That should include the beginning of Lingua Latina which you mentioned, etc. So what?Ĭollect a bundle of texts you can already read comfortably. Try to enjoy what you are doing and what you already can do! Caesar may at this moment be too difficult. A shortcut (taking a plane instead of a camel) is definitely not what they are after. Because by the time they reach their destination, they are not travelling anymore. People who really like to travel, particularly enjoy the journey itself. quod, quo) in their section on Latin word order. You'll also discover what happens when you put a relative pronoun at the beginning of a sentence in Latin (e.g. It has an excellent description of "oratio obliqua", as well as numerous examples taken straight from Caesar. For a quick overview, check out Hillard & North's Latin Composition Exercises, available on this site. Because it is essentially a history (granted, a somewhat one sided history), a great deal of it involves the use of indirect discourse, which is handled differently in Latin. This is why Caesar is such a good starting point, because you start to see these constructions in relatively small doses, as Caesar tends to write in short, but sufficiently complex sentences. I second Barry's suggestion concerning learning the paradigms, chiefly because of word order in Latin and the different uses of the oblique cases (genitive, dative, accusative, ablative), such as the ablative absolute, partitive genitive, etc. A translation however will not answer all your questions and for that you have.Textkit!
This is why as a self learner you need a good translation to be able to check your work. In a formal environment, this of course is done through testing and recitation. The one thing that can be more difficult in self instruction is evaluating your understanding of the material and progress in mastering the language. So, as Barry said, your method is a good one and I think it's the one that most people use, especially when you're going the self teaching route. In higher level college courses, the texts had only commentaries and one had to use a lexicon for vocabulary if there was a unfamiliar word. In the high school texts there was also vocabulary. First off, as far as I recall, every text I used in school always had a commentary (or at least notes), whether it be Caesar, Cicero, Virgil, Catullus, Plautus or Livy. myself, using my old high school textbook, so I can appreciate your questions. Or is it just my lack of knowledge and experience? In short, I wonder if everyone reads Caesar with notes, explanations, and finally a translation. The word "eo" at the beginning of a sentence refers back to an earlier sentence, but to what and where? While this is my lack of familiarity with Latin and not a textual problem, it does make for a difficult ride. "quod" in Book one, chapter 14, take on different shades of meaning in close proximity. Also, words which before seemed simple, such as For example, Caesar so identifies himself with the Roman people that he switches between third person plural and third person singular without batting an eye (at least this is one explanation I read another is that in Latin "people" takes the singular). The text itself seems to present problems. But I think the problem is not only mine. Then I could wonder if it's more profitable to read a simple text or
I could attribute my slow going to the fact that I've never memorized properly the declensions and conjugations (though I can usually recognize if a word is past or present, active or passive, or which preposition goes with which noun, etc.). I then look at Finch's excellent translation for the final word. I try to bang my way through it several times but usually after all this there are several blanks in my translation. For words, phrases, and idioms I didn't get, I move on to Walker's edition with his notes and vocabulary. But is this called reading Caesar? I mean, is this typical of reading Caesar? I start off reading a section in Greenough's edition with his notes. I have the satisfaction of reading Caesar's De Bello Gallico, an historical document rather than more contemporary stories. After playing around with Latin for at least six years (playing because I only spend half an hour a day)
0 kommentar(er)
