The course is meant for students who do not have even a rudimentary knowledge of  Latin, and aims to provide them with the basic tools to tackle Latin texts.

Students from the curricula ‘Classico’ and ‘Moderno’ who have obtained a high school diploma from institutions where Latin is included in the curriculum for the entire five-year period cannot take the examination.

The course will cover the fundamental notions of phonetics and morphosyntax of the Latin language, with a focus on the history of that language when necessary to a full understanding of the most relevant syntactic structures.

The topics will be treated in this order:

1.1 Introduction.   

- What it means to know an ancient language.

1.2 Phonetics: 

- The alphabet and pronunciation;  

- The main phonetic laws;

- Consonants, semivowels and vowels, diphthongs; 

- Classical pronunciation and school pronunciation.

1.3 Hints on prosody:   

- Syllabic structure;   

- Vowel quantity and syllabic quantity; 

- Accent and its laws.

1.4 Morphology:    

- The parts of speech: root, theme and desinence.   

- The inflection: case, gender and number.

- Nominal inflection: the five Latin declensions and their particularities;

- Adjectives, pronouns and adverbs, formation and use of comparatives and superlatives;

- Principal complements;

- The verbal inflection: infectum and perfectum;

- The four regular active and passive conjugations;

- Deponent, semideponent and anomalous verbs.

1.5 Syntax: 

- Syntax of the period: coordinate and subordinate propositions (substantive, adjective and adverbial), periphrastics, oratio obliqua;

- Syntax of cases (nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, ablative);      

- Hints at remarkable constructs. 

Knowledge and ability to understand: the student should demonstrate a good basic knowledge of the morphosyntactic structures of the Latin language.

Applied knowledge and understanding: the student will have to demonstrate that he/she is able to apply this basic knowledge to the comprehension of Latin texts, showing that he/she is able to read, analyse and translate short sections of text.

Autonomy of judgement: the student will have to demonstrate that he/she is able to obtain both an overall understanding of the proposed text and to carry out an in-depth and detailed analysis of the morphosyntactic structures of Latin.

Communicative skills: the tools acquired by the student at the end of the course should enable him to identify, understand and analyse the main morphosyntactic structures of the language with the necessary technical skills. The final test will assess whether the student knows how to use the acquired tools correctly in order to exercise his/her own critical judgement on the sections of the proposed text.

Ability to learn: The student must demonstrate that he/she is able to use the knowledge of morphosyntax acquired through the use of the dictionary.

The teaching material prepared by the lecturer in addition to recommended textbooks (such as for instance slides, lecture notes, exercises, bibliography) and communications from the lecturer specific to the course can be found inside the Moodle platform › blended.uniurb.it

Preliminary exercise in translation (LAT–ITA)

Teaching

Lectures and classroom exercises.

Those who wish to take the exam will not be required to have passed the written test on their knowledge of the Latin language.

 The test will, hopwever, be an essential requirement to take all the other exams concerning Latin (Lineamenti di Letteratura Latina, Lingua Latina I, Lingua Latina II, Fortuna della Cultura Classica).

Attendance

At least 80% attendance at lectures and tutorials is required to qualify as an attending student.

Course books

R. Oniga, Riscoprire la grammatica. Il metodo neo-comparativo per l'apprendimento del latino, Udine 2020.

Assessment

The examination will take place in two stages:

1) 1 hour-long written test, with grammar and syntax questions. This first stage is designed to check whether the student has acquired the necessary knowledge to undertake the reading, analysis and translation of a section of a Latin (?) text, on which the following interview will be focused. The test will be evaluated on a 18-to-30 basis, and will allow the student to attend the oral test, during which he/she may be asked in-depth questions on this part of the programme.

2) Oral test. During the interview, the student will have to demonstrate that he/she has acquired a good knowledge of the main morphosyntactic structures of the Latin language and that he/she is able to deal with a first translation approach to original texts in Latin; he/she will also have to demonstrate a good knowledge of the Latin grammar textbook indicated in the programme.

The final mark will be the average of the marks, expressed in thirtieths, obtained in each of the stages of the examination.

Disability and Specific Learning Disorders (SLD)

Students who have registered their disability certification or SLD certification with the Inclusion and Right to Study Office can request to use conceptual maps (for keywords) during exams.

To this end, it is necessary to send the maps, two weeks before the exam date, to the course instructor, who will verify their compliance with the university guidelines and may request modifications.

It is not possible to join the course as a single training activity.