, it is his.
Futher, we'll progress straight to vocative. This one's very easy.
Hey, brother!
This is a statement that someone yelled to catch someone's attention. That's what the vocative case is for, to act as a pointer to whom the sentence is intended. It is exactly the same as the nominative case in a lot of instances, which makes it easy to learn but brings up a problem: how do you recognise it? Well, it's easy to recognise because IT'S ALWAYS FOLLOWED BY A COMMA.
Gary, why did you not tell me?
In this example, Gary would be in the vocative case (if it existed in English). You were referring to Gary, not to Steve who might have been present at the time of speaking. That's all there is to it. Simple, right?
Dative. This case is used to indicate the noun to whom something is given. The thing being given doesn't necessarily have to be an object you can touch (such as a box) but it can be an answer, for example. Further, it can play the role of an indicator of some sort in a sentence For example, the latin mihi means "to me". In latin, any verb in the dative case acts (in the majority of cases) as the indirect object of that sentence. Since only a handful of languages use the dative case, here's an example to show you what this case looks like:
Antonius Marco suum librum dat.
Antonius is in the nominative case, the subject of the sentence. "Dat" is the 3rd person singular of the verb "dare" which means "to give".
The syntagm "suum librum" (notice that they are both in the accusative case) indicates the DIRECT object. Suum librum, translated, means "his book". So, Antonius is giving something. That something is his book. But to whom? Marco. No, Antonius Marco isn't his name, Marco is the noun Marcus in dative. Therefore, Antonius is giving his book to Marcus.
By now, you will be wondering how I recognise which word is in which case. Well, there's a rule. Every word can have a specific ending (suffix).
Remember when I said that there are 5 declensions and that every declension has 6 cases for singular and 6 for plural forms? Well, you recognise cases by the endings.
Marcus ends on -us. Similar words are Antonius, Romanus, legatus, etc....
Basically, if you see a word in the nominative case ending on -us, that means that it's a member of the 2nd declension.
Here are the endings for the 2nd declension nouns ending on -us.
From now on, I will mark the cases like this:
Nominative (singular) => [N]
Nominative (plural) => [n]
Genetive (singular) => [G]
Genetive (plural) => [g]
Dative (singular) => [D]
Dative (plural) => [d]
Accusative (singular) => [Ac]
Accusative (plural) => [ac]
Vocative (singular) => [V]
Vocative (plural) => [v]
Ablative (singular) => [Ab]
Ablative (plural) => [ab]
And now the suffix table (2nd dec. singular):
[N].................................. -US
[G].................................. -I
[D].................................. -O
[Ac]................................. -UM
[V].................................. -E
[Ab]................................. -O
Oh, and here are the plural forms too, even though they'll be mentioned a bit later.
[n].................................. -I
[g].................................. -ORUM
[d].................................. -IS
[ac]................................. -OS
[v].................................. -I
[ab]................................. -IS
From the above, you can tell that any noun for which you know belongs to the 2nd declension, the dative case (for singular) will be ending on -o. Thus, if you have the noun Marcus, the dative case will be Marco. (You replace -us with -o). Oh, and here's a thing I forgot: 99.99% of latin nouns of the 2nd declension ending on -US are masculinum, that is, they are masculine or "male".
Here's a little excercise. Try and convert the following latin nouns into the appropriate case.
FILIUS ---------------- into [Ac]
DISCIPULUS------------ into [Ab]
MEDICUS -------------- into [V]
MORBUS --------------- into [G]
GRAECUS -------------- into [D]
ROMANUS ------------- into [d]
LATINUS -------------- into [ac]
*****************************
Now, I started with the 2nd declension, but perhaps I should have explained the 1st...first. You see, it's even easier than the 2nd.
All verbs ending on -a (in [N] and -ae in [G]) belong to the 1st declension. Look how simple it is:
[N].................................. -A
[G].................................. -AE
[D].................................. -AE
[Ac]................................. -AM
[V].................................. -A
[Ab]................................. -A
and plural:
[n].................................. -AE
[g].................................. -ARUM
[d].................................. -IS
[ac]................................. -AS
[v].................................. -AE
[ab]................................. -IS
^ Notice that [V] and [N] are the same, just like [v] and [n]. In fact, vocative is the same as nominative in a lot of declensions.
So, let's take the noun TERRA, -AE, F
The first part (terra) indicates the nominative of the noun. The second part, -ae is the ending for GENETIVE. So, when you see that the nominative ends on -a, and genetive on -ae, you have to know that that noun goes by the 1st declension. The "F" indicates that "terra" is feminine. And almost all nouns on -a,-ae (of the 1st declension) are feminine (with a few exceptions, like Numa, -ae, m (which is the name of a person)).
Now, all you do is take TERRAE and remove the -AE. so, you get TERR.
And now you have your base of a noun, to which you add the endings. Therefore, through all the cases, terra will look like this:
terra
terrae
terrae
terram
terra
terra
-----------
terrae
terrarum
terris
terras
terrae
terris
There we have it. Oh, and by the way, terra means "country"/"land"/"earth" (not Earth as in planet).
So, now we know the first two declensions. Ending on -A, -AE and on -US, -I.
Try this excercise to help you remember the endings: Fill in the gaps.
Roma ----------> [d] _______
Pugna ---------> [Ak] _______
______ --------> [ab] Fluviis
______ --------> [g] tabernarum ------------> [Ak] ________
Now, I've skipped a massive section which you are probably burning to know: pronunciation.
Latin is spoken like it's read: it's not like English (to chew is read as "too choo"). If an ancient Roman read "to chew", he'd probably read it like "toh kheuh" ( <-- I know that this pronunciation approximation isn't very good).
However, there are some specifics I'm going to note that are pretty specific.
In Latin, there are 2 types of pronunciation. classic and traditional.
Classic is the type of pronunciation that the ancient romans used. It was used to speak Latin until the 5th century AD.
Traditional is used since the 5th century AD until today. It's used in places like churches, Vatican, etc.
Generally, classic pronunciation is easier, because you need to pay attention to how you're reading much less than when using traditional. But I find that traditional pronunciation is nicer. But judge yourself.
Classic
A,E,I,O,U ----lat----> [ A, E, I, O, U ]
Y -----------lat----> [ I ]
I------------lat----> [ J ] (at the beginning of a word, before a vowel, pronounced like the y in yoghurt, not like the j in jam)
Therefore, the word IAM won't be pronounced like the name Ian (just with an "m"), it will be pronnounced more like "yam".
* NOTE: If you're American, you're likely to "extend" the a in "yam" so it sounds like "yeeaam". Don't do this! The a sound must be short and sharp at all times. This is difficult to explain very well, but just try to have a "scottish" sounding "a" when you read it. Lol, the internet XD.
In Latin, you have 3 special sounds called diphtongs or "gliding vowels". They are actually a combination of vowels and are fairly straightforward to read, but some accustoming may be necessary. Since I love examples, here's one now:
caecus
"Caecus" is a Latin adjective meaning "blind" (for a male person - it would be "caeca" for a female and "caecum" for a non-gendered noun). The "AE" in the word is a diphtong, probably the most common of the three. The other two are "OE" and "AU". Usually any occurrence of au, oe and ae is a diphtong, and should be pronounced as a diphtong. In certain cases, the "e" may be marked with two dots above it (like an umlaut in German). This indicates that this combination of characters is actually just two vowels, and should not be read as a diphtong. I'll come back to this after I explain how diphtongs are pronounced, which is probably what you're asking right now.
The pronunciation of diphtongs depends whether the text is being read with classic or traditional pronunciation. In the case of classic (which I am explaining now), the diphtongs are pronounced as follows:
AE ===> [AI] as in "I am..."
OE ===> [OI] as in "Oil"
AU ===> [AU] with the stress on the "A", as in the Latin CAUSA, read "KAusa", not "kaUSA".
In the event of a "nullified diphong", the vowels are pronounced each for itself, no longer as a diphtong:
POËTICA : read "poETica", not "POItica". (Pay attention to the stressing)
The last unique thing about classic pronunciation is that the consonant "C" is always read as a "K", as in "cat", "kitchen" or "book". Thus, the English approximation of the pronunciation of "carmen" is "car-men".
Traditional
Traditional pronunciation is the type that I wasn't taught to use, but it's the slightly more complex kind, but it's used today and I sincerely recommend using it over classic.
Diphtongs, which were read as "eye", "oy" and "ow!" in classic, are now different. The sounds AE and OE are read simply as "eh". AU is pronounced the same.
So, "magistrae", meaning "teachers" (female, nominative plural), is read "magistreh". The "h" sound should not be read "h" as in "hat", I put it there to ensure people with English as their first language won't pronounce it "eeee" as in "bee". So a more correct version might be "magistre", sounds like "mag-ISS-tre", the last "tre" as in "trembling", optimally read with a "sharp r" sound, which does not usually exist in English, German or French, and is found commonly in Slavic languages. It's officially called a "trill r", a description of which can be found on Wikipedia (here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trill_consonant)). Czech readers will know what I mean (the "r" in "ruš").
TO BE CONTINUED. :) Sorry!
Since I'm not allowed to use HTML, I'll try my luck with ASCII table art :D.
+------------------------------------+
| CONTENTS
+------------------------------------+
|
| NUMBERS
|
| USEFUL PHRASES AND SAYINGS
|
| GRAMMAR
|
+------------------------------------+
NUMBERS
Since numbers on latin are not really useful to anyone, I'm integrating them into this reference only because I want you to see how other languages take their very roots from the latin language. French, Spanish and Italian are languages which are based almost entirely on lingua Latina. Take a look for yourself:
/================================================== =====\
(1) I ------ unus, -a, -um
(2) II ----- duo, -ae, -o
(3) III ---- tres, tria
(4) IV ----- quattuor
(5) V ------ quinque
(6) VI ----- sex
(7) VII ---- septem
(8) VIII --- octo
(9) IX ----- novem
(10) X ----- decem
(11) XI ---- undecim
(12) XII --- duodecim
(13) XIII -- tredecim
(14) XIV --- quattuordecim
(15) XV ---- quindecim
(16) XVI --- sedecim
(17) XVII -- septendecim
(18) XVIII - duodeviginti
(19) XIX --- undeviginti
(20) XX ---- viginti
\================================================= ======/
USEFUL PHRASES AND SAYINGS
Ah, now here comes the more interesting part. I'm going to put some standard ("boring") phrases and wise sayings into this, but I'll give a little twist of some things that are modern, but expressed using an old language. I also like to use these phrases quite a lot in my posts on various forums (as well as in everyday life) so you could memorise them and have your friends gasp in awe. I've even used one to insult a forum administrator once, using his poor knowledge of latin to curse him right under his nose.
/================================================== =====\
Stultum est timere quod vitare non potes
"It is foolish to fear what you are unable to avoid"
Ad eundem quo nemo ante iit
"To (boldly) go where no one has gone before"
Adversus solem ne loquitor
"Don't waste your time arguing what is obvious"
Nolens volens
"Whether one likes it or not"
Scire tuum nihil est, nisi te scire hoc sciat alter
"Your knowledge is nothing when no one else knows you know it"
Nill iligitimi carborundum
"Don't let the bastards get you down"
Ne feceris ut rideam!
"Don't make me laugh!"
Age! Fac ut gaudeam!
"Go on! Make my day!"
Meum cerebrum nocet
"My brain hurts"
Intelligenti pauca
"Few words suffice for he who understands"
Si tacuisses, philosophari manisses.
"If you had kept quiet, you would have remained a philosopher"
Pueri pueri, pueri puerilla tractant.
"Children are children, (therefore) children do childish things"
Aeternum vale!
"Farewell forever!"
Ave atque vale!
"Hail and fairwell!" (used as "Goodbye")
Caro putridas es!
"You're dead meat!"
Duc, sequere, aut de via decede
"Lead, follow, or else get out of the way"
Qualem blennum!
"What a doofus!" (commonly: "God, what an idiot!")
Quod iure?
"By what law/authority?"
Stultior stulto fuisti, qui tabellis credentes!
"The biggest of all idiots is he who trusts what is written!"
Nulla regula sine exceptione
"There are no rules without exceptions"
Ab ovo
"From scratch"
Fortes fortuna iuvat
"The brave are helped along by luck"
Omnia praeclara rara
"All that is beautiful is rare"
Quod nocet saepe docet
"That which harms often teaches"
Felix, qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas
"Lucky is he who was able to find out the cause of things"
Ne auderis delere orbem rigidum meum!
"Don't you dare erase my hard disk!" (it is beside me where this could be
used, though.)
In margine
"On the edge" (Unimportant)
Parce tempoti
"Use your time sparingly"
Carpe diem!
"Seize the day!"
Principiis obsta!
"Fight from the very start!"
Latine loqui coactus sum
"I have this compulsion to speak latin."
Saepe mihi idiotae audiendi sunt
"I frequently have to listen to idiots" (this one is my invention ^^)
\================================================= ======/
That was the end of my list. I can't think of any more that would be considered interesting/funny so I'll add to this if I catch any others.
/================================================== =====\
GRAMMAR
Latin has the same classification of word types like any other language. This means that the basic types of words are verbs, nouns, adverbs, adjectives, pronouns, prepositions, etc.
Let's start with nouns. In Latin, there are 5 types of nouns, depending on their structure. These are the five declensions and they all have their seperate case endings. This is difficult to explain because English doesn't have cases. Old English had an extensive collection of cases, but it was abandoned during the transition into modern English (in a manner of speaking).
Now, you recognise a case in latin by the characteristic desinences (endings). Each declension has it's own special ending for every case. Got that? I know it's probably not exactly clear to you, so read this paragraph again until you get it. So, 5 declensions, each has 6 cases.
The cases in Latin are:
Nominative (nominativus)
Genetive (genetivus)
Dative (dativus)
Accusative (accusativus)
Vocative (vocativus)
Ablative (ablativus)
There also exists a locative case (for the record), but it's very, very rarely used so let's not go into that.
Now, nominative is the case in which the subject of a sentence is. This is probably the most well-known case becuase it's used so often.
Mark is throwing the ball.
The subject of the sentence is Mark, so if the sentence was in Latin, Mark would be in the nominative case (in this case "Marcus"). The ball would be in the accusative case because it is the object of the sentence. Mark is preforming an action. In this case, throwing. But what? He's throwing the ball, which is the object. Mark is doing the actual preforming of the action, therefore he is the subject. The ball is not doing anything, but the action of throwing is being preformed ON IT. It is the object. Geddit?
Now, genetive.
It is the fault of the man.
Sounds a bit funny and clumsy, doesn't it? That's because you'd be more likely to say "It is the man's fault" but this way, you'll see the genetive case being used. The genetive case can be translated into an English equivalent by using the "of" preposition, like I did in the example. Genetive indicates a relationship, that is most commonly POSSESSION. It is someone's fault, but whose? Of the man. It is his fault. Not mine, not yours, but his fault. Here's how this might sound on Latin:
Lapsus hominis est.
"Hominis" is the word "homo" (meaning "man") in it's genitive case. Lapsus means "error", "fault", "mistake", and est is the verb "to be" in it's third person singular ("is"). Now, if it was "Lapsus est" it would mean "the fault is" but what? Or in this case, whose is the fault? The genetive hominis indicates that the fault is of the man, that is , it belongs to the man in question, it is his.
Futher, we'll progress straight to vocative. This one's very easy.
Hey, brother!
This is a statement that someone yelled to catch someone's attention. That's what the vocative case is for, to act as a pointer to whom the sentence is intended. It is exactly the same as the nominative case in a lot of instances, which makes it easy to learn but brings up a problem: how do you recognise it? Well, it's easy to recognise because IT'S ALWAYS FOLLOWED BY A COMMA.
Gary, why did you not tell me?
In this example, Gary would be in the vocative case (if it existed in English). You were referring to Gary, not to Steve who might have been present at the time of speaking. That's all there is to it. Simple, right?
Dative. This case is used to indicate the noun to whom something is given. The thing being given doesn't necessarily have to be an object you can touch (such as a box) but it can be an answer, for example. Further, it can play the role of an indicator of some sort in a sentence For example, the latin mihi means "to me". In latin, any verb in the dative case acts (in the majority of cases) as the indirect object of that sentence. Since only a handful of languages use the dative case, here's an example to show you what this case looks like:
Antonius Marco suum librum dat.
Antonius is in the nominative case, the subject of the sentence. "Dat" is the 3rd person singular of the verb "dare" which means "to give".
The syntagm "suum librum" (notice that they are both in the accusative case) indicates the DIRECT object. Suum librum, translated, means "his book". So, Antonius is giving something. That something is his book. But to whom? Marco. No, Antonius Marco isn't his name, Marco is the noun Marcus in dative. Therefore, Antonius is giving his book to Marcus.
By now, you will be wondering how I recognise which word is in which case. Well, there's a rule. Every word can have a specific ending (suffix).
Remember when I said that there are 5 declensions and that every declension has 6 cases for singular and 6 for plural forms? Well, you recognise cases by the endings.
Marcus ends on -us. Similar words are Antonius, Romanus, legatus, etc....
Basically, if you see a word in the nominative case ending on -us, that means that it's a member of the 2nd declension.
Here are the endings for the 2nd declension nouns ending on -us.
From now on, I will mark the cases like this:
Nominative (singular) => [N]
Nominative (plural) => [n]
Genetive (singular) => [G]
Genetive (plural) => [g]
Dative (singular) => [D]
Dative (plural) => [d]
Accusative (singular) => [Ac]
Accusative (plural) => [ac]
Vocative (singular) => [V]
Vocative (plural) => [v]
Ablative (singular) => [Ab]
Ablative (plural) => [ab]
And now the suffix table (2nd dec. singular):
[N].................................. -US
[G].................................. -I
[D].................................. -O
[Ac]................................. -UM
[V].................................. -E
[Ab]................................. -O
Oh, and here are the plural forms too, even though they'll be mentioned a bit later.
[n].................................. -I
[g].................................. -ORUM
[d].................................. -IS
[ac]................................. -OS
[v].................................. -I
[ab]................................. -IS
From the above, you can tell that any noun for which you know belongs to the 2nd declension, the dative case (for singular) will be ending on -o. Thus, if you have the noun Marcus, the dative case will be Marco. (You replace -us with -o). Oh, and here's a thing I forgot: 99.99% of latin nouns of the 2nd declension ending on -US are masculinum, that is, they are masculine or "male".
Here's a little excercise. Try and convert the following latin nouns into the appropriate case.
FILIUS ---------------- into [Ac]
DISCIPULUS------------ into [Ab]
MEDICUS -------------- into [V]
MORBUS --------------- into [G]
GRAECUS -------------- into [D]
ROMANUS ------------- into [d]
LATINUS -------------- into [ac]
*****************************
Now, I started with the 2nd declension, but perhaps I should have explained the 1st...first. You see, it's even easier than the 2nd.
All verbs ending on -a (in [N] and -ae in [G]) belong to the 1st declension. Look how simple it is:
[N].................................. -A
[G].................................. -AE
[D].................................. -AE
[Ac]................................. -AM
[V].................................. -A
[Ab]................................. -A
and plural:
[n].................................. -AE
[g].................................. -ARUM
[d].................................. -IS
[ac]................................. -AS
[v].................................. -AE
[ab]................................. -IS
^ Notice that [V] and [N] are the same, just like [v] and [n]. In fact, vocative is the same as nominative in a lot of declensions.
So, let's take the noun TERRA, -AE, F
The first part (terra) indicates the nominative of the noun. The second part, -ae is the ending for GENETIVE. So, when you see that the nominative ends on -a, and genetive on -ae, you have to know that that noun goes by the 1st declension. The "F" indicates that "terra" is feminine. And almost all nouns on -a,-ae (of the 1st declension) are feminine (with a few exceptions, like Numa, -ae, m (which is the name of a person)).
Now, all you do is take TERRAE and remove the -AE. so, you get TERR.
And now you have your base of a noun, to which you add the endings. Therefore, through all the cases, terra will look like this:
terra
terrae
terrae
terram
terra
terra
-----------
terrae
terrarum
terris
terras
terrae
terris
There we have it. Oh, and by the way, terra means "country"/"land"/"earth" (not Earth as in planet).
So, now we know the first two declensions. Ending on -A, -AE and on -US, -I.
Try this excercise to help you remember the endings: Fill in the gaps.
Roma ----------> [d] _______
Pugna ---------> [Ak] _______
______ --------> [ab] Fluviis
______ --------> [g] tabernarum ------------> [Ak] ________
Now, I've skipped a massive section which you are probably burning to know: pronunciation.
Latin is spoken like it's read: it's not like English (to chew is read as "too choo"). If an ancient Roman read "to chew", he'd probably read it like "toh kheuh" ( <-- I know that this pronunciation approximation isn't very good).
However, there are some specifics I'm going to note that are pretty specific.
In Latin, there are 2 types of pronunciation. classic and traditional.
Classic is the type of pronunciation that the ancient romans used. It was used to speak Latin until the 5th century AD.
Traditional is used since the 5th century AD until today. It's used in places like churches, Vatican, etc.
Generally, classic pronunciation is easier, because you need to pay attention to how you're reading much less than when using traditional. But I find that traditional pronunciation is nicer. But judge yourself.
Classic
A,E,I,O,U ----lat----> [ A, E, I, O, U ]
Y -----------lat----> [ I ]
I------------lat----> [ J ] (at the beginning of a word, before a vowel, pronounced like the y in yoghurt, not like the j in jam)
Therefore, the word IAM won't be pronounced like the name Ian (just with an "m"), it will be pronnounced more like "yam".
* NOTE: If you're American, you're likely to "extend" the a in "yam" so it sounds like "yeeaam". Don't do this! The a sound must be short and sharp at all times. This is difficult to explain very well, but just try to have a "scottish" sounding "a" when you read it. Lol, the internet XD.
In Latin, you have 3 special sounds called diphtongs or "gliding vowels". They are actually a combination of vowels and are fairly straightforward to read, but some accustoming may be necessary. Since I love examples, here's one now:
caecus
"Caecus" is a Latin adjective meaning "blind" (for a male person - it would be "caeca" for a female and "caecum" for a non-gendered noun). The "AE" in the word is a diphtong, probably the most common of the three. The other two are "OE" and "AU". Usually any occurrence of au, oe and ae is a diphtong, and should be pronounced as a diphtong. In certain cases, the "e" may be marked with two dots above it (like an umlaut in German). This indicates that this combination of characters is actually just two vowels, and should not be read as a diphtong. I'll come back to this after I explain how diphtongs are pronounced, which is probably what you're asking right now.
The pronunciation of diphtongs depends whether the text is being read with classic or traditional pronunciation. In the case of classic (which I am explaining now), the diphtongs are pronounced as follows:
AE ===> [AI] as in "I am..."
OE ===> [OI] as in "Oil"
AU ===> [AU] with the stress on the "A", as in the Latin CAUSA, read "KAusa", not "kaUSA".
In the event of a "nullified diphong", the vowels are pronounced each for itself, no longer as a diphtong:
POËTICA : read "poETica", not "POItica". (Pay attention to the stressing)
The last unique thing about classic pronunciation is that the consonant "C" is always read as a "K", as in "cat", "kitchen" or "book". Thus, the English approximation of the pronunciation of "carmen" is "car-men".
Traditional
Traditional pronunciation is the type that I wasn't taught to use, but it's the slightly more complex kind, but it's used today and I sincerely recommend using it over classic.
Diphtongs, which were read as "eye", "oy" and "ow!" in classic, are now different. The sounds AE and OE are read simply as "eh". AU is pronounced the same.
So, "magistrae", meaning "teachers" (female, nominative plural), is read "magistreh". The "h" sound should not be read "h" as in "hat", I put it there to ensure people with English as their first language won't pronounce it "eeee" as in "bee". So a more correct version might be "magistre", sounds like "mag-ISS-tre", the last "tre" as in "trembling", optimally read with a "sharp r" sound, which does not usually exist in English, German or French, and is found commonly in Slavic languages. It's officially called a "trill r", a description of which can be found on Wikipedia (here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trill_consonant)). Czech readers will know what I mean (the "r" in "ruš").
TO BE CONTINUED. :) Sorry!