Tuesday, September 12

Ugh, what a day

We started Latin for Children today. The boys like the program. James loves the activity book. John likes the cadence and chants. We all like the video, EXCEPT that the video for Primer A seems to use exclusively Classical Pronunciation. We've been using Prima Latina and LC1, so we are accustomed to hearing principio pronounced as "prin-SHE-pee-OH", and silva as "SILL-va", it took a few double takes to adjust to hearing "prin-KEE-pee-OH", "SILL-wa". "WEAR-bum" rather than "VAIR-boom", as well - just sounded odd.

Anyhow, I don't think I can pull it off. I have no logical stratagem for it. I will not appeal to any sense of reason whatsoever. All I can say is:

Mawage. Mawage is wot bwings us togeder tooday. Mawage, that bwessed awangment, that dweam wifin a dweam...


Can't do it. For purely cultural reasons, we're going to have to stick with Ecclesiastical Latin. But I've heard that the videos for Primer B begin to include both pronunciations, and other than that little gripe, the program itself looks simply fantastic.

Other than the new Latin program, I've got nothin' tonight.

Today we did:

1 trip to the dentist
2 hours of lessons
3 loads of dishes
4 rounds of "please don't sit on the baby"
5 games of "Don't Eat Pete"
6 hours of nursing (or so it seemed, could be off by an hour or two)
7 ... mmm, I don't know, but we must've done something seven times...
8 pages of lesson plans for the following weeks
9 loads of laundry washed, dried and put away. (Another load still in the dryer and yet another sitting in the wash.)

and I'm out of Hours In A Day. Pretty sure we borrowed some from tomorrow, too.

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

PS - Bonus points if you know the quote. And extra bonus points if you know without me having to explain it that I'm not insinuating that anyone ought to use Ecclesiastical pronunciation, nor am I disparaging Classical pronunciation as a viable option for others. It just wouldn't work for us, and at least I'm willing to admit it's a cultural bias, however pathetic that culture may be. ;-)

20 comments:

Dee Paolina said...

Inconceivable!

G. said...

Sounds like Elmer Fudd to me. ;)

H said...

LOL! When we used Latin Primer, we laughed at the words too. When we got to the word "vivo" (say "WEE-woh") I couldn't take it any more and I just stopped .listening to the pronunciation CD.

Now we're using LC1 and it's much better!

Hillary :)

Laura said...

The wedding scene in The Princess Bride - film version.

I think when it comes to Latin pronunciation what you first hear becomes the way it sounds right to you. My parents took Latin in junior high back in the day, and found a woman to tutor me when I was 13. That woman had taught Latin in jr and sr high back in the 30's and she and the texts I used taught the classical pronunciation. Same goes for when I took Latin in college. So when I've heard ecclesiastical Latin, I have had much the same feelings as you for classical, "Hey, what's that mush-mouthed language? That's NOT Latin!" And the first two Latin programs I got to use with my children used the ecclesiastical pronunciation, so I ditched them and went back to my parents' old Latin text and Wheelock.

All that to say - who cares in the end? Go with what makes you happy. After all, you're the teacher!

mere said...

Is it The Princess Bride?

I'm always struck by how funny that scene is.

I totally understand where you are coming from on the pronunciation.


9 loads of laundry?! Wow. I feel like I need to get crackin'.

Have a good one!

Fe said...

:-)

It's 'The Princess Bride' of course:-)

Dy said...

Wow, you guys are good! I'm going to have to tell Zorak that he really does need to watch that movie. If Darryl knows it, then there's just no excuse for Zorak to continue ignoring it. :-)

Laura - you nailed it. It's about familiarity and comfort when it comes to pronunciation. I've seen some truly goofy arguments for/against each one, and it seems that those who MUST push one particular pronunciation seem to feel they must justify it. I don't get it. There's no need. That's why I had to plant my tongue in my cheek and just put it out there.

I laughed aloud at the "mush-mouthed" part, though. I can completely see how someone accustomed to hearing Classical would think, "Mumbler" when hearing Ecclesiastical. Thanks for the smile.

Dy

Kathy Jo DeVore said...

Dy, the LfC A audio CD has both pronunciations on it. We didn't even use the DVDs for it, just the audio CD. It's the second half of the CD.

Meliss said...

Ha Ha! My preacher dad once started out a wedding rehearsal with that quote to everyone's amusement.

I can always count on you and your blog for something interesting to read.

Wow. 9 loads of laundry in one day. You are amazing!

Anonymous said...

I love The Princess Bride! Very amusing movie, and I don't think one can watch it and still be cranky.

Patty in WA or Rover said...

Get a margarita, gal, and chill! It will be OK! We had the same exact response and within 3 weeks, it was just as easy to do the classical. It still *sounds* stupid, but it is no longer a stumbling block. And to keep things fair, we do all our Christian stuff in ecclesiastical pronunciation, just to keep it fair. We were talking today about switching back to eccl. pronunciation, just for fun.

WE-WO is what got to me, though.

At any rate, even if you don't chill out, you got a margarita out of the deal.

Jules said...

The Princess Bride!!

Still one of the best movies ever made.

Every once in awhile I answer my husband's requests for whatever with "Assss youuuuu wishhhh!" from the part where Wesley is rolling down the hill. I still giggle when I think of that! ;)

J-Lynn said...

That's our favorite family movie!

And for a second I thought ti was Latin...LOL

Anonymous said...

You married a man that hadn't seen The Princess Bride? You know I've never questioned your judgement, Dy, but....*grin*

And he still hasn't? I bet that was the *real* ending to your opening line, huh? "Although I love my husband, and he's a wonderful man, he hasn't watched The Princess Bride and I don't know how much longer this can go on..." Yep. See? You can't fool me.

I read the quote to the kids (skipped the nine loads of laundry bit...no need to make Mommy look bad...) yesterday and guess what we're watching tonight? ;)

Anonymous said...

We use that quote, and many others, often. Why? It doesn't really fit into everyday life, but it's funny....

Di said...

Ugh -- for once I know the quote from a movie and I am too late to show off. Doggone.

A story I just heard from friend: she had a friend named Victor from some E. European country. He said all Vs and Bs as "W" Volleyball became Wollywall and his name was Wictor. Latin pronunciation does the same thing to me -- I just giggle my way through it. But, as my children proclaim, we do pagan latin, so I have to resist the urge to giggle often.

Take care,
Diane

Emily (Laundry and Lullabies) said...

LOL, I know the quote. How appropriate. ;)

I have to agree with you on Ecclesiastical latin. I never took Latin as a language, but I sang it for YEARS in high school and college and then taught it as well (I was a music major and then a choral director). Somehow after all that Classical Latin just sounds...a little silly. Besides, it just sounds weird to have what's-his-name saying "weenie!" instead of "veni!" :)

Anonymous said...

(without reading preceding comments)

I don't think that word means what you think it does!

Bob and Claire said...

LOL, Bob didn't watch Princess Bride until after we'd been married several years. I couldn't believe there was a movie out there that I, the one who has seen practically no movies in my life, had seen and he hadn't, especially such a good one! He really liked it, and now we own it.

So, did I miss why you switched to LfC? What didn't you like about LC? I'm just curious. I finally had the chance to look at LfC at a convention last summer, and I liked it a lot, but I'm not a big switcher, so we're still in LC1, planning to go to LC2 in another month or 2. LOL, there's a run-on for you! : )

Dy said...

Claire,

I switched to LfC for James, who wants to READ Latin and DO Latin, and KNOW Latin. He picked up my Henle the other day and translated all the sentences in Lesson 2 just for fun. (I know, how wrong is that?) LC1 just wasn't going deeply enough for him, and he learns a little differently. I thought the LfC might be a good match for him.

The surprise was John. He's never shown a whole lot of interest in Latin but, well, he's six. And pirates don't speak Latin, so really, why would he care? *grin* I wasn't worried, and honestly thought that PL would be just fine for him and had steeled myself for using the two different programs so that each boy would have what worked best for him. Well, who knew the kid would love the LfC stuff!? (I'll see your run-on and raise you an excessive use of punctuation!)

I'm not much of a switcher, really, either. We've been SO fortunate that almost everything we started with has continued to work well for us. But this was a biggie for me, and James was driving me nuts wanting to know how to say this or that or the other. The LC1 book didn't really give it up so easily, and I had no idea on my own. If he would slow it down a bit, we'd have stayed w/ LC. I really like it, as a whole.

Dy