DISCOVERING LIVE LATIN
Why speak Latin? Isn't Latin a dead language? There is nothing further from the truth. This is not simply a mistake; it is a rank falsehood that has long been believed. This idea of a "dead language" appeared in the late XVIIIth century when the French, wishing their own language to become the universal language, forged it so as to exclude Latin, which, up until then, had been the one universal language. However, Latin, as a language for use has never ceased living right up until our days.
Here are some texts on the subject in differents languages:
Pourquoi le latin aujourd'hui.
Como (no) se enseña el Latin.
Por qué hablar y escribir latín hoy día.
Nuntius pro lingua Latina.
L'Europa alla ricerca di una lingua comune.
De Latine loquendo et scribendo hodiernis temporibus.
De praestanti methodo docendi ac discendi linguam latinam.
And now for some examples of live Latin (or modern Latin):
News in Latin from Finnish Radio gives a good example of modern Latin. With a Finnish accent, of course:
Nuntii Latini 16.5.2003.
Nuntii Latini 23.5.2003.
Nuntii Latini 30.5.2003.
Nuntii Latini 6.6.2003.
Nuntii Latini 13.6.2003.
To learn more about this station and to listen to other bulletins, visit its Internet site:
The same sort of thing, but from Radio Bremen in Germany, this time with a German accent:
Nuntii Bremenses Mense Martii 2003:
Nuntii Bremenses mensis Aprilis 2003 :
Nuntii Bremenses Mense Junii 2003:
Nuntii Bremenses Mense Februarii 2002:
Nuntii Bremenses Mense Aprilis 2002:
To learn more about the Latin broadcasts from Radio Bremen, go to:
""Radio" Melissa was a little experiment undertaken by the Melissa Foundation of Brussels. It involved audiocassettes containing something that resembled a radio programme, but in Latin, with interviews, music, etc. Here are some extracts:
To get to know more about the journal Melissa:http://users.skynet.be/Melissalatina/
Again thanks to the Melissa Foundations, here are another three more ancient extracts:
Finally here are four texts from Vox Latina of Saarbrücken, Germany. The texts are read very slowly, with quantities and accents strongly brought out. The topics are taken from everyday life and can therefore be useful for beginners. The speaker is Prof. Dr. Sigrid Albert. With Prof. Dr. Eichenseer she organizes several seminars of live Latin every year.
To learn more about the journal VOX LATINA:
COMIC STRIPS IN LATIN. Find Tintin, Asterix and Alix in Latin by clicking on Asterix:
LIVE LATIN ON THE INTERNET. Surf the world of live Latin on the Internet (TTT=www).
Among these links do not miss the essential "GREX LATINE LOQUENTIUM", a site where you can discuss the most diverse subjects with people across the whole world. To subscribe (free), click on the following link: Subnotatio Gregis.
To learn Latin live, the French-speakers have a stroke of good fortune, because they have at their disposal the best method for learning it, the Assimil method. This well-known method is based on repetition, listening and absorption in the language. You will find here the first 17 lessons in JPEG format, which you can print out in landscape orientation in order to follow the recorded lessons in sound files.
Text files (click on the book):
Sound files (click on the speaker):
There is another method, more for use in schools, that is very well-known and very much recommended in institutions open to live Latin. It is the Ørberg method, named after the Danish professor Hans Ørberg, who in the 60's brought out his Lingua latina per se illustrata. This method, called "direct method", is entirely in Latin. The texts of the lessons are immediately intelligible to the pupil. In fact, the texts have been composed in such a way that the meaning of the words and forms are made obvious, thanks to the illustrations, context and marginal notes (equally in Latin). Based on absorption into the language, this very live method leads to rapid progress. But beware! It is a live method for Latin, not a "live Latin" method, because all the topics that are dealt with are fully "classical", without any