Welcome to Latin 101
1. Why learn Latin?
2. Latin you know
1. Why learn Latin?
 The Foreign Language requirement 
 To understand “grammar”
 “To think more clearly and systematically”
 To learn the history of the Romance languages that
descended from Latin (Spanish, Italian, French,
Romanian, etc.)
 To trace a major historical influence on English language
(though not directly “descended” from Latin)
1. Why learn Latin? (cont.)
 To know “the lingua franca of western civilization”
 To understand specialist vocabularies (medicine, botany,
Catholicism, etc.)
 “To know a dead language” …
 To read:
 Harrius Potter et Philosophi Lapis
 Alicia in Terra Mirabili
 Winnie ille Pu
1. Why learn Latin? (cont.)
 To learn the language of a living
ancient community (the Romans):
 Inscriptions (graffiti from Pompeii, c. 59
CE)
CAMPĀNĪ, VICTŌRIĀ ŪNĀ CUM NŪCERĪNĪS
PERĪSTIS
“Campanians, in victory you perished
together with the Nucerians”
Cf. HBO Rome opening
credits:http://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=6BZmK3_IIZg
1. Why learn Latin? (cont.)
 To learn the language of a living ancient
community (the Romans):
 Literature (from Vergilius Vaticanus
manuscript, c. 400 CE; Aeneas describes
his voyage; Aeneid 3.681–89)
praecipitis metus acer agit quocumque rudentis
excutere et uentis intendere uela secundis.
“Our terror drove us headlong—anywhere.
We let the sails out for the wind to take.”
—trans. Ruden
2. Latin you know
What do you know?
2. Latin you know (cont.)
 Further examples:
semper fi = semper fidelis
e pluribus unum
prima facie
vice versa
ante meridiem
in vino veritas
minutiae
desiderata
casus belli
deus ex machina
veni, vidi, vici
alea iacta est
habeas corpus
always faithful
from one, many
on first impression
the situation turned around
before noon
in wine, truth
small details
things desired
incident of/for war
god from the machine (stage-crane)
I came, I saw, I conquered
the die has been cast
you can have the body
2. Latin you know (cont.)
 Further examples:
carpe diem
status quo (ante)
sine qua non
quid pro quo
referendum
referenda
agenda
seize the day
the state in which (earlier)
without which not
one thing for another
a referral
items to be referred
things to be done
2. Latin you know (cont.)
What do the examples let you say …
 About the role played by Latin in modern American and
anglophone discourse?
 About the ways in which the grammatical rules of Latin
may differ from English?
2. Latin you know (cont.)
For next class-meeting :
Read Intro to Latin pp. 1–3 on pronunciation: How much of
Latin pronunciation did you already know, and how much
could you have guessed?