Learning Latin the Ancient Way: Latin Textbooks from the Ancient World
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- Type：Epub+TxT+PDF+Mobi
- Create Date：2023-01-04 05:51:29
- Update Date：2025-09-06
- Status：finish
- Author：Eleanor Dickey
- ISBN：1107474574
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Summary
What did Greek speakers in the Roman empire do when they wanted to learn Latin？ They used Latin-learning materials containing authentic， enjoyable vignettes about daily life in the ancient world - shopping， banking， going to the baths， having fights， being scolded， making excuses - very much like the dialogues in some of today's foreign-language textbooks。 These stories provide priceless insight into daily life in the Roman empire， as well as into how Latin was learned at that period， and they were all written by Romans in Latin that was designed to be easy for beginners to understand。 Learners also used special beginners' versions of great Latin authors including Virgil and Cicero， and dictionaries， grammars， texts in Greek transliteration， etc。 All these materials are now available for the first time to today's students， in a book designed to complement modern textbooks and enrich the Latin-learning experience。
Reviews
saïd
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Great book， although certainly not an academic text。 Accessible enough for laypersons though。
Chad Tichane
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Nice supplemental learning for ancient Greek texts。 Students should be aware that there are only roughly 48 pages of learning material inside， as it is pricey。
Phil
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This is an odd book， but an interesting one。 Its main subject is an examination of how （especially Greek） learners in the ancient world learned Latin as a second language。 It is really a collection of several of the interesting texts and tools in Latin second language learning which have survived into our era。 Those include colloquia， word lists， grammars and various other tools。 There are excellent notes on each of these texts and groups of texts which explain how they were used and some of the This is an odd book， but an interesting one。 Its main subject is an examination of how （especially Greek） learners in the ancient world learned Latin as a second language。 It is really a collection of several of the interesting texts and tools in Latin second language learning which have survived into our era。 Those include colloquia， word lists， grammars and various other tools。 There are excellent notes on each of these texts and groups of texts which explain how they were used and some of the linguistic peculiarities of individual texts。 The format of these text is unusual， especially in the bilingual texts， where the editors usually leave the Latin and translate the Greek gloss。 That gives a real sense of how one would experience the methods being used here （not that different from undergraduate use of Loeb editions as translation aids- a practice despised by language teachers today）， even it seems a bit strange in practice。 There are other times where no translation is given for either， making these sections sometimes a little less understandable to the casual reader， but giving a better sense of what the texts look like。 This is a valuable book for those interested in the history of the Latin language as well as for those who are interested in teaching Latin。 It makes an interesting supplement to modern language study and gives some useful points to reflect upon。 。。。more
Koen Crolla
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Straddles an awkward boundary between being a scholarly work examining how Latin and Greek were taught in the Roman empire and how some of their resources were preserved （for which it's a little shallow and the texts have been edited way too much） and being a supplementary resource for people learning Latin right now （for which the texts preserve too many irregularities and idiosyncrasies）。 Probably best to approach it as a kind of low-intensity classical-philological popsci aimed at people who Straddles an awkward boundary between being a scholarly work examining how Latin and Greek were taught in the Roman empire and how some of their resources were preserved （for which it's a little shallow and the texts have been edited way too much） and being a supplementary resource for people learning Latin right now （for which the texts preserve too many irregularities and idiosyncrasies）。 Probably best to approach it as a kind of low-intensity classical-philological popsci aimed at people who already speak Latin pretty well， in which case it's mildly interesting and mildly enjoyable。（The bilingual colloquia that have just a few Latin words per line to make room for the translation in a parallel column end up reading like poetry， and I was actually moved to tears by the lawsuit one that just ends "Audisti / quia vicimus， / Gaie？"） 。。。more
Christopher
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In this book renowned Classics scholar Eleanor Dickey gives an overview and samples of ancient materials for learning Latin that have survived in manuscripts。 There was a demand for Latin instruction in the Eastern Mediterranean due to Latin’s role as the language of the imperial overlords and various legal contexts （e。g。 writing wills）， and therefore a series of bilingual dialogues， Latin with Greek translation， were created。 Oddly， these dialogues， known as colloquia， did not survive in the Ea In this book renowned Classics scholar Eleanor Dickey gives an overview and samples of ancient materials for learning Latin that have survived in manuscripts。 There was a demand for Latin instruction in the Eastern Mediterranean due to Latin’s role as the language of the imperial overlords and various legal contexts （e。g。 writing wills）， and therefore a series of bilingual dialogues， Latin with Greek translation， were created。 Oddly， these dialogues， known as colloquia， did not survive in the East， but they were recopied in the West by learned people who were knowledgeable about Latin and wanted to use them to learn Greek instead。Dickey thinks that the colloquia should be better known。 Not only do they often deal with everyday matters of Roman life – getting up in the morning， going to school， meeting friends， shopping in the marketplace – but they might also inspire Latin teachers to use this method in their classes today。 Thus， in presenting excepts from the manuscripts， Dickey has removed the Greek translation for the Latin and replaced it instead with an English translation。In addition， students of Latin in Antiquity used grammars and glossaries。 The grammars by which to learn Latin were themselves written in Latin， which will strike modern students as odd， but as Dickey notes， this is a tradition that persisted until recent centuries。 The downside is that this book does seem to fall between two stools。 While Dickey wants to inspire modern teachers with these colloquia， teachers today may not think them a suitable option （even if the teacher is using a Spoken Latin approach）。 Yet by translating the Greek text into English and then dropping the Greek， Dickey does not provide a full reflection of the manuscripts’ contents。 。。。more
Drianne
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<3 <3 <3 <3 <3So fascinating。 I remain convinced that Dickey is the greatest philologist of her （our） generation， and this book， which presents a selection of the extant materials used in （often Late） Antiquity to teach Latin to Greek speakers， is no exception to her generally remarkable facility with Latin and Greek， despite this being aimed at a slightly less-specialized audience。 I cannot WAIT for her elementary Latin textbook based on these materials （forthcoming 2017）。My only wish for this <3 <3 <3 <3 <3So fascinating。 I remain convinced that Dickey is the greatest philologist of her （our） generation， and this book， which presents a selection of the extant materials used in （often Late） Antiquity to teach Latin to Greek speakers， is no exception to her generally remarkable facility with Latin and Greek， despite this being aimed at a slightly less-specialized audience。 I cannot WAIT for her elementary Latin textbook based on these materials （forthcoming 2017）。My only wish for this book would be macrons: there were words I was unfamiliar with and would very much have liked to have known the exact pronunciation of; if one is going to modernize the text presentation in terms of word-break， spelling， punctuation， gloss-language text， why on earth not add macrons too？I should also have liked indexes besides the thorough table of contents。（I saw one errātum: on p。 69， for quae cum ita sunt read， of course， sint。）<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 。。。more
AskHistorians
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