Talk:Latin/Lesson 1

Untitled
You could also view the agere as having no stem, and there would be no point in listing it in a dictionary because there is no stem to list.

Is this correct

-159.28.161.52 03:41, 7 Oct 2004 (UTC) user:smkatz

Case endings
I'm starting to use this book to learn Latin. So my comments can be considered as end user views. There is a note on case endings in the first topic "What is Latin?". I don't know anything about case endings, and am not sure if it is a common knowledge. Is it appropriate to mention this in an introductary topic? --Sivaraj 06:31, 12 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Word Parts
What "is" a stem? I didn't understand the definition that is in the textbook. That's all.

I would remove all but the "root" and "stem" subsection from this section. For one thing, I have no idea what the subsection "derivatives" is trying to teach; the example makes no sense. I left it in for now on the off-chance it's just me, but it should probably go. (Plus, that's not usually what "derivatives" means to Latin students used to the context of, say, Latin "caput" leading to English "capital.") As far as primitives are concerned, I've never used the term outside of linguistics class. Can we stick to basic Latin here? (Also, the subsection on suffixes can and should be merged with "stem.") --Hieronymous85 15:08, 17 August 2007 (UTC)

In the Root discussion, I found the phrase "which is in common to words of similar meaning" confusing. Perhaps the author meant either "is in common with..." or "is common to". But "in common to" is not a commonly used phrase in English.

Nouns
This is not a standard definition at all. Where did whoever wrote this section find the definition? Pronouns and adjectives are not necessarily types of noun; they are separate parts of speech altogether.

"Substantive" should refer to nouns and adjectives used as nouns.

"Flexion"? That appears to be a linguistics term used only in German.

"Accidents" is overly technical.

Parenthetical explanations after gender, number and case are borderline wrong. Perhaps number can be discerned from the ending, but is not determined by it. Gender is not determined by the ending for either nouns, adjectives or pronouns, nor does a noun's ending necessarily reflect its gender (cf. quercus [f.], dominus [m.], tempus [n.]). Gender sometimes changes for nouns, in the case of so-called "common" nouns, such as canis. Further, not all pronouns occur agree with their antecedents in case -- relative pronouns come to mind. At best, this section is misleading and confusing.

Can somebody justify all this, or should I just rewrite? --Hieronymous85 15:32, 17 August 2007 (UTC)

conflection vs. inflection
The Stem

...When one adds an ending suffix to a word's stem, they are conflecting

Suffixes

Latin uses suffixes known as 'endings' on stems to turn stems into words ... This is known as inflection.

Seems like the same idea being expressed by two words, or what?

--Gzur 23:42, 11 September 2005 (UTC)

adverbs
nothing on those =p

"used to qualify verbs or adjectives" should read "used to qualify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs".

Basic Vocabulary
under word parts->the root, 'ago' is given to mean, I drive

but under primitives, the root ag is defined as to act

and later on, under verbs, 'ago' is defined as I do

could somebody please clarify all of the above?


 * I've tried to clear it up a bit; I don't think much of this information is useful to a beginning Latinist anyway. --Hieronymous85 15:00, 17 August 2007 (UTC)

Summary formatting?
With the current table, one might get the impression that there's a correlation between the items on each row. A less inventive layout might be better. 69.255.49.246 06:43, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

Agree. Furthermore, the table indicates that pronouns are "nouns used in place of substantives and adjectives". I don't claim to know all aspects of grammar, but I'm I never learned, nor can imagine myself, a case where a pronoun is used in place of an adjective. And even if this is somehow so, it is not mentioned above in the pronoun definition.

Some bits
Roberto Enrique Tait (discuss • contribs) 17:57, 9 February 2011 (UTC)
 * 1) It's not enough clear the difference between sentences and clauses; and "sentence" hasn't definition while "clause" has one.
 * 2) Suffixes are introduced before the "ending" concept. See "The Stem".
 * 3) In the example for Derivatives is said «the stem flamm- from the word flamma has the root "flag."» where "flag." isn't written in italics and have a confusing dot too (the text uses italics without dots for roots; see ag in "The Root").

My Edits
I added some info on English stress on the first syllable. I found personally that understanding stress in Latin was quite abstract and it was a book called "A Biography Of The English Language" by C.M. Millward that really helped. So I've taken the view that it might be useful to include this difference from Latin and to highlight that this drive towards emphasis on the first syllable in English has been a constant feature of English since its earliest days.

However if you feel as though the material I've added is counter-productive than feel free to revert my edits. More a musician than a linguist.

Thanks

Sluffs (discuss • contribs) 15:57, 19 July 2016 (UTC)

Romania is Roman?
What is the point of saying that modern Romanian has lost the Ablative Case. This is Lesson 1 and the heading for this paragraph is "What is Latin". Just seems to be beyond the needs of the stated heading. Introducing the Ablative Case in relation to its loss in Romania just complicates things. Lets face it most people don't even realize the connection between the country's name and the origin of the people - most people in the UK think Romanians are of Slavic or Germanic descent.

I don't know if I want to mess with the previous authors work but if no one objects a week or two later I may rewrite "What is Latin" to remove the above.

Sluffs (discuss • contribs) 20:46, 20 July 2016 (UTC)