Macrobius
10-27-2007, 05:15 PM
Well, think of it as *Old* Castellano. :)
Any young White Man in colonial america (which was rather larger than the colonies settled by Britain, which was in turn larger than the 13 colonies that revolted....), going off to college (or collegio) at age 14, would have had a copy of Erasmus' Colloquies, the standard text for spoken Latin. Or perhaps those of Vives, the famous Spanish reformer who, however, lived in England.
European culture used to be rather more unified than it is now, post 1800. Learn to speak Latin like your ancestors, White Man!
Corderius beginner's text was a favourite of English colonists. (Cotton Mather even wrote a poem on the 'American Cordery'. The text was used by Adams, Jefferson, and many others), in a version that selected 100 of the dialogues.
Resources:
http://www.latinitatis.com/
This one is rather hard to find because the links leading to it are rather broken (or require iTunes to work):
http://www.stoa.org/colloquia/podcasts/ (Spoken Latin MP3s)
These podcasts use the modern academic pronunciation, which is like the Italian pronunciation only with irritating differences (V like W, no hard and soft C or G). The English colonists spoke Latin like English, with English values for the consonants, and English vowel qualities for long and short vowels. In fact, the rules for pronouncing Latin that way are exactly the same as for pronouncing Latinate words in English, so you already know how to do it -- it's how English speakers say Latin. Duh. This pronunciation was killed off in the 1870s however, so using the modern Italian (or Ecclesiastical) pronunciation is a reasonable compromise. It was a minority choice among the English (Milton favoured it, e.g.), but historically authentic.
Corresponding texts:
http://www.stoa.org/colloquia/
http://www.grexlat.com/biblio/index.asp
English Translation of Erasmus Colloquies (interesting in its own right for the early colloquial English used to render it):
http://oll.libertyfund.org/?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Fperson=22&Itemid=28
Nathan Bailey's racy translation, vol 1 http://oll.libertyfund.org/index.php?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=549&Itemid=28
Added: Modern study aids and text: http://www.stoa.org/colloquia/nelson/
More Talk:
http://www.latinitatis.com/latinitas/menu_es.htm (castellano)
http://www.latinitatis.com/latinitas/menu_gb.htm (English)
Bibliography of Neo-Latin texts on the web:
http://www.philological.bham.ac.uk/bibliography/
Any young White Man in colonial america (which was rather larger than the colonies settled by Britain, which was in turn larger than the 13 colonies that revolted....), going off to college (or collegio) at age 14, would have had a copy of Erasmus' Colloquies, the standard text for spoken Latin. Or perhaps those of Vives, the famous Spanish reformer who, however, lived in England.
European culture used to be rather more unified than it is now, post 1800. Learn to speak Latin like your ancestors, White Man!
Corderius beginner's text was a favourite of English colonists. (Cotton Mather even wrote a poem on the 'American Cordery'. The text was used by Adams, Jefferson, and many others), in a version that selected 100 of the dialogues.
Resources:
http://www.latinitatis.com/
This one is rather hard to find because the links leading to it are rather broken (or require iTunes to work):
http://www.stoa.org/colloquia/podcasts/ (Spoken Latin MP3s)
These podcasts use the modern academic pronunciation, which is like the Italian pronunciation only with irritating differences (V like W, no hard and soft C or G). The English colonists spoke Latin like English, with English values for the consonants, and English vowel qualities for long and short vowels. In fact, the rules for pronouncing Latin that way are exactly the same as for pronouncing Latinate words in English, so you already know how to do it -- it's how English speakers say Latin. Duh. This pronunciation was killed off in the 1870s however, so using the modern Italian (or Ecclesiastical) pronunciation is a reasonable compromise. It was a minority choice among the English (Milton favoured it, e.g.), but historically authentic.
Corresponding texts:
http://www.stoa.org/colloquia/
http://www.grexlat.com/biblio/index.asp
English Translation of Erasmus Colloquies (interesting in its own right for the early colloquial English used to render it):
http://oll.libertyfund.org/?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Fperson=22&Itemid=28
Nathan Bailey's racy translation, vol 1 http://oll.libertyfund.org/index.php?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=549&Itemid=28
Added: Modern study aids and text: http://www.stoa.org/colloquia/nelson/
More Talk:
http://www.latinitatis.com/latinitas/menu_es.htm (castellano)
http://www.latinitatis.com/latinitas/menu_gb.htm (English)
Bibliography of Neo-Latin texts on the web:
http://www.philological.bham.ac.uk/bibliography/