- Department: Language and Linguistic Science
- Credit value: 20 credits
- Credit level: C
- Academic year of delivery: 2024-25
Learning a language can be a transformative and enriching experience. Both the process and the outcomes are beneficial at various levels, from increased neuroplasticity to improving your overall academic performance, fostering empathy and intercultural awareness, and enhancing your career opportunities. This module introduces students to the basic principles of Latin grammar, so that they are able to translate some simple primary source material by the end of the course (e.g. inscriptions and short texts). Students will also be introduced to elements of medieval life in order to develop an understanding of the culture in which Medieval Latin literature was produced.
Occurrence | Teaching period |
---|---|
A | Semester 1 2024-25 |
B | Semester 2 2024-25 |
This module will steadily build the knowledge, skills, and strategies necessary to examine and interpret a range of Medieval Latin documents over the course of a semester, and develop a comprehensive knowledge of Latin translation skills at beginner level.
Students will engage, individually and in groups, in comprehension activities and tasks emphasising three core research skills:
reception activities (reading comprehension);
production activities (prose composition);
analytical activities (cultural context & literary style).
The mediums of instruction are English and Latin.
By the end of the module students should be able to:
Recognise and employ core Latin vocabulary, as well as appreciate the basics of Latin morphology and the historical relationship between the Latin and English languages.
Understand and deploy the basic principles of Latin grammar and syntax in order to engage with and interpret a range of Latin source material.
Compose short sentences in Latin on a variety of topics in order to support and develop grammatical learning.
Understand the Middle Ages culture and literature, which enables the student to critically evaluate a range of source material in relation to the religion, politics and culture of the society in which it was created.
Translation Passages
For the first few weeks of the module, translation passages will comprise some short passages, mostly taken from medieval authors. Students will then progress onto longer, yet basic, passages of Medieval Latin; these will include:
Grammar topics at Beginners Level:
Seminars will include a range of different exercises including both translation (Latin to English) and prose composition (English to Latin) to help explain and build grammatical knowledge, with plenty of opportunities for revision as the semester progresses.
Latin Culture: An Introduction to Eboracum
The course will provide students with an interdisciplinary introduction to Medieval York: Eboracum, from the early eighth century to the fifteenth century. From the conversion of King Edwin to Christianity in 627, Northumbria saw the development of a learned culture achieved first by monastic houses such as Whitby, Jarrow and Lindisfarne. Eboracum, first as the capital of the Kingdom of Northumbria and then as the second most important city in medieval England, was at the centre of production and dissemination of literary texts, written in Latin. This module will provide an interdisciplinary study to explore the history, history of art, literature and archaeology of medieval York in order to assess how Eboracum helped shape the culture of Medieval England from the early to the late Middle Ages.
Task | % of module mark |
---|---|
Closed/in-person Exam (Centrally scheduled) | 60 |
Essay/coursework | 40 |
None
Written exam:
50% Comprehension, 50% Translation of a 150-170 words text
Task | % of module mark |
---|---|
Closed/in-person Exam (Centrally scheduled) | 60 |
Essay/coursework | 40 |
Weekly feedback, both oral and written, on translations.
Feedback on exam: as per University regulations.
On essays: Written feedback, as per University regulations.
There is no text book for this module. All materials will be provided during the course.
You will need to have access to a Latin dictionary. Should you wish to purchase a paper dictionary, the following works are recommended for this course:
Collins Latin Dictionary and Grammar 2nd ed. (Glasgow: Collins, 2016)
C.T. Lewis, An Elementary Latin Dictionary (Oxford: OUP, 1963)
D.P. Simpson, Cassell’s Standard Latin Dictionary: Latin/English, English/Latin (London: John Wiley & Sons, 1959; rev. ed. 1977)
If you do decide to purchase a copy of Cassell’s, second-hand copies are available via online retailers; however, please make sure that you buy the full-length version (around 890 pages) rather than the abbreviated version, which, quite frankly, is a waste of money.
Please note that there is no need to buy a dictionary, as you can access a number of academic Latin dictionaries online for free. One particularly useful volume is:
This work is now available via: http://logeion.uchicago.edu