Learn and teach Latin here

I was given this to learn as a punishment for watering a hideous aspidistra plant with boiling water. Still remember it.

Non possidentem multa vocaveris
Recte beatum; rectius occupat
Nomen beati, qui deorum
Muneribus sapienter uti
Duramque calletauperiem pati
Peiusque leto flagitium timet.

It is not the possessor of many things whom you will rightly call happy. The name of the happy man is claimed more justly by him who has learnt the art wisely to use what the gods give, and who can endure the hardships of poverty, who dreads disgrace as something worse than death.

Horace.

In the Scots vernacular, the dominie was the schoolmaster. Latin, dominus - master.

At my Yorkshire grammar school I did Latin, French and German at O level - passed them all, but I truly loved Latin. It was a troubled love though, as I find rote learning very very hard. We did French from 1st form, Latin from 2nd and just two years of German from 4th. I remember my absolute horror when I found out that German grammar was like Latin grammar, except there were 4 cases not 6.

But the Latin teacher was magic - he spent the first two weeks of our first year of Latin telling us tales of ancient Rome. No visual aids - he just perched on his chair and talked. I fell in love with ancient Rome, and love it still. When Time Team do a Roman dig I'm glued to the telly.

Well, the school motto was nil sine labore - nothing without work, or nowt baht graft if you want it in Yorkshirish.

Then I went to work at a County Court and found the law is full of Latin - most of it pronounced any way but the way we were taught. I was deeply peeved at that.

Oh, Grannyknot I'm the same as you with Scandinavian series, but from a slightly different perspective - I get my understanding from German, and also Yorkshire dialect.

anno and you of course have a Latin username .

I can think of quite a few Scottish/Afrikaans words that apply, the one that springs to mind is "kerk/kirk" for "church".

Very amusing feetle

Sic Biscuitas Desintegrat...

Grannyknot, when I was taking the ESOL teaching course, our tutor used Swedish to demonstrate how to teach a language none of us knew. I found a lot of cognates with Scottish dialect words, for example 'bra' (good) in Swedish and the Scottish 'braw'.

Re languages at Scottish universities, Anno, I had to have Higher Latin as an entrance qualification for my course in French and German. Without it I would have had to do a year of Latin at St A's and I reckoned that Higher was going to be easier!! A local minister came in to school 2 days a week to try to teach me Greek as well, but to my regret to this day, I didn't persevere.

Arma virumque cano - I sing of arms and of a man - opening bit of the Aeneid. I also did A level latin, and it does give you a good grasp of grammar. What ho for the gerund and the gerundive!

Alea iacta est. trying to get ipad to do this is fun.

addendum/addenda - thing(s) to be added.
referendum/referenda - thing(s) to be referred
agendum/agenda - - thing(s) to be done
Amanda - she who must be loved.

etcetera - and the rest.

post hoc, propter hoc - followed after that, so must have been caused by that (False logic, a lot of the time)

Caveat emptor - buyer beware. Say this to myself every time I go shopping!

Languages are quite weird - and endlessly fascinating! Whilst watching all the Scandinavian cop series these past few years, I realised that I can often follow what is being said without looking at the sub-titles, because I am fluent in Afrikaans, which comes from Dutch, so there must be a stem language in there somewhere that links with the Scandinavian languages. Drove husband nuts because I would repeat words in Afrikaans moments before the subs came up!

My classics teacher entered some of us for a Latin and Greek speaking competition against many of the top schools in the West of Scotland - and we invariably won the prizes. I spouted chunks of Demosthenes, Thucidides and Homer and all I can remember is 'The whole earth is the tomb of famous men.' Then I did Latin and Greek in first year at University - Scottish students did a spread of subjects in first year. Modern languages would have been more useful - with hindsight!

I did "A" Level Latin and Greek, and I love the disciples of Latin. I can now only read Greek and translate very simple words, like "and"!

"Carpe diem" - seize the day

A little apt quotation for today:

"Diffugere nives, redeunt iam gramina campis
Arboribusque "

"the snows have melted (and) grass has returned to the fields, (and) leaves to the trees."

Well, I have to concede one thing to Gove - rote learning certainly stays with you. I have absolutely no use for Latin grammar but I can still conjugate a verb and recite a list of prepositions that take the ablative case ( a, absque, coram, de, palam, clam, cum ex and e, sinus , tenus , pro and prae...) What a total waste of space in my brain!

Sorry! You can have the Scottish translation - Wha daur meddle wi' me - or the English - No-one assails me with impunity.

Well, I have to concede one thing to Gove - rote learning certainly stays with you. I have absolutely no use for Latin grammar but I can still conjugate a verb and recite a list of prepositions that take the ablative absolute ( a, absque, coram, de, palam, clam, cum ex and e, sinus , tenus , pro and prae...) What a total waste of space in my brain!

Oh those declensions... I reckon Romans must have spent so much time bitching about other people's grammar...

Where I went to school, the motto was "Virtute et Labore". At a reunion lunch nearly sixty years later I found that nobody on my table really knew for sure what it meant! I figured out that the -te ending stuck onto 'virtu' indicates the ablative (an odd-sounding word in itself, which means "to be removed or vaporized at very high temperature" but that has damn-all to do with Latin grammar). The ablative case in Latin implies 'by', 'with' or 'from' - in this case it makes our old motto mean 'By valour and exertion' - although you could have fooled me...

I bet Calgacus didn't say it in Latin though...

A common prayer in my Catholic childhood: Mea maxima culpa - through my most grievous fault.
I got a double dose of Latin, as a school subject and as a Catholic, before the change to the mass being conducted in the vernacular.

Mea culpa (I did it!)

Gracesmum and Aka you have to explain! Otherwise where's the lesson?

Non sine pulvere palma (not without dust the prize) Ref charioteers

Omnia vincit amor. Love conquers all.

Amo GN!