Latin For Postgraduates

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Latin For Postgraduates
Latin for Postgraduates The study of Latin is
one of the most rewarding pursuits that any
postgraduate studying the arts and humanities can
undertake. The Humanities Research Institute and
the History Department provide a range of courses
that aim to take any postgraduate student through
the basics of Latin towards a thorough
understanding of the language. Latin A (GHU
6050) uses the Oxford Latin Course to build the
basic skills necessary for further pursuit of
Latin.
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SCIENTIA EST POTENTIAKnowledge is power
Bust of Hadrian
Latin B (GHU 6060) develops these skills so that
by the end of the course a thorough understanding
of Classical Latin is achieved. Medieval Latin A
and B (GHU 6003 GHU 6004) tackle a range of
texts from the middle ages, enabling students to
comprehend the range of lexical and stylistic
differences that separate Medieval Latin from its
Classical predecessor. These courses provide an
invaluable learning experience for anyone who
anticipates coming across Latin texts and
inscriptions in the course of their research.
Pont Du Gard Aqueduct
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Latin For Postgraduates
Why study Latin? Learning the Latin language is
not solely restricted to students of Classical
and Medieval History and Archaeology. In fact,
it will equip anyone with a wide range of
linguistic and interpretive skills that will aid
their study. Given the recent theoretical
advances that can loosely be termed
post-modern, an understanding of the plays of
meaning within language is essential, and this
means that researchers can no longer work from
translations alone. Reading texts in their
original language enables students to gain on
entirely new perspectives on their sources, thus
adding depth and originality to their
research. For those whose texts are not written
in Latin studying the language is still hugely
beneficial for a variety of reasons. Almost all
modern Western languages have been influenced by
Latin in some way, and so learning Latin will
facilitate a far deeper appreciation of modern
language, its development, and its possible
meanings. Beyond this, most of todays students
have a woeful comprehension of English grammar,
due to its utter neglect by the modern school
system. Latin will provide you with an excellent
awareness of English grammar, and in so doing it
will enable your writing skills to improve beyond
measure. This familiarity with grammar provides
a springboard for anyone wishing to learn other
European languages.
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The Pantheon in Rome
Who can study Latin? These Latin courses are
available for any postgraduate student or member
of staff who studies or works at the University
of Sheffield. They are not solely restricted to
the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, and anyone
wishing to improve their linguistic or
grammatical skills may undertake them. Teaching
is conducted in a friendly and relaxed
atmosphere, and the common pursuit of language
allows interdisciplinary bonds to be forged.
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Latin For Postgraduates
Classical Latin Postgraduate MA modules
2006/7 15 credits each The two Classical
Latin modules are intended for beginners or
those with perhaps a year or two from secondary
school, who will often have little formal
grammar and possibly very limited experience
in any foreign language. The course will
provide basic skills to read straightforward
passages of Classical Latin prose and as a
starting point for the learning of Medieval
Latin. The course follows the Oxford Latin
Course and uses classical literature for
further development of skills. This is tailored
to the needs of each class. Latin A will give
an MA student an elementary knowledge of the
language, and it can be taken as a stand-alone
module. Ideally, however it should be followed by
Latin B. Latin A GHU6050 (semester 1) This
Latin course will provide students with a basic
understanding of the structure of an ancient
inflected language, which is, in this respect
at least, rather unlike their own native
language(s). It will help students to develop
an ability to make sense of short passages of
simple prose using the skills taught in
accidence, syntax and vocabulary and to
demonstrate and ability from their private study
to comprehend an elementary Latin prose text
with the aid of appropriate tools. Latin B
GHU6060 (semester 2) The primary aim of Latin B
is to build on the basic skills acquired in Latin
A. Students will complete the course book the
Oxford Latin Course part II, and begin the
Oxford Latin Course Part III, with the
possibility of this leading on to the study of
a selection from Petronius Saytricon in The
Millionaires Dinner Party. Stress will be
laid on building up a thorough grammatical
competence and a wide vocabulary. As with Latin
A, the over-riding aim is to provide MA students
with sufficient skills to enable them to read
original Latin texts as source material for
studying aspects of the ancient world.  
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The Coliseum, Rome
Assessment Assessment of Latin A and B will each
consist of five coursework assignments testing
the students skill at manipulating newly learned
points of grammar and vocabulary by translation,
comprehension and vocabulary exercises.
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Latin For Postgraduates
Medieval Latin
The Medieval Latin courses are designed to build
upon the skills already developed in the two
Classical Latin courses. The medieval period is
much longer than the classical age, and the
majority of surviving Latin texts come from the
former. With the adoption of Latin by the Roman
church, the Latin language was carried all over
the medieval western world. It was the language
of power and subsequently became used in legal,
ecclesiastical, diplomatic and literary texts.
Medieval Latin A and B aim to deal with the
various uses of Latin, and the multiplicity of
Latin forms and styles that developed in the
middle ages. These courses are invaluable for
any medievalist or early modernist from any
discipline.
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(Above) A leaf from a Book of Hours. Rouen,
France, ca. 1490.
GHU 6003 Medieval Latin A (Semester 1) This
course aims to give the student a reasonable
understanding of the main elements of Medieval
Latin grammar, syntax, and vocabulary, and their
difference to Classical Latin. The central focus
of the course is on eleventh- and twelfth-century
texts by the end of the module students should
be able to elicit the meaning, with reasonable
accuracy, of authors such as William of Poitiers,
Guy de Amiens, and William FitzStephen. The
course will begin with an examination of various
charters, illustrating the difference of
Classical to Medieval Latin. After this,
passages of the aforementioned authors will form
the basis of the course.
GHU 6004 Medieval Latin B (Semester 2) This
course will enable students to further develop
their understanding of the vocabulary and
language structure of post Classical Latin that
they gained in the first semester. The texts for
this course range from charters and wills through
to later-Medieval Latin texts, among these are
William of Newbury, Thomas de Burton, and the
sixteenth-century Martyrologist John Foxe.
Assessment Assessment for these modules takes the
form of coursework assignments where students are
required to work through a series of prescribed
texts in private study. Lexical help will be
given where required.
St. Matthew from the Ebbo Gospels, Rheims,
France, c.816-41.
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Latin For Postgraduates
Latin and Academia
Theory , Language, and Latin EXIGI MONUMENTUM
AERE PERENNIUSI have erected a monument more
lasting than bronze. (Horace) It is now
virtually impossible for anyone studying at an
advanced level within the arts, humanities, and
social sciences, to ignore recent theoretical
developments. These spring from Social and
Cultural Anthropology, Structural and
post-Structural Linguistics, and can loosely be
termed as the linguistic and cultural turns.
Though these turns are by no means internally
consistent, and defy easy categorisation, it
could perhaps be argued that they share the idea
that language is constitutive of thought. The
brain cannot interpret phenomena and have
thoughts in anything but the meanings, concepts
and ideas, learnt from words. These theories
have had far reaching influence, and despite the
fact that some of them are impossible to apply
their emphasis on the importance of meaning
through language is hugely significant. Within
the linguistic turn there is great division
over whether a semiotic system that underlies the
meaning of a language can be recreated. Such
division is mirrored in the cultural turn,
where theorists using semiotic definitions of
culture debate whether an underlying system of
symbolic cultural forms can be discerned.
Language is again central to these ideas, given
that the symbolic forms in which culture
expresses itself include the changing idioms and
idiosyncrasies of a language.
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The specificities of language are now of utmost
importance, and so there has never been a better
time for any student or academic to further their
linguistic skills. Latin provides an excellent
means of doing this. Not only are the majority
of modern European languages derived from it, but
it is also an incredibly efficient and precise
language, thus enabling the student to achieve
both a greater understanding of their own
language, its syntax and grammar, and to achieve
familiarity with the nature of different
linguistic systems. Whether linguistic analysis
is or is not central to your research, an
understanding of the Latin language system will
change how you think about writing, and
consequently improve your written work. This
knowledge also enables the closer reading of
texts, in terms of what one may (re)construct
from it and what the author may have actually
meant. In short, wherever you theoretical
presuppositions may lie you cannot but benefit,
intellectually and practically, from learning the
Latin language.
Above right Virgil (70 BC - 19 BC) is known as
the greatest of all Roman poets, Alongside The
great Roman historian Tacitus (55 - 117AD).
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Latin For Postgraduates
I completed Classical Latin A and B as part of
my MA in Historical Research. Whilst these gave
me the necessary tools for understanding
Classical Latin, I felt it was important that I
gained more specialised knowledge of Medieval
Latin so that I could read texts relevant to my
PhD in medieval history. This means that I now
don't have to rely on modern English translations
of medieval manuscripts. It was interesting to
learn about the development of Latin through the
medieval period and, more importantly, John made
it a lot of fun! Martha Riddiford, 3rd year PhD
student. (Latin A, B Medieval A)
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Not only a total beginner at Latin but also
dyslexic lets face it if I can complete Latin
A and B so can you! These modules have been a
revelation to me at last I understand how
language works. As I have remarked many times
during these modules not only is John Wade a
highly skilled teacher he also has the patience
of a saint. Louise Radford , MA in Historical
Research (Latin A B)
Studying Latin has been one of the highlights of
my year. It has enabled me to query certain
translations of the texts that I study, and has
helped me improve my written work and
understanding of grammar beyond recognition.
The classes also help give structure to my day.
I would strongly recommend every student to
undertake these courses, you wont regret it!
Oliver Pengelley, MA in Historical Research.
(Latin A B)
I found the Latin A course to be a very useful
revision of the Latin I took up to GCSE level in
Secondary school. Latin B has helped me take my
knowledge of the language one step further
Andrew Garfoot, MA in Historical Research (Latin
A B)
I came to Latin with no knowledge of foreign or
ancient languages, knowing that it would be
essential to my studies. It has been fun and
interesting, and has most importantly provided
the basic skills that I need to carry out my
research. Matthew Phillpott, 1st year PhD
student. (Latin A B)
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Latin For Postgraduates
John Wade biography
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John Wade graduated BA from the University of
Durham in 1970 with a degree in Latin with Greek.
After a short period of research in
Romano-British Archaeology, he commenced his
teaching career in 1971 which, via a part-time MA
on the subject of Philip II of Macedon in the
Augustan historian Justin-Trogus in 1978, also
from Durham, saw him create a Classics department
at King Ecgbert School, Sheffield, introduce
Classics and Archaeology in the Sheffield College
and inherit the remnants of Classics at the
University of Sheffield. Although at one point
holding a part-time appointment concurrently in
each of these institutions in Sheffield, John
spent the last ten years of his full-time work
attached to the Department of Biblical Studies as
Teaching Fellow in Latin and Greek, before taking
early retirement in August 2005. From 2000 Johns
interests in Latin moved into the sixteenth
century when he became involved with the British
Academy John Foxe Project as a consultant for the
Latin material in the new electronic edition of
the Acts and Monuments being prepared by the
Project based in the Humanities Research
Institute at the University of Sheffield. Soon
after starting in this field he registered for a
PhD in the Latin Writings of John Foxe his
thesis is now more than two thirds complete and
should be submitted before his work with the Foxe
Project finishes in 2008. He has already
contributed a chapter on Foxes Germaniae ad
Angliam, de restituta euangelii luce, gratulatio
in John Foxe at Home and Abroad, edited by David
Loades, 2004. Another area of research has
claimed Johns attention in the twenty-first
century this is in the field of masonic
history. Since 2001 the University of Sheffield
has hosted the Centre for Research into
Freemasonry, also under the umbrella of the
Humanities Research Institute. As a keen
Freemason, John was from 2003 2005 President of
the Sheffield Masonic Study Circle. He is a
member of Lodges in England, Scotland, the United
States and Italy, and in 2002 published with
Robert Cooper, Curator of the Grand Lodge of
Scotland, a new edition of Richard Augustine
Hays The Genealogie of the Saintclaires of
Rosslyn in which he translated the Latin
charters. Currently John is researching the use
of Latin in the workings and records of the
eighteenth century Edinburgh Lodge, Roman Eagle.
Although he has retired from full-time
lecturing, John Wade continues to teach Latin,
both classical and mediaeval, to small groups of
postgraduates, mainly for the Department of
History. He is now based in the new premises for
the Humanities Research Institute in Gell Street,
which also incorporates the Douglas Knoop Centre
for Research into Freemasonry, and will continue
his research in both Foxian Latin and masonic
history.
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Latin For Postgraduates
Latin Websites Latin Phrases in Common Usage in
English http//users.accesscomm.ca/nsalway/latin
.html Wikipedia entry about Latin
http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin Grammar and
Vocabulary support Whitakers Words
http//lysy2.archives.nd.edu/cgi-bin/words.exe B
estiaria Latina http//bestlatin.net/ Internet
Workshop for the Oxford Latin Course http//artemi
s.austincollege.edu/acad/cml/rcape/latin/index.htm
l Something fun! Slightly Less Common Latin
Phrases http//www.porkpie.demon.co.uk/slighty.ht
m More phrases http//tigress.com/emax/latin.htm
l More phrases http//www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A2
18882 Gladiator The real story
http//www.exovedate.com/the_real_gladiator_one.ht
ml Roman strategy game (very fun)
http//www.bbc.co.uk/history/war/launch_gms_bfacad
emy.shtml          
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Pompeii, Italy