Classroom Latin

CLASSROOM PHRASEOLOGY

BY A. R. MUNDAY

Headmaster, The King's School, Chester 

(See also New Classroom Latin) 

It has been suggested at Summer Schools that it would be useful to have a pamphlet listing "question-and-answer" words and classroom vocabulary which are in common use in Oral Methods. 

Such a list is given in "Via Nova" by W. H. S. Jones (Cambridge), which I have used extensively myself, but unfortunately this book is not generally available to-day - (You can now access this text online here - DS)

As this article was going to press, I was fortunate enough to be shown a copy of a list of grammatical terms compiled by the late Dr. W. H. D. Rouse for a Summer School many years ago, and to check my own list against his and in some cases to modify and expand it. 

Most, if not all, of these terms are familiar in Latin, but to some teachers are not so familiar in Greek. Accordingly I have tried to list all of those that I have found useful, together with some which I have not used, but which may be of interest to others. I hope that this list will be helpful to those who are themselves contemplating greater use of Oral Methods in their own work. 

Reprinted from "Latin Teaching," Vol. xxviii, No. 4 February, 1953 

A. QUESTION-AND-ANSWER WORDS

Grammatical Terms

NOTES. I personally use (i) Quae sunt partes principales for the principal parts of verbs and quae sunt partes for the comparative and superlative. (ii) (Greek) (iii) the cry ratio calling for a complete parsing of a noun or verb, e.g., Magister: Ratio "tulisses" Discipulus: secunda persona singulariter, tempus plusquamperfectum, subiunctivi modi, activa voce, fero-ferre-tali-latus-laturus  subiunctivus modus quia est post "cum". a quo verbo? calls just for the root word, e.g. fero and not the whole story.

Classroom words and phrases

Offprints of this article can be obtained from the Editor, price ls. 0d. each or six for 5s. 0d. plus postage.

This list could be extended almost ad infinitum and can never be complete. Some phrases are in constant use; others enjoy a brief period of popularity and then disappear, while some become bywords in the form and never fail to get their laugh. 

It has been suggested that it is unnecessary to use the Latin grammatical terms but I have found that the boys ask for them and like to keep in the foreign language as much as possible. 

Within a very short time they become commonplace and as easy and quick to say as their English counterparts. I use only the most common and obvious of these words since any real discussion or explanation of abstract grammar and syntax is naturally a matter for English. 

Nor must it be supposed that the use of these terms in Latin or in Greek is essential for Oral Methods nor indeed that their use will of itself improve the boys' knowledge of Latin and Greek grammar. 

I have given the Greek grammatical terms for the benefit of those who are interested in such things but personally, I never use them. 

By the time Greek is begun, the Latin terms are thoroughly familiar and the boys are happy to stick to them in Greek  illogical, perhaps, but it works. 

Some people may hesitate to use these classroom phrases on the grounds that to do so is to misrepresent the Roman world that the Roman word fenestra was something very different from a modern window, but to point out at a later stage, the difference between the two can be the occasion for a very useful lesson in background. 

Other phrases which may prove useful can be culled from

"Via Nova " by W. H. S. Jones Cambridge;

"Latin on the Direct Method," Rouse and Appleton, University of London Press;

"Initium" (First Edition 1916) and Revised Edition 1926  by R. B. Appleton, Cambridge;

 "The Teacher's Companion to Initium "; by R. B. Appleton

"Praeceptor" by S. O. Andrew, Oxford;

"Scenes from Sixth Form Life," by W. H. D. Rouse, Blackwell; and

"Principia" and "Pseudolus Noster" by C. W. E. Peckett and A. R. Munday, Wilding, Shrewsbury.