Highlights from Tues 8/23

Language History
Know the difference between cognate and derived languages, and how English relates to Latin as a cognate language and a derived language.

Literary History

There are four periods that are relevant for classical Latin: The archaic period, from about the 3^rd c BC to 80 BC, the late republican/Augustan period from 80 BC to 14 AD, and the post-Augustan from 14 AD to 138 AD. The most well-known authors, such as Vergil and Julius Caesar, wrote during the late republican/Augustan period.

Pronunciation

The Roman alphabet lacks j and w. They used i for both i sounds and j sounds, and they used the letter u for both u sounds and w sounds (When it is a w sound it is usually written as a v). If these letters are being used as consonants they usually occur at the beginning of the word. The J sound is more like Y – in Latin Julius Caesar would have been called Yoolius Kay-sar.

You can tell whether a vowel is long by whether it has a line over the top of it. All other vowels are short. Long vowels are held twice as long as short vowels.

Combinations of vowels are pronounced a certain way. Follow along at the bottom of page 37 (or xxxvii) of the introduction.

There are just a few important differences in the way consonants are pronounced. The letters C, G and T are always pronounced hard, as Kuh, Guh and Tuh. Th is pronounced basically the same as T. Double consonants are pronounced separately.