Janua Linguae ~ A Foedus Latinum Website

                                             LATINUM 
              Latinum is named after my first Latin textbook, which was published by the Cambridge University Press in 1940.

Clicking the  buttons will take you to the Payloadz website, where you will find a 
link to a digital download, and more detailed information about each product. 

Some products are also available in DVD format from the DVD store, hosted by Kunaki.


All the audio courses and resources below are narrated by Evan der Millner, in the restored classical pronunciation of Latin, following the scheme in W.S.Allen's 'Vox Latina', and E.H. Sturtevant's 'The Pronunciation of Greek and Latin'.




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LATIN & ENGLISH
 

 






 
Book 7 to 10 
 

 






 		 

 

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A simplified mobile phone friendly version of this site can be found here

WHAT IS THE LATINUM COURSE?

The Latinum Course is an online multi-level and multi-media Latin course, that has been growing steadily since I started creating it  in early 2007. The core of the course is Adler's Practical Grammar of the Latin Language Audio Course - which took Evan der Millner  two years of full-time labour to produce.

It is not  the only, nor is it necessarily the best, method for learning Latin - however, I believe the general principle of learning through immersion to be more productive of expertise in a language, in the beginning. 

I also think one needs to 'fire on all cylinders' - 
to make as many neural
connections as possible - this must involve reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Few formal Latin courses spend much time on the latter two, which, to my mind, are the most important of the four, especially for a beginner. Also, classroom based language courses simply cannot provide the intensive exposure needed, and the hours of tuition required, to master a language quickly.

Why did I make Latinum? I made the course, because I could find no modern-language type course with extensive audio materials for learning Classical Latin to an advanced level. I  wanted  to provide a course that students, or those with limited financial means, could access. I also wanted a course for myself, and couldn't find one. 

The philosophies that underpin this course, the resources I have developed, such as the websites of the Foedus Latinum, are a result of the interventions recommended in The Green Book for Language Revitalization in Practice - a textbook that should be must-read for every language teacher.

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If you are a complete beginner, then the following materials are recommended:

1.The Adler Practical Grammar Audio Course or on DVD
2. Swallowing the Dictionary, and Comenius' Vestibulum
3. The Orbis Sensualium Pictus of Comenius (Audio in Latin and Google book editions with various languages), and with a Latin-English audio version also available.
4. The readers on Tar Heel Reader

If you are intermediate or advanced, Adler and 
Comenius will still be very useful. Even if you have formally studied Latin before, it is extremely unlikely you will have developed the range of vocabulary dealt with by Comenius, or the flexibility of expression taught through Adler.



In addition, you might want to listen to the YouTube  Videocast materials of the Student's Readings, Dialogues, and to read booklets on the Tarheel Reader site. To build your vocabulary, you might find it useful to listen to various Latin-English audio files, such as the historically important series of colloquia by Corderius, also available in Latin-English, and Latin only versions for revision.


If you still are more advanced, then original texts in Latin may be of interest, along with Adler, and Comenius' Grammatical works. Adler also introduces many fine points of grammar not covered in standard modern textbooks. 


About Adler's text:

The introductory textbook, by George Adler, teaches Latin via conversational, colloquial Latin. The Adler course will take you around 2 - 5 years to finish, maybe faster if you really work at it. It contains over 191 hours of audio.

The goal of the Latinum is to give you fluency in reading and listening to Latin, which will eventually lead to skill in writing and speaking.


The main textbook is George Adler's " A Practical Grammar of the Latin Language for Speaking and Writing Latin", one of the most comprehensive textbooks for learning  Latin ever written - and possibly one of the most advanced and practical Latin textbooks ever written. The approach of this textbook is conversational Latin, so the bulk of the examples are short question and answer sequences. The goal is proficiency. As the book advances, a complete old-fashioned formal Latin Syntax using thousands of examples from Classical texts, is introduced. 


The Latinum Course is founded on the idea that language learning needs to be fun, as stress free as possible, and IMMERSIVE. You need to eat, sleep and breathe a language in order to master it. Where possible, you need to use it and interact with it as much as you can.

To help you use your Latin, I have established a Latin language chatroom on Skype, the Locutorium Latinum.

 Latinum gives you the tools to learn Latin naturally, offering the Adler Course, or on DVD in addition to a wealth of vital subsidiary materials:
* Comenius material
* Students' Readings - stories read in simple Latin.
* Colloquia, or Latin Dialogues.
* Elementary Illustrated Readers on Tarheelreader.org
* Videos on Evan der Millner's YouTube Videologue
* Swallowing the Dictionary - a unique  audio  resource
* A Visual Vocabulary (a photolexicon, with over 3 000 labelled images)

HOW DO I USE THE COURSE?

This course demands an extensive amount of exposure - i.e. TIME - if you are as serious about being fluent in Latin as a Renaissance Scholar was, you will need 2 - 4 hours minimum per day, more if you can manage it, for a period of 3 - 5 years. True fluency may take as long as ten years to achieve.

Try to give yourself entire days of Latin, if you can manage it. Go to sleep with the Latin playing, and wake up with it. Walk with it. Wash the dishes with it. Go to the gym with it. You get the idea.....Learning Latin - or any language - to fluency - is not hard, but it takes dedication. 


It is essentially up to you how you structure your learning - but what is important with language learning, is quantity. You need to get as much Latin through your head every day as you can manage.

You may possibly also find it useful to engage in the following activities to be successful quickly using this course material.

  1. Writing and transcription of the Latin in each chapter: Read each Latin sentence aloud. Write it down slowly and neatly, repeating each word aloud as you do this. Read the completed sentence out loud a second time.
  2. Listening to the chapter's grammar section, both before and after you have done this.
  3. Reading and listening to recorded books in Latin.
  4. Grammatical study and practice.
  5. Shadowing = listening to the recorded material and repeating it out loud as soon as you hear it - speaking 'over the voice' you are listening to. Doing this while walking or moving about is good. It will be hard to do in the beginning.


  There is a grave problem approaching - a looming shortage of Latin teachers across the world, as Latin is increasing in popularity, while most Latin teachers are "of a certain age". Even now, many schools cannot find teachers, and the problem will only get worse. So, in 3 or 5 years time, if you complete this course with due diligence, and can open your mouth and speak Latin and write it, and read it, you should be able to land a job teaching Latin.

 Actually, the sad reality is that very few Latin teachers at secondary and tertiary level can actually speak Latin at all, most cannot write in the language either, so you'll probably have a higher level of fluency than just about any Latin teacher you encounter, if you complete this course. The Latinum Videologue is in part trying to address this astonishing situation.

WHERE CAN I PURCHASE THE TEXTBOOK?

Simply google for " Adler A Practical Grammar of the Latin Language" and download the pdf.
Latinum only uses out of copyright materials, so usually a text can be found on one of Google books, Archive.org or Europeana.eu

HOW ARE THE ADLER LESSONS STRUCTURED?

Each Adler lesson starts with a grammar discussion.(Part A) Then the examples are given in English and Latin. (Part B)  They are repeated again in Latin only. (Part C)  Finally, an episode with only questions in Latin, which you are expected to answer in any possible way, is given. The intention is to get you speaking in Latin. Not all episodes have this question episode yet. Most chapters have between 60 - 120 minutes of audio.


 I AM NEW TO LATIN, WHERE DO I START?

Either begin with Comenius' Vestibulum, or with the Adler lessons, and begin from lesson one. Then work your way through the Adler lessons in order. You might want to read the chapter in the textbook, before you listen to the lesson for that chapter. In the first lessons I read very slowly, and greatly exaggerate the length of the long vowels, to help you learn correct quantity. Gradually, as the course progresses, my pace quickens.

I AM A MORE ADVANCED STUDENT, WHAT IS THERE FOR ME ON LATINUM?


If you are already a fluent reader, then you may find Adler of interest to get you up to speed on spoken Latin, and of more specific interest, our various readings from classical texts. If you are still 'hunting for the verb', the Adler course will cure of this, and give you a more natural way of accessing the language. 

Even if you know a lot of Latin, Adler's discussions of Latin grammar are very comprehensive.  



VOCABULARY LEARNING WITH LATINUM


Latinum offers a unique audio vocabulary learning resource, "Swallowing the Dictionary" on DVD with the potential to add tens of thousands of words to your vocabulary. These are based on Walter Ripman's little known, but very useful, Classified Latin Vocabulary.

We also offer vocab flashcard movies on our You Tube site - these are geared towards conversational Latin.



The vocabulary building  files need to be listened to many times - they are quite stressful to listen to initially, and the material runs by, seemingly too fast to catch - however, each time you listen, you will grab more and more words, and, eventually, the files will begin to sound too slow. Great care is taken with quantity in reading these files, so you will learn correct quantity at the same time as you learn your vocabulary.

There are tens of thousands of words in our classified vocabulary, (i.e. words are grouped by topic)  and even very advanced students can benefit from studying these sounds files. The Classified Vocabulary is geared towards Classical texts.

WHAT ABOUT PENSUM AND DICTATA?

Adler calls the  chapters in the main textbook by the name of Pensum.
The English exercises in the main textbook, which go along with each chapter, are simply called exercises.
The Latin translations of these exercises, which are found in the smaller "Key to the Grammar", are called Dictata. 


DOES ADLER COVER ENOUGH LATIN GRAMMAR?

Yes, Adler's textbook is very thorough, and covers a wide range of Latin Grammar. 


WHAT PRONUNCIATION OF LATIN IS USED BY LATINUM?

Latinum uses the Restored Classical Pronunciation. This is a reconstruction of how Latin was spoken on the Palatine Hill, Rome, at the time of the Caesars. In the working class areas of Rome a different accent prevailed, and outside Rome, the rustic and provincial accents would have been different yet again.   Regarding my pronunciation, the following points should be noted: I have made the decision to use the tonal accents. 



I also frequently use the informal hicce, haecce, hocce, hujusce, etc when saying hic  haec hoc and even hujus. I follow Allen's 'Vox Latina'  by doubling the final consonant of hic and hoc before a word beginning with a vowel, e.g. hic est becomes hic-cest. This is the correct classical pronunciation of hic [hicc], which has a short vowel.



I have also sometimes for aesthetic reasons chosen a slightly ante-classical pronunciation of cui, and render it according to its earlier spelling, quoi in lessons prior to lesson 51 in Adler. After lesson 51, you will find I have adopted the pronunciation recommended by Sturtevant, where the word is pronounced more or less as it is spelled, with a decending grave accent.


I AM TERRIBLE AT GRAMMAR, CAN I STILL LEARN LATIN?



 Each lesson does have a grammar part, (Part A) but you can advance quite well by listening to part B and part C of each lesson, while avoiding the part A sections, which focus on grammar. You will never learn to speak Latin from learning grammar alone. Rather, you need to listen to Latin, and interact with it as much as possible, and try to write it. Participation in Schola, or a group like it, is very important if you are ever to truly command the language as a fluent speaker and writer.

The original methodology of Ollendorff, which Adler uses,  had almost no grammar, only lots and lots of sample sentences, which slowly built up grammatical knowledge intuitively. Adler added the grammar sections into the text, giving lots of illustrative examples. If you plan to approach the lessons in a 'grammar free' way, then  you will need to become very familiar with the sample sentences. 
If you are  a primary school student, you might find the grammar parts too difficult - so just ignore them, and get on with learning the model sentences in part B and C of each Chapter. Once you notice that you have the language well and truly under your belt, so that it starts to feel natural to you, you should go back, and study the grammar sections. 

WHO PRODUCES THE LATINUM VIDEOCAST?

The Latinum Videocast on YouTube is published by Evan Millner (Artium Baccalaureus, (Cantuar)  et Artium Magister, (in Collegio Judaeorum Londinensi) , who lives in London, UK.  Evan also produced the IMAGINUM VOCABULARIUM LATINUM  and founded the Schola Latin language social networking site in 2008, which is now offline.

    Evan is always happy to hear from users, so do drop a line.


evanmillner

/<@>/

gmail.com


LATINUM'S LATIN LANGUAGE Oral and Aural AUDIO COURSE WILL LET YOU:

* LEARN ON THE GO
* LEARN WHILE OUT WALKING
* LEARN WHILE AT THE GYM
* LETS YOU IMMERSE YOURSELF NATURALLY IN LATIN FROM THE OUTSET
* LEARN THE VOWEL QUANTITIES AND ACCENTING IN CLASSICAL PRONUNCIATION

Latinum's Full Latin Oral and Aural Audio Courses:

OUR FLAGSHIP COURSE IS Adler's Practical Grammar.(downloads )

https://sites.google.com/site/janualinguae/home/Payloadz273x273_ADLER%2001-09.gif?attredirects=0


Adler's Practical Grammar for Independent Learners - 

A Language Immersion Course.



Adler's textbook is possibly the most complete Latin Course ever written.  This oral presentation, originally produced by Latinum for the Latinum Podcast,  turns Adler into an immersion experience. It is unique, in focusing on learning the entire structure of Latin grammar through conversation. With over  200 hours of oral Latin, it is the most comprehensive oral Latin course of its type in existence, and is excellent value for money. read a review here;

Comparison to Wheelock...here;

Each of the 97 lessons is in 3 parts:

1. Grammar and syntax with extensive paradigms added to the text. The grammar is very detailed, with large numbers of additional paradigms and useful memory clues. Vocabulary is presented in advance of every lesson.

2. Model question-answer conversations in Latin-English-Latin. Here you consolidate your vocabulary, and learn the grammatical structures in use.

3. Slow repetition and fast repetition of the conversational material in Latin only,for review. Once you have mastered section C of any lesson, it is time to move to the next lesson



If you want to read some user feedback, please visit the Latinum Store Blog, and read the comments there.





LATINUM's AUDIOBOOK PRODUCTS 

Oral and Aural Audio Latin

First Steps in Latin (Audiobook Course Materials)


Comenius' Januae Latinitatis Vestibulum (English-Latin & Latin only)

Imaginum Vocabularium Latinum 




Next Steps in Latin - Alternative Focus on Grammar (Audiobook Course Materials)









Further Steps (Audiobook Course Materials)

Corderius Colloquia Selecta (English-Latin and Latin only)


Taylor - De Bello Helvetico - Caesaris - Serial and Oral Method 



Missa Latina (bilingual reading + Latin revision) 

Introduction to Caesar 

 Consolidation (Audiobook Course Materials)









Further Development (Audiobook Course Materials)






Intermediate Level (Audiobook Course Materials)



Cornelius Nepos - Latine - Pars Prima (1 - 14)  
  
Bennett's Hidden Quantities 
 
Latin Audio Visual Course (From YouTube, on DVD) 

    



A simplified Mobile Phone  site can be found here

As the sidebar navigation does not work in all browsers, please use the SITE MAP button to navigate this site if needed. 


LATINUM'S LATIN LANGUAGE SOCIAL NETWORK - THE FOEDUS LATINUM

In 2008, Evan der Millner created the Foedus Latinum which is now the largest and most active dedicated network of Latin language social networks in the world. If you want to use your Latin actively, and contact other people who are learning Latin, in a friendly community, check out the FOEDUS.


I have the following beginners' materials on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/user/evan1965


a. Cursum Latinum Molendinarii Pars I (Free) (Beginners' Latin taught using only Latin)





e. The London Latin Course (Free) (Beginners' Latin taught with some English explanations)

f. Conversational Latin (Free) (Latin and English phrases)

The Latinum Latin Language Project was founded in 2007. Latinum's main Youtube channel has over 16,000 subscribers, and over 2.5 million views.

As the sidebar navigation does not work in all browsers, please use the SITE MAP  button to navigate this site if needed. 

Latinum Ltd, Company Number 9681811,registered office address:  97 London Road E13 0DA, Registered in England.

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