SCHOLA

SCHOLA (http://schola.ning.com/) est situs interretialis studiis Latinis
dicatus quem abhinc complures menses Londini condidit magister Britannicus
Evan der Millner. quamquam ipse minus biennium linguam Latinam discit,
maxima cum industria facultates in interreti praebuit per quas alii quoque
discere possint. ego ipse nomen meum in situm SCHOLAM mense Iunio dedi atque
semel in locutorio (Anglice `chatroom') cum conditore `collocutus' sum. in
situ illius mihi maxime placent videogrammata, inter quae invenies et
Terentii Tunberg orationes et partes fabulae Mozartianae c.t.`Apollo et
Hyacinthus'. sed cum ipse in rebus diversis occupatus sum, nunc situm illum
raro visito.

Magister ille alium situm quoque habet (http://latinum.mypodcast.com/

) ubi
lectiones Latinas in conmputatrum deponi possunt. fundamentum cursus illius
est liber in saeculo undevicesimo a Georgio Adler scripto, c.t. `A Practical
Grammar of the Latin Language.' Adler methodo `Latinitatis Vivae' favebat,
dialogos multos ad res cottidianos pertinentes praebuit.

Mnemonics for Latin

Mnemonics for Latin

Using the Method of Loci to Memorise the Verb Table.
by Evan Millner MA

The use of mnemonics can help speed up the learning of various elements of Latin Grammar. Methods like this were used successfully by Roman Orators, and studying how to apply mnemonics formed an important part of the curriculum, as one of the tools needed for rhetoric. The method comes down to us through a work in Latin by an unknown author. The piece, called Rhetorica ad Herennium, is estimated to have been written around 85 BC, though it is unlikely that it was original with this author. The author of this textbook of rhetoric examines each of the five parts of rhetoric, including as the fourth part memoria in which he explains the method of loci. It is the only complete source from the classical world to survive, although there are brief references to the method by others, including Cicero and Quintilian, the chief teachers of rhetoric in the ancient and medieval worlds, and later in the Renaissance.

A Verb Room using the Method of Loci.

The curious diagram you see here, is very useful, as it is a systematic method for the loci, developed by Feinagle in the early 1800's. When combined with Gouraud's perfection of the mnemonic system, (which Grey had attempted to base on the Ancient Hebrew mnemonic system of acrostics, known in Classical texts as 'Simanim'. ) we end up with a very powerful artificial memory system. All this sounds very arcane, but has a beautiful simplicity to it.


Step One:
Get comfortable. Sit with your back to the fireplace, or to a wall of your room.
Imagine the floor is divided into 9 squares, 3 squares per row.
Number them:
1-2-3
4-5-6
7-8-9

These 9 are represented in the diagram above, by the 9 squares in the middle.

On your left, is the first wall. Divide this, too into nine squares. Number them, starting from the top left
1-2-3
4-5-6
7-8-9

Now, compare your floor with your wall. None the consistency? This,however, is the FIRST wall, so each of the numbers has a ONE in front of it.
11-12-13
14-15-16
17-18-19

However, don't remember them like this, just as plain single digits.

Place the number TEN just above this wall, on the ceiling.

Then, do the same for the remaining two walls. The second wall will be the numbers 21,22,23 etc, and the third, 31,32,33, and the wall behind your back, 41,42,43 etc

Now, examine, the diagram above. If you cut it out, and folded it up, with the numbers on the INSIDE, you will have your room.

Take some time to get this pattern firmly into your head - I would spend a good 10 minutes, running over it in your mind's eye. The method for constructing this memory room is outlined very clearly is this little books by S.Sams
Ignore everything in the book, except for his very clear description of how to imagine the memory room.
You can put one of these memory rooms in every room and closet in your home. The first room would be for numbers 1 - 50, and the second for 50 -100 and so on.

Setting this system up in your head requires a small investment in time. Once you have it, you'll have it with you for life. Getting a large sheet of card, and drawing out the diagram above, and constructing the cube, can also be of assistance.


NOW, for memorising the verbs using the method of loci:


Turn to page 191 of Sam's Book, (i.e. the last 4 pages or so) where he sets out his system for using the memory cube for learning the Latin verbs. I used the system very successfully myself, so it appears to work for me. It might work for you as well. Sams does not give all forms in his example, you can supply the passive and deponents yourself on the remaining 2 walls of your first room, and place irregulars in another room - or put them alongside the regulars in the same boxes, once you have learned the regulars - remember to keep the tenses in the same loci, even in a new room.
IGNORE the number-word equivalent system given by Sams. If you want to play with this acrostic system, use the more advanced system developed by Gouraud:

Here is the floor of your room:

FIRSTLY, memorise the positions of these in their boxes. You may make up stories, visualise them. ( See the declension tower for examples of how to do this)

The first step is to be able to quickly recognise the forms. The second step, is to be able to give them over.

Here is a simplified set-up. We will learn it, then flesh it out with the full forms of the four paradigms for each tense. Aids to memory are in parentheses - feel free to make up your own ones)

1 I DO Am-o ( note how it resembles i do)	2 I DID am-abam (I did fall on my bum)	3 I HAVE am-avi (note the resemblance avi - have)
4 I HAD am-averam (I had Avraham over for dinner)	5 I WILL am-abo (I will be about to arrive)	6 I MAY am-em (am-em, I may)
7 I MIGHT OR COULD am-arem ( I might visit a hareem)	8 I SHOULD HAVE am-averim	9 I SHALL HAVE am-avero

Note - all forms on the diagonal ( in green) from amo, end in o - i.e. amo, amabo, amavero.

The form 'I should have' (red) is almost identical to the form of I shall have.

You can think of your won mnemonics for the forms I have not given.

So, sit in your armchair, and imagine these arrrayed on the floor, in their boxes. Be as vivid as you can, make your images as concrete as you can.

Once you know exactly where the words fall, and which words are in which box, add the rest of the forms of the paradigms of each verb to each box. I would draw up a plan of the floor, and write out the tables in each square, as per the instructions in S.Sam's book.

An hour or so of effort should have you remembering where the things are.

Remember, make use of the objects in your room that happen by chance to fall in the squares. For example, in my room, the top right corner had a table with a top hat on it, so I thought up the line ' I have a top hat', and so immediately recalled that that square was occupied by 'I have'

Now we leave the floor, and turn our imagination to the wall on our left, which we divide into nine squares:

1 I WOULD HAVE (I would have missed him) am-avissem	2 TO DO (the standard infinitives, amare, monere,regere etc) TO HAVE ...'D (To have missed the 'm; that fell off amavissem was really irresponsible!) amavisse ( with no final m)	3 TO BE ABOUT TO To be about to put a suppository up your recturum esse
4 DOING amandi IN DOING amando TO DO amandum (a giant eating almonds, while chanting fee fi fo fum)	5 TO DO (To do: to lose some weight from my tummy) amatum TO BE DONE ( To be done, now that its gone, to keep it off) amatu ( the tum has gone!)	6 DOING amans What am I doing? I'm eating almonds! (amans) What am I about to do? I'm about to give some almonds to this tourist! ABOUT TO DO amaturus
7 DO! ama!	8 SHALL DO! am-ato	9 DONE amatus TO BE DONE amandus (This is the last square and we're all done, but there is still more to be done)

If you have a reasonably good visual or spatial memory, you should be able to get all of this memorised in about one hour. Add all the other forms, as given in Sam's book at the very end. review it regularly...the first attempt will be really hard. Then it will get easier. You will find, even after one hour of this, that your comprehension of texts will jump, as you will recognise verb forms, and be able to relate them to their locations.

Phreno-mnemotechny, Or, The Art of Memory Or, The Art of Memory: the Series of Lectures, Explanatory of the Principles of the System, Delivered in New

Phreno-mnemotechny, Or, The Art of Memory Or, The Art of Memory: the Series of Lectures, Explanatory of the Principles of the System, Delivered in New York and Philadelphia, in the Beginning of 1844 By Francis Fauvel-Gouraud: ""

REBILII CRUSONIS ANNALIUM

REBILII CRUSONIS ANNALIUM
La primera, Robinson Crusoe, de Daniel DEFOE, la encontramos en la traducción de F.W. Newman.
Rebilii Crusonis Annalium. Id est liber cui titulus Robinson Crusoe a F.W. Newman in Latinum sermonem translatus,
y en la versión de F.J. Goffaux.
Latine scripsit F. J. GOFFAUX, Humaniorum Litterarum Professor in Lycoeo Imperiali. Editio nova, cui accedunt annotationes.
Podemos leer información en latín sobre la novela en este artículo de wikipedia.

ALICIA IN TERRA MIRABILI
Alice in Wonderland ('Alicia en el País de las Maravillas'), de Louis CARROLL, en la traducción de Clive Harcourt Carruthers.
Alicia in terra mirabili, ab auctore Ludovico Carroll. Latine redditus ab eius fautore vetere gratoque Clive Harcourt Carruthers.
Artículo en wikipedia latina.




INSULA THESAURARIA
Treasure Island ('La Isla del Tesoro'), de Robert L. STEVENSON, traducida por Arcadius Avellanus.
Insula Thesauraria, ab auctore Roberto Ludovico Stevenson. Latine interpretatus est Arcadius Avellanus, New York 1922.
Artículo sobre Stevenson en wikipedia latina.





Las cuatro siguientes obras han sido traducidas por Thomas Cotton, y están alojadas en la web http://www.phaselus.org.uk/

CARMEN AD FESTUM NATIVITATIS LIBER
A Christmas Carol ('Cuento de Navidad'), de Charles DICKENS, en la versión latina de Thomas Cotton.
Carmen ad Festum Nativitatis. Liber pernotus Carolo Dickens clarissimo primum A.D. MDCCCXLIII editus; persaepe scrinio vel cinematico vel televisorio visus, scaena quoque; radiophonice auditus; nunc in linguam Latinam conversus auctore Thomas Cotton.
En wikipedia latina.


CAPTIVUS ZENDAE
The Prisoner of Zenda ('El prisionero de Zenda'), de Anthony HOPE, traducida por Thomas Cotton.
Captivus Zendae. Liber inlustris Antonio Hope primum A.D. MCMVII editus; scrinio vel cinematico vel televisorio visus; nunc de Anglico sermone in Latinum conversus auctore Thomaso Cotton.





FUNDUS ANIMALIUM
Animal Farm ('Rebelión en la granja'), de George ORWELL, por Thomas Cotton.
Fundus Animalium. Liber celeberrimus Georgii Orwell primum A.D. MCMXLV editus; ubique per mundo notus; nunc de Anglico sermone in Latinum conversus auctore Thomaso Cotton.
En wikipedia latina.




AURAE INTER SALICES
The Wind In The Willows ('El viento en los sauces'), de Kenneth GRAHAME, por Thomas Cotton.
Aurae Inter Salices. Liber celeberrimus Kennethi Grahame primum A.D. MCMVII editus; ubique pernotus; nunc de Anglico sermone in Latinum conversus auctore Thomaso Cotton.

Brisbane on his Manesca Lessons

….Albert Brisbane pg 60

regarding what to bring, he mentioned only copybook and pencil. I asked if I should bring my grammar. "No!" said he, "you want no grammars. They are made by grown men who know nothing of the requirements of a child. Why, they are almost too complex for me" , he added.

On commencing my studies with Mr Manseca, I was at once impressed by the naturalness of his method, and I felt a thrill of pleasure at the idea of being able to comprehend what I had hitherto considered beyond my capacity. Seating me at a table, with a blank sheet of paper before me:” Draw a line through the middle” he said, On the left put the English and on the right the French. How write, “Have you?” The French, that is, avez vous? Below it put ‘I have’, in French J’ai. Now pronounce avez vous. I repeated it after him. J’ai, he continued. I followed him again. Avez-vous? He asked. J’ai, I answered. Now, he said, put down The bread – Le Pain. He spelled it for me, and said: the last consonant in French is not pronounced when not followed by a vowel. Then he asked, avez vous le pain. I answered, j’ai le pain. To this was added the salt, the wine, the butter, the sugar, and so forth, with the negative form of the verb and some adjectives, and we entered into at once quite a conversation of questions and answers on the common necessaries of life. After an hour of such exercise I had fifteen or twenty words at my tongue’s end. I remember that on returning to the French Boarding house, to dinner, I rather astonished the persons present by asking in a very confident manner, Avez vous le vin? Avez vous le bon vin?

This first lesson was a revelation to me. I was overjoyed to find a method that I could understand, something at which I could work intelligently; and in my joyous energy I wrote out four foolscap pages of composition. When I returned to Manesca the next day, he was astonished at my voluminous exercises, for he rarely got over half a page from his pupils, he told me. The French lessons, thus started, went on very rapidly. He explained to me afterwards that the secret was in the quantity of compositions that I wrote. “Writing” he said, is the most important part of study. With me you have verbal instruction, with yourself, you have sight and touch.

I gave so much diligence to the subject, and mastered so perfectly all he gave me to do, that finally he said: There is no use in my looking over your compositions, I find no faults.” Set up by this flattering appreciation, and desirous of knowing many things at once, I suggested one day that such and such words should be given me, offering my advice with the characteristic freedom of an American boy accustomed to rely a good deal on his own judgment, and with a strong tendency to follow out his own will. Manesca looked at me with astonishment at first, then came an expression of indignation, that a pupil should presume to dictate to him the course he should follow. What! You wish to direct your won course? Then go and do it! I will not give you any more lessons, young man; you can find another teacher.” With this, he turned away from me. I sat a while confused, and considering what was to be done. Presently, he turned around and said “Why don’t you go?” I replied, “Mr Manesca, I am not going. I know your method is the only one by which I can learn French, and I am going to stay with you.” “I won’t teach you! I would not be troubled with your suggestions and dictations for any consideration” He resumed his position, waiting for me to leave. I, however, stuck to my seat, thinking and pondering how I could mend matters. Soon, he turned again and repeated, “Why don’t you go?” I repeated in turn, “I am not going I am going to stay here and study French with you”. Another pause, when to my great relief he wheeled suddenly round, and, facing me, exclaimed: Well! Well! Go on” That was the end of suggestions on the part of the pupil. I 120 lessons I had acquired such knowledge of French that I was able to carry on a free conversation on any ordinary subject, and to write a letter with ease and fluency.

After I had completed my French, I studied Spanish and Latin on the same system. At the schools in Batavia I had studied Latin some three or four years with very little result. By the new method, I saw my way clear. As it was the difficulty of the verbs that bothered me, I traced out in big characters on a large sheet of paper the conjugations of the different classes of verbs, and pinned them up on my bedroom wall. They were constantly before my eyes, and when not engaged in other studies I would look at them. Usually in the morning, before getting up, I would run over my Latin verbs.

An encounter with the Ollendorff Method

Adler's Practical grammar is an Ollendorff.

This means, it follows exactly the methodology for aquiring a language developed by Henri Ollendorff. In the following excerpt, basil Hall describes his experience of studying German using this method. Once can satisfactorily substitute Latin for German in what follows, as Adler's textbook is in effect a Latin translation of his own English-German edition of Ollendorff's German textbook.

Skimmings, or “A winter at Schloss Hainfeld” by Basil Hall. Pg 80

"By good fortune however I fell in with a truly philosophical professor of German at Paris M Ollendorff author of a new and most luminous method of teaching that language He soon satisfied me of what I had indeed myself begun to suspect that German to be understood properly must be attacked exactly like mathematics and that as there is no royal road to knowledge in the one case so is there none in the other I gave a sigh or two over the ten months labour I had almost entirely thrown away and commenced the study anew through he medium of M Ollendorff's method which well deserves the title of the Euclid of German After six months close application I can venture to pronounce that by his method alone so far as I have been able to understand the subject can this very difficult but very charming language be taught without confusion To those who like me have none of that readiness by which instinctively as it were foreign tongues are breathed in by some people and are made use of seemingly without effort such a method is quite invaluable By it the scholar advances step by step understands clearly and thoroughly every thing he reads and as he goes on he becomes sensible that all he learns he retains and all that he retains is useful and practically applicable At the same time he scarcely knows how he has got hold of it so slightly marked are the shades of daily progression and sq gentle is the rise that he feels no unpleasant fatigue on the journey Of course the student is called upon to exert no small degree of patient application and he must consent to devote a considerable portion of his time to this pursuit but he will have the encouraging conviction that every of effort is well bestowed I wish I could persuade this admirable teacher to publish his work in English and in England and to fix himself in London where his abilities his knowledge and his skill in teaching so difficult a language in the most agreeable and patient manner I ever witnessed would soon earn for him the distinction he deserves I write in these strong terms of M Ollendorff's method because I feel convinced that a familiarity with it would go far to spread the knowledge of this delightful language in England where of all countries in the world it is most likely to be duly appreciated The almost matchless beauties of German not only from their own excellence but from their analogy to those of our own literature and the great similarity of character between the two people are calculated to produce a much greater effect with us than elsewhere Independently also of the wholesome pleasure which belongs to an elegant pursuit the study of German may do much good not only by the generous cultivation of the national taste and the vigorous exercise of individual thought which it requires but by its placing within our reach an immense store of mental merchandize in exchange for which the labour of six months is the cheapest possible payment"

I'm going to focus on Adler

I'm finding as I'm part way through a couple of grammars that I'm not doing a good job of pronouncing the vocabulary to myself in a consistent way. That's making me have to "relearn" words in a way as I'm hearing them spoken on the CD I got for Lingua Latina and hearing the Latinum podcasts. Though I realise they aren't use the same rules between them. Some of my internal attempts have been WAY off. Having then thought about it more I now realise that all my native pronunciation is probably based on "hearing" the words pronounced more than from deriving it correctly from seeing the words. So for me I think it will be a huge help to focus more on learning from sources that also have audio available than only working with a written text. So I think I'm going to focus on Adler and Lingua Latina and them come back to some of the other grammars later as additional practice once I feel I am pronouncing most of my vocabulary consistently. I think I'm going to try and stick to the way the words are pronounced on the Latinum podcasts. Now I hope I can find somewhere that has greek audio using the same approach that includes the tonal accents as I'd like to handle pronouncing accents consistently between both latin and greek to make it easier on myself. So as an aside, if anyone knows where I can find that type of greek audio samples I'd love to hear it. Back to the original topic, I'd be happy to do a combined adler/wheelock as that is sorta what I'm going to be doing anyway.