"How Good Is Your Latin?" Topic

On a scale of 0 (I don't speak Latin) to 10 (I'm a native speaker), how well do you speak Latin?

Zero

0, I know a few phrases used in Latin Catholic Mass but nothing conversational.

3. That is below mediocre, but above totally ignorant.
His rebus inductis….. Caesar dumped his impediments and made camp.

I can chuckle at the graffiti in HBO's Rome.

Semper ubi sub ubi. How's that

Mi abilitatus con Latinus totallus suckix

I am fairly fluent in Pig Latin, or igpa atinla, as we pigs say.

Wait…that didn't come out right!

I came, Eyesore!, I concurred …

Dead?

Probably a 1 today, maybe a 3 in high school.

9. I have four years of high school, four years of undergrad and two years of graduate school, plus teaching.

2-3

Et tu Brute?

"Honey, your silk stocking's hanging down." Of course, that isn't my translation

Grelber

6. Rusty, but could still work my way through Caesar and compose some light poetry.

"10 (I'm a native speaker)"

Latin?!!!

Depends on the task.
For reading Latin and translating – or merely understanding – I would rate myself about 8 (if it is not Ovid or Catull or the like).
Writing Latin – maybe 4.
Speaking – 2.
I had Latin in school and have always loved it since then. Could use it for my law studies. Helping my son with his lectures some years ago has revived my abilities.
PER ASPERA AD ASTRA!

When I did contract law in law school, the (female) lecturer said that the powers that be didn't think it necessary to teach girls latin when she was at school. She went on to pronounce the various latin legal maxims in what sounded like a guttural German accent followed by "suffer, suffer ye latin scholars".

1

Cardic – if you are from Latin America, obviously.

Just enough where I can butcher it and still make a sarcastic comment that makes sense…

Honi soit que mal y Pence

Another 6, gotten rusty over the years after a university degree.

Rick

2

All Gaul is divided into three parts. In two years of high school Latin that's as far as I got translating Caesar.

Minus 1! Never learnt it and never had any inclination.

A few bits and pieces here and there. So possibly ;1.5

About a 1.

Caesar, his rebus moviat, execitu in flumine trajecio. (Ceasar, moved by these thing, threw (sent) his army in (across) the river.) Big Julie's excuse for invading Transalpine Gaul.

Maybe a 2, I can often figure out a word I don't know in French, Spanish or German (or English) because of 1 year of Latin.

It ain't but I do have a working knowledge of Klingon …

0 for me.

2, maybe 3 on a good day.

Caesar adsum iam forte

Which as ene fule kno is

Caesar had some jam for tea

1, maybe 2?
I recognize Latin when I see it, and know the meanings of a handful of Latin words. I know of the various declensions, tenses and conjugations, but if I wanted to write anything or translate anything, I'd have to look each word and usage rule up and I'd probably get it wrong.
Back in high school, I did translate the first part of Caesar's Wars, but these days I'd likely muff it after the first phrase.

@bsrlee: I love the image of Julius Caesar throwing his army in the river:
*SPLASH*
"Next!"

0!

Canis Lupus
Homo Sapiens
Boa Constrictor
Alces Alces

I'm a pro.

Speaking? about a 3 since it's rarely (almost never)spoken anywhere these days. But I could communicate in the formal Latin, just little idea about the idioms of the Vulgar dialect. Even in Vatican City you'll hear mostly Italian.

Reading? pretty good, about a 9at least – been teaching it for 20 years. I keep up by reading Catullus and smatterings of Cicero and Seutonius and chunks of Caesar. Painting minis takes time I'd otherwise be reading more.

2-3 I guess.

About a 3, not as good as when I was in school.

Timbo, Caesar et erat forte, Brutus adsum iam …….

I hope they both enjoyed it :-)

According to Ovid, the full epic goes:

Caesar adsum jam forte,
Brutus aderat;
Caesar sic in omnibus,
Brutus sic inat.

There is of course the following famous story from the early part of the last century, when they actually taught Latin in school and students actually learned to speak it:

An English student on summer vacation was crossing by bicycle from France into Italy. There was some problem with the border official, who did not speak any English, and the student did not speak Italian. To try to help resolve the matter, the student switched to Classical Latin.

An older English gentleman in the line, excuse me, in the queue behind him interrupted with a smile. "It appears that you have been away for quite a long time," he offered.