Produced by an anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer.
[Transcriber's Notes:
i) the text mixes 'littera' and 'līttera' (short/long 'i').
Dictionaries generally consider 'littera' as more correct.
ii) it states 'lēctus, ī, m.' (=bed) in the original, but 'lĕctus' is correct.
NB: the adjective 'lēctus, a, um' is indeed with 'long e'.
iii) it considers the Nom./Acc.Plural ending of the
3rd declension/imparisyllabica ("-es", e.g. leōn-es) as short,
whereas is it usually considered Grammars as long,
cf. Allen & Greenough, New Latin Grammar, §§55ff.]
LINGUA LATĪNA
PRĪMUS ANNUS
BY W. L. PAINE
AND
C. L. MAINWARING
OXFORD
AT THE CLARENDON PRESS
1912
PREFACE
THE book is the result of three years' experience in
teaching Latin on the Direct Method, during which
time we have used the proofs in various forms. In
a method, whose essential is spontaneity, it is intended
rather to be suggestive—to present one line along
which the principles of this method can be followed,
and it must rest with the individual teacher to modify
it, as his experience leads him. Further, it is still in
an experimental stage, and we shall be most happy to
receive suggestions both on the general scheme and on
the details of the book, from teachers using it. In
scope it includes practically all constructions which do
not involve the Subjunctive Mood or Oratio Obliqua,
and can be done in a year by an average class which
devotes an hour a day to Latin.
We wish to express our thanks to Mr. S. O. Andrew
for his great assistance in the scheme of the book and
the arrangement of the Grammar and Syntax; to Dr.
W. H. D. Rouse and Prof. E. V. Arnold for reading
the proofs and offering many valuable suggestions;
and to Mr. E. M. Carter for the picture of the Villa
Corneliana.
The need for accurate pronunciation, in a method
where the appeal is largely made to the ear, is obvious,
but a note of explanation may be necessary, of the
principle we have followed in marking the 'hidden
quantities.' We have marked the vowel long
(1) If there seems evidence of its length from its
derivation.
(2) If it precedes the combinations -ns, -nf, -gn, e.g.
īnsula, cōnferō, stāgnum; or the inceptive -sc
e.g. expergīscor.
N.B. — discō is an exception to this rule.
(3) If it precedes a hidden _g_, e. g. tāctum (tangō).
Diphthongs and short vowels have been left unmarked.
W. L. P.
C. L. M.
WHITGIFT SCHOOL, CROYDON.
July, 1912.