An Introductory Course in Greek and Latin Grammar and Vocabulary Designed to Unlock the Romance Languages and English: A Comparative Approach to Learning Basic Language Skills (Bel Pianeta)

Because the inclusion of tables and charts in a book of this sort is virtually inevitable, the Kindle format is very likely to yield a jumbled view of the contents sometimes. The Kindle version has in fact been priced almost at zero in the hope that purchasers will realize the value of having a hard copy (also very affordable, considering the immense labor it represents) to carry on their studies more conveniently. The utter uniqueness of this book explains its inclusion in the Bel Pianeta Series, created by the author for study of the Western tradition in ways not embraced by the academic mainstream. In this case, several academic publishers have declined to accept a textbook for which no course exists anywhere in the nation (other than at the University of Texas at Tyler, where Dr. Harris refined the volume's contents by using it five times in a course titled Classical Language Skills). Latin classes are rare enough in the twenty-first century, classics programs even rarer; and where one finds a highly adaptive course that stirs elements of the classical languages into the study of English, emphasis is always on vocabulary-building. As for giving attention to links between the modern romance languages and Latin, it simply doesn't happen on our campuses--except, perhaps, at the graduate level in a handful of institutions. This introductory course will prove ideal to home-educators with lofty ambitions for their young scholars. To quote from Dr. Harris's opening remarks, the book directly and thoroughly addresses such issues as the following that every other text on the market leaves untouched:1) A system of variable spellings for nouns (usually affecting their final syllable or syllables) so as to designate case: i.e., the function which a given noun serves in a given sentence. English is in a very small minority of languages that have few or no cases.2) The assignment of gender to nouns. To the English-speaker, this convention may seem patent nonsense, since only living creatures can have gender; yet gender is grammatically ascribed to trees, stones, etc., in languages where it exists at all, and not just to sentient beings. Nonsensical or not, this practice is found in a great many languages around the world.3) A system of indicators within the finite verb to show its exact person and number (again most often at the word's end). English has extremely few such indicators; in fact, only the third-person singular form ("he/she/it") ever alters its spelling in response to person and number, and then only in the present tense (and in compound constructions where the auxiliary verb is present tense).4) A system of indicators within verbs (usually before the person/number indicators mentioned just above) to designate the verb's tense. Most English tenses are formed through the mediation of auxiliary verbs. This approach tends to be used much more sparingly in other languages.5) The agreement of nouns and their adjectives in number and gender; though applying such tags to adjectives is both logical and helpful (inasmuch as it makes their misattribution very unlikely), English has abandoned the practice (still alive in its parent language, German). The English-speaker is thus likely to be very puzzled by yet another common convention in foreign languages.So fluid is this textbook's discussion of resemblances among various languages that even Russian, Sanskrit, and Gaelic are occasionally mentioned. Dr. Harris has in fact studied all three (especially Irish Gaelic) as well as the classical tongues; and he possesses a native's reading proficiency in three of the romance languages: Italian, French, and Spanish. Home-educators could scarcely make a better investment, whether their objective is to prepare children for college entrance exams or to immerse them in the forgotten riches of Western civilization.