Begining Latin

Teacher(s)

Clesse Grégory;

Language

French

Prerequisites

None

Main themes

This course will deal with the following topics :
1. Nominal morphology : the 5 declensions of Latin nouns, as well as those for two classes of adjectives, the relative pronoun, the main demonstrative adjective pronouns and indefinite adjective pronouns ;
2. Verbal morphology : the 5 Latin conjugations, in addition to deponents and irregular verbs in all the tenses, moods and voices ;
3. The main syntactic structures in Latin ;
4. Translation of elementary level Latin texts ;
5. A basic vocabulary of around 800 words.

Learning outcomes

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :
1	By the end of this course, students will have acquired the essential concepts in the language (lexis, morphology and syntax), required to read Latin authors. They will be able to understand and translate simple texts. Students who take this course will afterwards be able to take a course in textual analysis.

Content

This course is designed for complete beginners whose knowledge of Latin is not enough to take the multi-purpose part of the course  Latin : language and texts  (LFIAL 1780 and 1781). The course aims at assimilating the main notions of Latin morphology and syntax, in order to develop a gradual autonomy for the reading and translating of Latin texts. The selected texts will focus on historical and mythological topics.

Teaching methods

This course has two interlinked, joint strands :

• teaching of regular morphology (nominal and verbal) and the main structures in Latin ;
• applying this theoretical teaching to a corpus of Latin phrases and a detailed examination of short extracts from classic authors.

A plan of the course is given out with further details at the beginning of the academic year.
This course involves :
1. lectures (30 hours) : theoretical and progressive presentation of the grammatical structures in Latin, and translation of short passages where these grammatical notions are applied. 
2. activities in small groups (practical) (30 hours) : the practical exercises will lead to the assimilation of the grammatical notions and to a gradual autonomy for analysing and translating short texts by using the suitable tools. 
3. a significant amount of individual work (40 hours) : regular acquisition of the Latin grammar, review of the lecture notes, preparations requested by the teaching team.

Evaluation methods

Subject to adaptation of the modalities due to the evolution of the health crisis, the evaluation of the course will be organized as follows:
The course will be based on a continuous evaluation (every 2 weeks) of the student's abilities in assimilating the main contents. Directly from the first weeks, these evaluations will focus on the command of the main morphological and lexical notions. and morphology. Gradually, they will include an active comprehension of the language through the translation of short passages.  
This written examination will be based both on the activities in the practical sessions (30 % of the final mark) and on an overall written exam held at the end of the semester (70% of the final mark), which will evaluate: 1) the command of the student in the grammatical analyse of nominal, adjectival and verbal forms; 2) the assimilation of a basic vocabulary ; 3) the ability to translate short textual passages already analysed during the class and to justify their grammatical structures; 4) the ability to translate in autonomy a short textual passage which will not be seen during the class.  
 
For the second registration,  written exam on the whole teaching.

Online resources

Files used during the classes are available on Moodle. 

Bibliography

• C. MEYERSON-DETHOOR & G. SCHOUPPE (coll. D. LONGREE e.a.), Index: Manuel de vocabulaire et dictionnaire latin, 5e éd. revue, Louvain-la-Neuve, De Boeck, 2018, 277 p.
• M. LAVENCY & A.-M. BOXUS, Clavis. Grammaire latine pour la lecture des auteurs, 4e éd., Louvain-la-Neuve, De Boeck, 2017, 273 p. 
• M. DE GIVE, Grammaire latine, 15e éd., 4e tir., Louvain-la-Neuve, De Boeck, 2015, 307 p.
• A. MEURANT & A.-M. BOXUS, « Ad honorem per ardorem ». Manuel de latin à l'usage des grands débutants, 2e éd., Bruxelles, Safran, 2012, 272 p.
• A. MEURANT & A.-M. BOXUS, « Ad honorem per ardorem ». Exercices de latin à l'usage des grands débutants, 2e éd., Bruxelles, Safran, 2012, 256 p. 
• E. FAMERIE, A. BODSON & M. DUBUISSON, Méthode de langue latine. Lire, comprendre et traduire les textes latins, éd. revue, Paris, Armand Colin, 2019, 592 p.  
• E. FAMERIE, La maîtrise du latin par la pratique. Exercices, versions et thèmes avec corrigés, Paris, Armand Colin, 2020, 537 p.
• H.H. ORBERG, Lingua latina per se illustrata. 1. Familia romana, Montella, Accademia Vivarium Novum, 2017, 328 p. 

Teaching materials

• C. MEYERSON-DETHOOR & G. SCHOUPPE (coll. D. LONGREE e.a.), Index: Manuel de vocabulaire et dictionnaire latin, 5e éd. revue, Louvain-la-Neuve, De Boeck, 2018, 277 p.

Faculty or entity

FIAL