Week One DOMUS: Lessons One to Three D E M O M O D E
Week One DOMUS: Lessons One to Three
Introduction
When the first Latin speakers settled in the area that is now Rome, they built round houses. Each house had its fireplace at its center, and smoke escaped through a hole in the roof above the fire. The Latin word for this fireplace is focus. In English this same word, adopted from Latin, retains its idea of centrality and now means “a center of activity or attention.”
As we begin to explore the Latin language, it seems appropriate to begin with vocabulary that pertains to house and home since home is a place of central importance for us just as it was for the ancient Romans (the ones who gave us the Latin language). For the Romans the home (domus) was also a religious center where the Romans went overboard in their affection for home and family by worshipping their ancestors. In the central room (atrium) of each home there was a shrine to those ancestors.
The practice of ancestor worship may seem to us very far in the distant past. Many Americans, however, focus their greatest attention upon family. On Mother’s Day, for example, thousands of families take Mom out to breakfast instead of attending church. Of course, family should be important, and the Romans, who drew strength from family, were a world power for hundreds of years. By making God our focus, however, we belong to an eternal kingdom.
Most Latin consonants are pronounced like English consonants.
The exceptions are c, g, j, r, and v.
In your Lesson One vocabulary the consonants to watch out for are c. v, and r.
c: always pronounced k as in cat
v: always pronounced like a w as in water
r: rrr, trilled as in Spanish Puerto Rico
Syllables begin with consonants if possible. Examples:
do-mus
a-tri-um
cu-bi-cu-lum
ta-bli-num
ca-me-ra
Pronounce each syllable separately.
Always stress the first syllable of a two syllable word. Examples:
DO-mus
HOR-tus
For words of three or more syllables stress either the second to last (penultimate) or the third to last (antepenult) syllable.* Examples:
cu-BI-cu-lum; im-PLU-vi-um; CA-me-ra (antepenult)
ta-BLI-num (penultimate)
*more on this later when we address the pronunciation of vowels
PRACTICE ONE
Click onto each word in the vocabulary. Listen and repeat each word twice. Next say each word before listening and check your pronunciation.
PRACTICE TWO
Make vocabulary cards for List One vocabulary.
You may use 3X5 cards cut in half.
Put each Latin word on the front side of the card and all of the other
information on the back side. You may want to color code your cards by using
one color pen for nouns, a second color for adjectives, etc.
Use these cards to learn your vocabulary. Before beginning a new lesson, use
your cards to review your words. If you know your vocabulary, all of the lessons
that follow will go more easily for you.
ENGLISH CONNECTION
Use an English dictionary to help you fill in the blanks below with an English word that matches the definition given. Each English word will have a spelling similar to its Latin root.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ (7 letters) Root: cubiculum; Definition: one small space partitioned off from a larger room
_ _ _ _ _ _ (6 letters) Root: the Latin word is the same as the English word; Definition: the main chamber of a heart
in _ _ _ _ _ _ (6 letters) Root: a Latin phrase used as a legal term in English; Definition: secretly; in private
Lesson Two: Gender
The nouns in your Lesson One vocabulary are followed by the letter f, n, or m. These letters are short for feminine, neuter, and masculine, the genders of the nouns. Gender is a characteristic that every Latin noun has. Sometimes the gender of a Latin noun is easy to guess, for example, girl (puella) is feminine and boy (puer) is masculine, but most of the time there is no explanation for the gender of a noun. It is important, however, to learn the gender of a noun when learning vocabulary because gender is used when connecting nouns to adjectives.
Tips on Gender
Usually words ending in -a (culina, latrina) are feminine, but other words not ending in -a (domus) can also be feminine.
Words ending in -um (atrium, cubiculum) are neuter.
A noun has only one gender and always keeps the same gender.
An adjective also has gender, but an adjective can change its gender from feminine to masculine to neuter.
Adjectives and Nouns
Nouns are very important words because they are the names of things, people, places, etc. Adjectives are secondary to nouns. Their job is to describe nouns (big house, wide atrium). Think of a noun as a person and an adjective as the clothing that person wears. Like clothing, an adjective cannot stand up by itself; it must hang upon the noun. For this reason an adjective will take on the same gender as the noun it describes.
By changing the ending on an adjective, we can change its gender.
magnum (neuter)
magna (feminine)
magnus (masculine)
PRACTICE ONE
Write the neuter and masculine forms of the adjective lata.
PRACTICE TWO
Depending on the gender of the nouns below, choose the form of
magnum which matches or agrees with each noun.
magnum
magna
magnus
domus
culina
atrium
camera
impluvium
tablinum
latrina
hortus
PRACTICE THREE
Translate the following sentences into English. Translation tip: There are no articles (a, an, the) in Latin.
A noun like camera can be translated two ways, the room or a room.
Example: Camera est magna. The room is big. A room is big.
Camera est lata
Cubiculum non est magnum
Tablinum est prope atrium
Culina non est magna camera
PRACTICE FOUR
Translate the following sentences from English into Latin. The number in parentheses will tell you how many words are in the Latin sentence.
The bedroom is not wide. (4)
The house is big. (3)
The atrium is a big room. (4)
The bathroom is not near the study. (5)
Lesson Three: Nominative and Ablative Cases
"Case" is a word used to mean what job a noun is doing in a sentence. A noun can be many things. It can be the subject of a sentence or the object of a verb in a sentence (direct object or indirect object). It can be an object of a preposition.
Examples: The house is big. (Subject); We see the house. (Direct Object); Jane is in the house. (Object of the Preposition "in")
The nominative and the ablative are two of six Latin cases. All of the nouns in your vocabulary are already in the nominative case.
Nominative Case
The word “nominative” comes from the Latin word nomen which means “name”. The job of the nominative case is to name the most important word in a sentence, the subject. The nominative case is also used for nouns that are equal to the subject, predicate nominatives.
Examples: Jane is in the house. (Jane is the subject and nominative)
Jane is a woman. (Woman is predicate nominative)
The woman is Jane. (Jane is predicate nominative, the verb “is” acts as an equal sign)
Ablative Case
Just as adjectives can change their endings so can nouns. In fact, the endings on Latin words are always very important so get into the habit of paying attention to them.
When we change the ending on an adjective, we change its gender. When we change the ending on a noun, we change its case. A change in case means that a noun is doing a different job in a sentence.
The most common use of the ablative case is for nouns that are objects of prepositions like cum and in. (Note: the preposition prope is not used with the ablative case).
Changing Nominative to Ablative
Change nouns that end in -a (short “a”) to -a (long “a”)
culina.....in culina (in the kitchen)
Change masculine nouns that end in -us to -o (long “o”)
hortus.....in horto (in the garden)
Change nouns that end in -um to -o (long “o”)
impluvium.....in impluvio (in the rain catcher)
PRACTICE ONE
Write each prepositional phrase in Latin.
in the atrium
in the bathroom
in the garden
in the room
in the study
GAME PRACTICE--UBI EST MARCUS? (Where is Marcus?)
The object of this game is to find out where and with whom Marcus is in the house. Marcus could be in the garden, kitchen, study, etc. One other member of his family is with Marcus. The members of the family are Maria, Horatia, Brutus, and Remus.
Directions: Read one clue at a time and make a guess after each clue. Make your guess by filling in the blanks of the question. Be sure to spell names and rooms correctly in the ablative case.
Tips:
Each family member is alone in a room (cubiculum, atrium, tablinum, culina, latrina) or the garden (hortus) except the one who is with Marcus.
Only one person is allowed in the latrina.
You may want to draw a room diagram to aid in keeping track of the clues.
Question: Estne Marcus in _____________ cum ______________?
Is Marcus in the (room) with (person)
Clue 1 Horatia est in atrio. Clue 2 Maria est in culina. Clue 3 Brutus non est in horto. Clue 4 Marcus non est in cubiculo. Clue 5 Remus est in latrina. Clue 6 Brutus non est in cubiculo. Clue 7 Marcus non est cum Maria. Clue 8 Marcus non est cum Horatia.
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