The Latinum Course is a complete audio course for Classical Latin. The main textbook, by George Adler, teaches Latin via conversational, colloquial (But strictly Classical) Latin. The course will take you around 3 - 5 years to finish, maybe faster if you really work at it. I am using the course myself as I make it, to become fluent in spoken Latin, so you are learning along with me. Oral fluency will give you a high level of reading fluency.

The main textbook we are using is George Adler's " A Practical Grammar of the Latin Language for Speaking and Writing Latin", one of the most comprehensive textbooks for learning oral conversational Latin ever written - and possibly one of the most advanced and practical Latin textbooks ever written. The approach of this textbook is conversational Latin, so the bulk of the examples are short question and answer sequences. The goal is proficiency in colloquial conversational Latin, which translates into a high level of fluency in reading text. As the book advances, a complete formal Latin Syntax, using thousands of examples from Classical texts, is introduced. 

The Latinum Course is founded on the idea that language learning needs to be fun, stress free, and IMMERSIVE. You need to eat, sleep and breathe a language in order to master it. Latinum gives you the tools to do this, offering the Adler Course, in addition to a wealth of vital subsidiary materials - such as the Fabulae Faciles - stories read in simple Latin - Latin Dialogues (which were used effectively as textbooks for spoken Latin in the Renaissance) , in addition to the unique and comprehensive vocabulary learning resource. Further to this, the podcast offers a wide selection of Classical texts in audio.

A visual vocabulary learning resource, aimed at Latin words for everyday life, has also been developed, and is located in the 'photographiae' section of the Schola website.

We also now offer a few subsidiary learning materials on You Tube, mostly related to vocabulary and grammar. In May 2009, we have contributed to a new resource - one we thnk is of huge utility to you as a new reader of Latin  - the growing collection of beginning readers on the Tar Heel Reader website.

HOW DO I USE THE COURSE?

This course demands an extensive amount of exposure - i.e. TIME - if you are as serious about being fluent in Latin as a Renaissance Scholar was, you will need 2 - 4 hours minimum per day, more if you can manage it, for a period of 3 - 5 years. Try to give yourself entire days of Latin, if you can manage it. Go to sleep with the Latin playing, and wake up with it. Walk with it. Wash the dishes with it. Go to the gym with it. You get the idea.....Learning Latin is not hard, but it takes dedication.

i. Start with Adler, and work your way doggedly through the lessons.

ii. Start to learn vocabulary, using the vocabulary sound files. This will be really hard at first, as your brain will feel like it is in a blender. Be dogged and persistent about this, your vocabulary is your armoury.

iii. Once you reach around lesson 40, start to use the Fabulae Faciles.

iv. Once you reach lesson 60, start to listen to the Colloquia. In former days, students were expected to memorise these colloquia.

v. Use the review the dialogues from Adler, and from Corderius, etc, until you know the exercises almost off by heart.

vi. Once you finish the Adler, you should be ready to start writing in Latin - join Schola, and have a go at real time text chat in Latin, in the Locutorium, as often as possible. Putting your Latin to use will activate it.

vii. Once you have finished your Adler, listen to it all over again. Review the Latin-only sections of Adler constantly, until they become engraved in your mind.

viii. Once you have finished the Adler course, you can direct your own studies, using the audio on this site, or elsewhere on the net. Then, the world of 2 300 years of Latin literature will be opened to you, all easily accessible through google books. There are more books to read that have been written in Latin than anyone could even begin to imagine reading in a lifetime, on any number of subjects - science, poems, novels, short stories, fables, dialogues, philosophy, theology, erotic poetry, you name it, it is there, yours for the tasting, once you become fluent. Latin isn't just about the Romans, Latin is the stuff at the core of Western Civilisation itself. Without it, can you truly call yourself educated?

ix. Final note: There is a grave problem approaching - a looming shortage of Latin teachers across the world, as Latin is increasing in popularity, while most Latin teachers are "of a certain age". Even now, many schools cannot find teachers, and the problem will only get worse. So, in 3 or 5 years time, if you complete this course with due diligence, and can open your mouth and speak Latin fluently, write it, and read it, you should be able to land a job teaching Latin. Actually, the sad reality is that very few Latin teachers at secondary and tertiary level can actually speak Latin at all, so you'll probably have a higher level of fluency than most if you complete this course. The Latinum podcast is in part trying to address this astonishing situation.

WHERE CAN I PURCHASE THE TEXTBOOK?

Available directly from the printer Adler's 700 page textbook comes out at around $20, and the Textbook's Key as a separate volume, $9 (August 2008 prices). I have made arrangements so that you can have the textbook printed for you on demand by a not-for-profit organisation not connected to Latinum. Note: Latinum makes no money from textbook sales.

Links for purchasing these texts for Europe are:

Adler Book 1  - Practical Grammar of the Latin Language

Adler Book 2 -  Answer Key to the Exercises in Adler's Grammar

If you live in the USA, the following versions might be cheaper for you:

http://www.publicdomainreprints.org/titles/665

http://www.publicdomainreprints.org/titles/704

New: Riddle's English-Latin dictionary is now available as a reprint, either as a single volume hardcover, or two softcovers. I have an original of this dictionary, and it is wonderful. Many thanks to Yaakov at public domain reprints.


HOW DO I NAVIGATE THE SITE?


HOW DO I DOWNLOAD ALL THE 1000+ EPISODES AT ONCE? (Yes, there are over 1000 episodes)


HOW ARE THE ADLER LESSONS STRUCTURED?

Open up the archive week that holds the first Adler lessons, and begin from these lessons.Then work your way through the Adler lessons in order. You might want to read the chapter in the textbook, before you listen to the lesson for that chapter. In the first lessons I read very slowly, and greatly exaggerate the length of the long vowels, to help you learn correct quantity. Gradually, as the course progresses, my pace quickens.

If you are already a fluent reader, then you may find Adler of interest to get you up to speed on spoken Latin, and of more specific interest, our various readings from classical texts. Even if you know a lot of Latin, Adler's discussions of Latin grammar are very comprehensive.  These have been contributed from a variety of Academic sources - mostly lecturers and grad students with an interest in spoken Latin using versions of the restored Classical Pronunciation. There is a Classical Text Collection, which includes such things as Vergil, Ovid, and Tacitus. There is also a reasonably large corpus of Horace, and a growing collection of  Catullus. You will also find some advanced miscellaneous material in the Entertainment section, such as the Harvard Salutatory Address, &c.

VOCABULARY LEARNING WITH LATINUM

Latinum offers a unique audio vocabulary learning resource, with the potential to add tens of thousands of words to your vocabulary.

We also offer vocab flashcard movies on our You Tube site - these are geared towards conversational Latin.

The vocabulary building  files need to be listened to many times - they are quite stressful to listen to intially, and the material runs by, seemingly too fast to catch - however, each time you listen, you will grab more and more words, and, eventually, the files will begin to sound too slow. Great care is taken with quantity in reading these files, so you will learn correct quantity at the same time as you learn your vocabulary.

There are tens of thousands of words in our classified vocabulary, (i.e. words are grouped by topic)  and even very advanced students can benefit from studying these sounds files. The Classified Vocabulary is geared towards Classical texts.

In addition, we offer specialised GCSE Latin Vocabulary and a section called 'Latin Suffixes', which some users have found useful.

Download the two Adler textbooks, the main book, and the key, from google books.  There are links to these on the FAQ below, and new links have been posted on the Latinum website.
The lessons follow the chapter numbers in the textbook. The Dictata follow the exercise numbers in the textbook.
The recorded lessons from the book do NOT start with chapter one, but with chapter two, as the first chapter is about a type of pronunciation I'm not using.
Although you download all the episodes at once from itunes, you can listen to each episode individually. You may need to update your  JAVA to download the sound files from the Latinum website.
 The Adler lessons are accessed from the links on right hand column of the main webpage. If you have a slow internet connection, you may find the pages take a long time to load. 

Adler calls the  chapters in the main textbook by the name of Pensum.
The English exercises in the main textbook, which go along with each chapter, are simply called exercises.
The Latin translations of these exercises, which are found in the smaller "Key to the Grammar", are called Dictata. 

Yes, Adler's textbook is very thorough, and covers the full range of Latin Grammar. Once you have completed the course, you should be able to read any Latin text with ease, with only the need for a dictionary for new vocabulary.

The section called  'Learn from the Masters' is useful for beginners.  It is a good idea to start to memorise Latin poetry and short examples of masterful prose, even before you fully understand the material, as this gives your brain a store of embedded grammatical patterns. Also, if someone asks you to speak some Latin, you will have something impressive ready to recite. Memorising Latin poetry is the easiest way to get to grips with it. Studying the complex rules for reading it correctly is tedious. So much easier to simply listen, and learn how to read it well by example. The Fabulae Faciles are useful for beginners as well.

Almost all the Latin you will find on the podcast is in Restored Classical Pronunciation. This is a reconstruction of how Latin was spoken on the Palatine Hill, Rome, at the time of the Caesars. In the working class areas of Rome a different accent prevailed, and outside Rome, the rustic and provincial accents would have been different yet again. The evidence we have for this type of Latin is discussed here.  Regarding my pronunciation, the following points should be noted: I have made the decision to use the tonal accents.

I also frequently use the informal hicce, haecce, hocce, hujusce, etc when saying hic  haec hoc and even hujus. I follow Allen's 'Vox Latina'  by doubling the final consonant of hic and hoc before a word beginning with a vowel, e.g. hic est becomes hic cest. This is the correct classical pronunciation of hic [hicc], which has a short vowel.

I have also chosen a slightly ante-classical pronunciation of cui, and render it according to its earlier spelling, quoi in lessons prior to lesson 51. After lesson 51, you will find I have adopted the pronunciation recommended by Sturtevant, where the word is pronounced more or less as it is spelled, with a decending grave accent.

Yes, you certainly can help -  If your Latin is improving because of your use of the lessons, write about it online. Tell your friends, and your teachers about the site. The more links a site has to other sites, the higher up the list it goes on search engines such as the great Google, and the easier it gets for users to find the site.  Any and all web exposure is good, even if you only provide a simple link, or even simply mention the podcast by name without a link.

Also, when you next visit iTunes, please remember to log in and give Latinum a rating. Simply search the store for 'latinum'.

Yes. Each lesson does have a grammar part, (Part A) but you can advance quite well by listening to part B and part C of each lesson, while avoiding the part A sections, which focus on grammar. You will never learn to speak Latin from learning grammar alone. Rather, you need to listen to Latin, and interact with it as much as possible, and try to write it. Participation in Schola, or a group like it, is very important if you are ever to truly command the language as a fluent speaker and writer.
The original methodology of Ollendorff, which Adler uses,  had almost no grammar, only lots and lots of sample sentences, which slowly built up grammatical knowledge intuitively. Adler added the grammar sections into the text, giving lots of illustrative examples. If you plan to approach the lessons in a 'grammar free' way, then  you will need to become very familiar with the sample sentences. 
If you are  a primary school student, you might find the grammar parts too difficult - so just ignore them, and get on with learning the model sentences in part B and C of each Chapter. Once you notice that you have the language well and truly under your belt, so that it starts to feel natural to you, you should go back, and study the grammar sections. You might also find my notes for learning declensions and adjectives are useful.

The Latinum Podcast is published by Evan Millner (Artium Baccalaureus, (Cantuar)  et Artium Magister, (in Collegio Judaeorum Londinensi) , who lives in London, UK.  Evan also produced the IMAGINUM VOCABULARIUM LATINUM ( now incorporated into the photographiae section of Schola) and founded the SCHOLA Latin language social networking site, the only site of its kind online.

You are encouraged to write Latin as well, by joining and actively contributing to SCHOLA. No-one will comment on your grammar at Schola unless you ask for comments. The idea is to produce Latin, errors (hopefully not too many!) and all. Only through writing and speaking the language will you progress rapidly, and get total command of it.  If you are using the Latinum podcast, then please do join Schola, even if you're not ready to write yet. If nothing else, you will learn an enormous amount of vocabulary from the resource of labelled photographs available on Schola.

   Evan is always happy to hear from users, so do drop a line.