This download includes:
- More than 3.5 hours of audio
- PDF of the text
- The answers to "what is normal Latin word order?" and "what is emphatic Latin word order?"
The order of words in a Latin sentence is often called “free,” especially when compared with sentences in English or French or Spanish or Italian, among others. This is due, we are told, to Latin’s highly inflected nature with respect to those languages: Latin’s nouns as well as verbs change their endings to indicate their function in a sentence.
While it is true that Latin has far fewer restrictions in this regard than English, we are also told that the great Roman authors took advantage of this liberty by arranging their sentences so as to give more emphasis to certain words. But if that is also true, it means that there must be a normal word order, does it not? Otherwise, how could more emphasis be given to one word or another by changing its position in a sentence? That would mean where it was before was less marked.
For those of us who have been reading Latin for a long time, we do often feel when a Latin author successfully moves us with their clever phrasing or arrangement of ideas, but we may not be able to say exactly why. And can all of us easily say what the unmarked, plainest word order should be? For those of us who compose Latin prose, we need to know how to write plainly, in order to write emphatically.
My desire to find answers to these questions led me to a terrific resource that I would like to share with you in this audiobook. A gentleman by the name of Carolus Raeticus, a frequent contributor to the wonderful Textkit forums where Classical languages are learned and discussed, compiled the best commentaries on this subject from 19th and early 20th century scholars, much of which he transcribed himself, and made the entire compilation freely available on his webpage.
This audiobook is nothing more than my recitation of these commentaries, which I made primarily for my own benefit, and I’ll explain precisely why: When dealing with such a large amount of detailed information — one might even call it “dry” — I find it can be difficult to read every word carefully. Yet exceedingly careful attention is required to fully embrace this subject. Thus, listening to my own recording of these commentaries, I am able to follow along and attentively absorb every word; moreover, when engaged in other activities like chores or exercise, I can listen to the audiobook and still glean information from the text.
Thus I hope my recording will be an effective companion as you hear the quotes from Cicero, Livy, and Caesar, along with the sage observations of passionate Classicists from a bygone era.
Link to the original LATIN WORD ORDER: A Glimpse into the Vaults, by Carolus Raeticus:
http://hiberna-cr.wdfiles.com/local--files/downloads/Glimpse-Latin_Word_Order-v1.1.html
Link to Hiberna Caroli Raetici, his website where he provides great numbers of resources for learners of Latin:
http://hiberna-cr.wikidot.com/start
My Patreon supporters can listen this audiobook released in weekly installments here.
N.B. This download is best accomplished on a computer rather than on a mobile device, so that you may transfer the audio files to whatever device you wish.