Lesson Four : The Rest of the Familia

Salvēte, sodālēs.

The time has come to introduce the remainder of the husehold and two more Latin words; puer and puella.

Parents and their children from Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata. Figures by Playmobil.

Puer, like vir, is a noun that ends in -r but is closely related to those nouns that end in -us (more on this next lesson). A puer is a young human male. A puella is a young human female. See how you go reading the following sentences. If you have any trouble, ask for help in the comment section.

1. Iūlius est vir.

2. Aemilia fēmina est.

3. Mārcus est puer.

4. Puer est Quīntus.

5. Iūlia est puella.

A little on Roman family names. Mārcus and Quīntus are both praenomina. Their full names would be Mārcus Iūlius and Quīntus Iūlius. Their father, who is called Iūlius in the book, would also have a praenomen. The famous Iūlius Caesar, for example, was Gaius Iūlius Caesar. Gaius was his praenomen, Iūlius his nomen and Caesar his cognomen. Every girl born into the family is given the feminine form of the family’s nomen - hence Iūlia. Aemilia’s father must have been named Aemilius.

Before you go, repeat the exercise from yesterday. Think of a puella and puer you know, and put them into a Latin sentence. I’ll go with the Simpsons - Lisa est puella. Bartus puer est.

Satis est. See you soon.

Lesson Three : The Enslaved

Salvēte, sodāles.

In the previous lesson, we saw that nouns and names that end in -a (dea, amīca, Minerva, equa) are feminine, and nouns and names that end in -us (deus, amīcus, Mercurius, equus) are masculine. While this rule is not followed 100% of the time, it is followed in the opening chapters of Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata - so we will take it as a rule for now.

The Latin word familia describes something different to our modern concept of ‘family’. A better translation is ‘household’. The familia introduced in the textbook contains a wife and her husband, three children, and a terrifying one hundred (!) enslaved men and women. A few of these enslaved men and women are seen living in the house - most of them go unnamed and unseen.

Two enslaved women and two enslaved men from Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata. Figures by Playmobil.

Beneath Syra and Dēlia you see the word fēmina. A fēmina is a female human aged around 30-50. Ending in -a it is, of course, feminine.

Beneath Dāvus and Mēdus you see the word vir. A vir is a human male aged around 30-50. There are several nouns - like vir - that end in an -r instead of an -us. These are also masculine. We will meet another - puer - in our next lesson.

Here are some sentences for you to read (est, you may remember, means ‘is’) :

1. Syra est fēmina.

2. Dēlia fēmina est.

3. Dāvus est vir.

4. Mēdus vir est.

Lastly, try to internalise these two new words. Think of a fēmina or vir that you know, either personally or otherwise, and throw their name into a Latin sentence. I’ll go first. Natalie Haynes est fēmina. Tom Holland vir est.

Satis est (This is enough). I’ll see you back here soon for Lesson 4.

Lesson Two : OMD!

Salvēte, sodālēs. And welcome back.

Let’s take a look at the front cover of Handy Latin Tables Pars Prima. You will see two Roman gods with their Latin names, Minerva and Mercurius. Remember that the ‘v’ in Minerva is pronounced like a ‘w’ and I’ll put in caps the syllable that you want to stress. miNERva and merCUrius.

From Handy Latin Tables Pars Prima (front cover)

Take your attention to the fact that Minerva ends in an -a and Mercurius ends in a -us. When we meet the characters of our textbook next lesson, we are going to find that all the girls and women have names that end in -a and that all the boys and men have names that end in -us.

In Lesson One I mentioned that the Romans have two words for friend, amīca and amīcus, that are gender specific. The word for a female friend ends in -a and the word for a male friend ends in -us. The same is true for equa (female horse) and equus (male horse).

More relevant here, however, are the words dea (goddess) and deus (god). With this in mind, I’m going to show you your first Latin verb and give you some sentences to read. Your first verb is est, often translated as ‘is’. I’m also going to show you that Latin word order is more flexible than English word order; all four of the following sentences are grammatically correct.

1. Minerva est dea.

2. Minerva dea est.

3. Mercurius deus est.

4. Mercurius est deus.

This is enough (satis) for today. Satis est. See you tomorrow.

By the way - if you have any questions or comments about the course, please feel free to leave them in the comments section below.

Lesson One : Hello Hello(s)!

Salvēte, sodālēs.

Surely we have to start with ‘Hello’. Or, as we say in Latin, ‘Be well!’. Yes, that’s right! The Latin way to greet somebody is to order them to be well.

To order one person to be well we say salvē. To order more than one person to be well we say salvēte. The ‘v’ in Latin is pronounced like a ‘w’ and I’ll put in caps the syllable that you want to stress. SALvē. salVĒte.

This brings us to an important concept: Latin word endings change a lot (salvē vs salvēte for example). We can worry about how and why later on, but it helps to know this as you’re going in.

I’ll begin most of my posts by saying ‘Salvēte, sodālēs.’ Sodālis is a Latin term for a friend and sodālēs is its plural, friends. Salvē, soDĀlis and Salvēte, soDĀlēs.

The textbook uses amīca (female friend) and amīcus (male friend), so these are the words that you’ll see there. I use sodālis because it’s gender non-specific.

Do you have some people in your life that would be happy to be greeted in Latin? If you do, let them know you are telling them to be well and try it out. If not, practise on animals you see throughout the day. I am forever saying ‘Salvēte’ to my students and my cats.

From Legonium Disco, lesson one.

Prologue : Learn Latin Here!

Salvēte, sodālēs. Would you like to learn Latin with the Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata textbook? Then you have come to the right place. Starting soon (if not already) I will posting short lessons here every couple of days, to assist learners making their way through the first 8 chapters of the book (and maybe further if it all goes well).

You will need a copy of the textbook, and I recommend printing out Handy Latin Tables Pars Prima. Simply click on ‘Downloads’ under LLPSI and ‘buy’ a free copy.

More soon!

The LLPSI textbook and Handy Latin Tables Pars Prima.