Probus vir, parvo contentus
March 13, 2017 5:37 AM   Subscribe

The colorful and influential career of Reginald Foster, Vatican Latinist.
posted by Chrysostom (12 comments total) 20 users marked this as a favorite
 
I was unsurprised but disappointed to discover he uses the ecclesiastical pronunciation with soft Cs, labiodental Vs, and Ms enunciated instead of nasalizing the previous vowel, instead of the reconstructed Classical pronunciation.
posted by likethemagician at 6:39 AM on March 13, 2017 [1 favorite]


Single link? I mean, it's very nice link, but there's plenty more good stuff on the good brother and his influence out there.

Try here, here, here, here, here, and here, for seconds.
posted by BWA at 7:28 AM on March 13, 2017 [2 favorites]


MEFITES EVNT DOMVS
MEFITI ITE DOMVM
posted by EndsOfInvention at 7:28 AM on March 13, 2017 [3 favorites]


> Single link? I mean, it's very nice link, but

Knock that shit off. One link is enough for a post, and many of us prefer single-link posts to huge linkfests. If you like the latter, that's fine, everyone's entitled to their views, but please confine yourself to making your own and don't shame the poster for a perfectly good post. You have provided supplementary links, which is great and how the system is supposed to work, but you should have confined yourself to that and skipped the misplaced snark.
posted by languagehat at 7:36 AM on March 13, 2017 [23 favorites]


The Alexander Stille article which is described by the FPP's link as "a lengthy profile of Foster—still the best in print" is available online here, along with many other resources regarding Reginald Foster.
posted by orthicon halo at 7:39 AM on March 13, 2017 [3 favorites]


As an owner of Ossa, I can attest to the fact that it's not built for autodidacts. Or for people who've studied Latin before, as Reginaldus has taken the grammatical terms with which most are familiar—nominative, genitive, imperfect, future—and swapped them for oddly generic terms.

That said, great article about someone who has truly done the lord's work as a Johnny Appleseed of Latin. Thanks for posting.
posted by the sobsister at 7:52 AM on March 13, 2017


Interesting article! Quite the character, this guy.
posted by CrazyLemonade at 8:28 AM on March 13, 2017


As an owner of Ossa, I can attest to the fact that it's not built for autodidacts.

So what is a good Latin book for autodidacts?
posted by graymouser at 11:20 AM on March 13, 2017 [1 favorite]


So what is a good Latin book for autodidacts?

Wheelock's is still a classic. I also like Keller & Russell's Learn to Read Latin.
posted by dis_integration at 1:49 PM on March 13, 2017


As my Latin teacher (Joyce Narden) used to say, "this warms the cockles of my heart."
posted by batter_my_heart at 1:56 PM on March 13, 2017


I'd second the Keller & Russell. I think my first Latin book was Moreland & Fletcher's Latin: An Intensive Course, and I liked it quite a bit. The Jones & Sidwell Reading Latin is good too and enjoys some support online, as I understand it, as it's a Cambridge University Press book that's used by a number of schools
posted by the sobsister at 7:56 PM on March 13, 2017


I took Latin in college (using wheelock of course.) I just got Ossa in the mail and I'm super excited. I actually am finding his refusal to use opaque words for the grammmar refreshing as it lets one think about what the language means rather than regurgitating the (ironically usually Latinate) grammar term. Instead of talking about declining nouns, he talks about them as functions. That is, how does a particular ending change how the noun can function in a sentence? I'm sure some of his substitutions will fall flat, but I'm finding it refreshing.

And thanks to whoever linked to some other articles. That one by a latin teacher who has changed his pedagogy because of Reginald is great.
posted by R343L at 8:55 PM on March 31, 2017 [1 favorite]


« Older Coming to Tehrangeles   |   The Outsiders at 50 Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments