Take my course LATIN UNCOVERED on StoryLearning, including my original Latin adventure novella "Vir Petasātus" : https://learn.storylearning.com/lu-promo?affiliate_id=3932873

Available exclusively on the StoryLearning platform, I’ve written an original Latin novella about a daring archaeologist, a genius physicist, and a tremulous philologist who are 21st century explorers and fluent Latin speakers, on a quest for a lost relic from the Roman Empire.

This novella forms the core of my course on StoryLearning: Latin Uncovered "Vir Petasātus" — an exciting adventure that immerses you in the idiom of modern-day Latin speakers, and with a mystery that’ll keep you guessing right up to the end.

There are a lot of ways to learn Latin out there, and you know I espouse many of them, so whom is this course for, and what makes it different?

Well, one can learn with a teacher in a classroom, but others work better as autodidacts and prefer to study solo. My StoryLearning course gives the best of both worlds: you get hours of video instruction from me, where I teach you the grammar, vocabulary, how to conjugate verbs, how to decline nouns, as well as the most detailed pronunciation guide I’ve ever put together, along with lots of helpful hints on Latin syntax and idiom — all the things you might get in a classroom, but you go at your own pace, since you don’t have to schedule with any instructors or other students. Thus you get the excitement and personal adventure of learning the language on your own, with all the video lessons you need to master the basics.

As for the novella, it’s not a graded reader, and it’s like that by design, because I wanted to challenge you with a real adventure story from the very first sentence. Nevertheless, each chapter has detailed explanations of all the new vocabulary, how all the grammar works, and a full English translation, so you’ll never get lost.

And naturally, the audio of the story is in both Classical and Ecclesiastical Pronunciation, and I teach you how to do both, so whichever you prefer is the one you’ll be able to learn.


NOTES & FURTHER COMMENTARY

The line "have you got your lions crossed" at 7:38 is a reference to Nathan Lane's portrayal of the character Timon in "The Lion King," who has an accent similar to the one I am imitating here. This is also a reference to Erasmus's dialogue "De recta Latini Graecique sermonis pronuntiatione" where the Bear educates the Lion on the correct ancient pronunciation of Latin and Greek. This is referred to more explicitly at 18:20.

The line "if raisins/reasons were as plentiful as blackberries" at 11:40 is a reference to this: https://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/literature/language/pronunciation.html The comment about "what" is referring to the fact that I started pronouncing a voiceless-w for "wh" in English once I began practicing Shakespearean Pronunciation.

The Arnold Schwarzenegger impression is borrowed lovingly from comedian Jim Gaffigan.

Foreigners in Italy who ask "How old are you?" often mispronounce "Quanti anni hai?" as "Quanti ani hai?" meaning "How many anuses do you have?" This underlines the non-negotiable importance of geminated consonants in Italian and Latin, as well as phonemic vowel length in the latter.

When you're so good in your field that you can only debate with yourself

Luke’s acting is extremely impressive

As a regular TLM attendee, I certainly appreciate Ecclesiastical due to the frequency of exposure and its general beauty, especially when sung. However, something about Restored Classical has a sense of power and imperium behind it.

fun fact: the distance between Luke 1 and Luke 2 in this video is approximately 3km in straight line, yet they are able to have a conversation

edit: and even have a fight

I love how the ecclesiastical pronunciation character has the Basilica as his background while the classical pronunciation guy has the Anfiteatro Flavio.

As an extremely devout Catholic and passionate Latinist, my opinion, before even playing the video, is that Classical Latin is most proper for academical study, whereas Ecclesiastical Latin has an eternal place in liturgy and worship.

I am greatly enthused by this rather novel charactah!

Now, I know that Luke can be a 20th-century professor!! And he can be more American than himself in his previous videos!

I prefer the classical pronunciation since this is not only the original, but also gives Latin its independence and identity compared to other Romance languages, and is not influenced by Italian

Ha ha. As a little Roman Catholic in the 1950s and 60s I learnt both. Ecclesiastical Latin pronunciation on Sundays and classical Latin pronunciation in Latin lessons during the week. Then after a few years 'they' changed how we pronounced 'w'. Cant recall now which way round the change went.
Dominus vobiscum. ❤

I find it funny that the classical latin expert has a thick new england accent. Lets stop fighting and just speak Proto Italic...

Wow, it must have been tough doing a silly voice while trying to put on the appropriate accent for the language lol

I've found learning the classical pronunciation incredibly helpful, even though I'd never claim to speak it. I'm a folklorist by trade, and learn the WAY things were meant to be heard is just as vital for understanding them as learning what they say. The meter and rhythm of Latin matters immensely to the intended experience of, say, poetry and speeches.

The answer is 'yes'

Confirmed: all cool people are New York's New Yorkiest Actor 🤣😂🤣😂

This is so impressive and entertaining. You and Farya Faraji are my two favorite content creators on YouTube.

I definitely need to check out this class of yours. I want to learn Ecclesiastical Latin as I attend a Latin Catholic Mass. I can understand most of everything but would love to be able to speak it.

This debate is so hilarious! I use normal Classical Latin idioms in a fairly conservative Late Latin pronunciation.

My Latin is extremely basic, I was only able to read the story of Pandora’s box using very simple Latin and that was years ago. I kind of gave up learning more, but this video has encouraged me to jump back in. The course looks really fun and engaging, I was studying books solo so it got kind of boring and I didn’t have much guidance, so this looks really cool and what I’ve been looking for, especially since I mainly want to be able to read Latin texts when I encounter them.