Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #97204 in Books
• Published on: 2007-12-05
• Format: Illustrated
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 192 pages

From the Author
This book has been thoroughly "road-tested" on my adult Latin students, and they have all really enjoyed learning the joys of Latin via "everyday" examples: quotations, abbreviations, familiar phrases, epitaphs, inscriptions, and music texts from the Latin Mass to Christmas Carols and Carmina Burana.

This is the hardback, commerically produced edition of the book I originally self-published as plain old "Latin for Everyday Life" under my own Pineapple Publications imprint. I'm thrilled that Tempus have picked it up and produced such a fine (and affordable!) edition for the general reader.

From the Back Cover
Everybody remembers the Queen's `Annus Horribilis', but what do 'quid pro quo' and 'habeas corpus' mean? Why do plants have Latin names? Why do families, towns, countries and even football teams have Latin mottoes? What do the Latin epitaphs in churches say? What are the words of Mozart's 'Requiem'?

These are just a few of the topics covered in this book. As Mark Walker makes clear, present-day English is still steeped in its Roman and Latin origins. As a result English still has many thousands of Latin words in everyday use.

Caveat emptor!

About the Author
Mark Walker teaches Latin to adults in Buckinghamshire. He is also the author of the historical epic Amida: A Novel; (ISBN 0954747305), the true story of a city under siege on the most dangerous frontier of the Roman Empire.

Customer Reviews

Pocket sized but hard backed!
This is the pocket sized edition of Mark Walker's A4 textbook 'Latin for Everyday Life' that he originally produced in spiral bound format for his Buckinghamshire adult Latin learners' class. This Tempus edition is nicely produced with a dust jacket and includes a small grammar reference at the back whereas the original textbook had quite a large section on Latin grammar. However, if you need to go into the full details of the Latin grammar for translations then a standard Latin grammar book and a conventional Latin dictionary would be required.

A unique book
This book provides a unique approach to Latin for those who do not wish to study the classics, but do wish to be able to understand the Latin that is still encountered, as the title of the book implies, in 'everyday life'. My own particular interest lies in family history, but other books on Latin for family history concentrate on the relatively simple medieval and legal Latin found in historical documents, whereas many tombstone inscriptions from the seventeenth century onwards are in Classical Latin and more difficult to interpret. The final chapter of this book on Latin Epitaphs is exactly what I have been looking for, providing examples of Latin monumental inscriptions with explanations and translations. The other chapters are also very interesting. This is not a book that will enable you to learn to read Latin fluently, which requires a detailed knowledge of grammar, although there is a very brief summary of grammar as an appendix. For those who wish to understand the Latin words and phrases they encounter in everyday life, but do not wish to learn to read Latin more generally, it provides a useful reference source. For those who already know some Latin, or wish to learn to read it, this book complements the Classical era Latin of conventional courses and grammars. An excellent book that fills a significant gap in the market.

A Handboook of "Applied Latin"
The author calls this a course in "Applied Latin" in his introduction. It is more of a handbook than a textbook, but it is certainly about "Applied Latin", with all examples drawn from various facets of Latin in today's world.

There is maybe too much of an emphasis on "Church Latin", with chapters on the Vulgate, the Mass, the Requiem, Carols & Hymns as well as Epitaphs in churches and cathedrals. But then, I suppose, that is where many of us do come across Latin today -- and you don't have to go to church or sing in a church choir, just take a look at the booklet notes of choral CDs by Rossini or Mozart or Beethoven etc.

A big plus is that this a hardback, so sturdier than the more usual paperback: and it is small enough to fit in your pocket: a handy handbook!