the oculus of the Pantheon dome
(Photo Copyright 2011, JMP)

LAT 1010/1010H: ELEMENTARY LATIN 1
MWF 11:30-12:20
Eppler South 304

James M. Pfundstein, Ph.D.
Shatzel 222
Office Hours: Tues.12:30-1:20, and by appointment.
Office phone: 419-372-8278
e-mail: jmpfund@bgsu.edu
web-page: http://blogs.bgsu.edu/pfundblog/
facebook: james.enge
bluesky: jamesenge

Texts:

(required)

Sharpley, G.D.A. The Complete Latin Course (2nd edition; Taylor & Francis, 2014)

at Taylor & Francis

at Google Books

at Barnes and Noble

(recommended)

Goldman/Szymanski, English Grammar for Students of Latin (Olivia & Hill Press, 1994)

On-Line Resources:

All of these are free; the product is of varying quality. Caveat araneo-fluitator! (Let the web-surfer beware!) Let me know about any broken links you find.Latin

YouTubers are all over the place lately. Carla Hurt's Found in Antiquity: Latin is one of the best channels. She's an energetic and charming teacher of Latin; she's great on pronunciation and strategies for learning the language. Her series of videos using Minecraft to teach Latin vocabulary is weirdly funny. She has a series of Latin songs (a great way to get the sound of the language into your brain). If you have studied (or are planning on studying) Greek, she has a channel devoted to that, too. I recommend her text of Aeneid Book 4 if you want to try reading Latin on your own. (That's probably a project to postpone until next summer.)

Versions of Whitaker's WORDS, a superb freeware program that parses and briefly defines Latin words, can be downloaded from Sourceforge (for Mac OS X, for Windows of various flavors, Linux, DOS, and OS/2). It's probably archived at many other places online if you search for it.

https://sourceforge.net/projects/wwwords/

An online version is available—handy if you're using a mobile device..

https://latin-words.com

I don't actively recommend Quizlet; it has the weaknesses and strengths of any crowd-sourced site. But if it's useful to you, by all mean use it.

There's a great cross-platform program (freeware versions available for Mac, Windows, & Linux) called Diogenes, generously created by Peter Heslin. It's a great dictionary and parsing program for Latin and Greek (should you need it).

https://d.iogen.es/d/download.html

There's no version of Diogenes for mobile devices yet, but there is an online interface, which is a little wonky but great when it works.

https://d.iogen.es/web

This might be more useful later on, but the National Latin Exam has an online practice app that can generate quizzes of varying lengths for various levels of Latin.

https://nle.org/practice_online.html

Here's a list of university resources and policies. I particularly recommend the resources.

https://jamesenge.com/BGSU.ResourcesAndPolicies.html

Other Electronic Resources for Latin:

In addition to the above free programs/sites, there are various not-free options (which you can seek out for yourself at the Mac App Store, Google Play or what have you). These aren't necessary or required. Read the assignments; do the homework; come to class. That's the secret to doing well in this course. You know that voice in your head? The one that's saying, "That is the old way. I can work smarter, not harder, and do just as well or better AS LONG AS I BUY THIS SHINY NEW THINGLET!" That voice? It's trying to destroy you.

However: all practice is good, and if you actually make use of these things, they might be useful for you.

There's an okay pair of programs for mobile platforms (one for iOS, one for Android) by a guy named Joel Gwynn. They're designed to go along with Wheelock's Latin, rather than our text, but there's a free demo for each where you can work through the first few chapters and see if it's useful to you without plonking down any coin.

For Android, Grammaticus:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.joelman.grammaticus

For iOS, Principium:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/principium-latin/id909886147

Liberation Philology has a simple interface (suitable for phones) for review and self-quizzing of Latin vocabulary and grammar. It's pretty cheap, very reliable, and there are versions for iOS and Android. If you like the format, they have equivalent apps for a lot of other languages: Ancient Greek, Old Norse, Italian, Russian, etc.

https://www.libphil.ca/latin.php

The popular (and free) language learning app Duolingo has added Latin to their languages. It might be of some kind of use. Anything that helps you practice Latin is inherently good for your Latin, but this app isn't designed to go with our course (or vice versa).

Format:

Electrifying grammatical lectures; exercises and readings in The Complete Latin Course as assigned. Balloons! Prizes!! EVERYONE A WINNER!!! (Your results may vary. "Balloons" is used here in a metaphorical sense. Prizes consist of nuggets of pure incorporeal knowledge. Void where prohibited.)

Course Expectations:

1. Expectations for Behavior: Abide by Wheaton's Law. For details, see the BGSU Codes of Conduct.

2. Expectations for Learning: This is a 2-part, nine-month-long course divided into two semesters for administrative convenience. At the end of it, you'll be able to read the Latin language. That's the target, and you will hit it if you persist. Along the way we'll get practice in speaking, listening, maybe even writing Latin. But the ultimate goal is to be able to read Latin.

Sidebar: Why read Latin? It will improve your grasp of English vocabulary and grammar. It will enable you to travel through time and speak to some of the greatest minds in history in their own language. It will enable you to read people's Latin tattoos and spot the mistakes.

Grading:

FINE PRINT:

The lowest of the tests and quizzes will drop except for the final exam, which must receive a passing grade for the student to pass the course. No one can pass the course without taking and passing the final exam.

Re attendance: you're either there, or you're not; absent with an excuse is still absent. I realize that there may be legitimate reasons not to make it to class, but I will provide will be ways to earn back attendance points (e.g. pop quizzes on low-attendance days). But: the default should be attendance, not absent (with or without an excuse.)

No one can pass the course without taking and passing the final exam.

The maximum level of extra credit that will be counted toward the final grade = 10% of the total course points.

Missed assignments may not be made up, except by prior arrangement with the instructor.

Ducunt volentem fata, nolentem trahunt.—Seneca

The instructor reserves the right to recognize significant improvement (or decline) in student performance when awarding the final grade.

The syllabus is subject to change at the discretion of the instructor; changes will be announced in class and posted on-line.

No incompletes will be issued, except for pressing reasons and by prior arrangement with the instructor.

A SORT-OF SCHEDULE:

This class is experimental in a couple ways. It's the first LAT 1010 course that we've ever taught here at BGSU that runs on a MWF schedule; previous to this, Elementary Latin classes were 4 credits and ran 4 or 5 days a week.

Also, I'm trying out a new textbook, G.D.A. Sharpley's Complete Latin Course.

So the schedule below is tentative and assignments are subject to change. But this'll give you a sense of what you're in for.