Spoken Ancient Greek

Thanks to Keith Rogers for the following:

The Classical Greek pedagogy site recently posted information about a new text aimed at using a communicative approach to teach the Greek language. It is focused on the Koine dialect of the first Century AD (New Testament, Plutarch, etc.).

There is an ongoing discussion at this website:

 http://www.textkit.com/greek-latin-forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=9580

 More details about the book itself together with audio recordings and video clips can be seen at:

 http://poliskoine.com/site/

 Keith Rogers

The End of Latin

Or rather,  I  should say “Latin words for death” , If, like me you enjoy impressing your pupils with the rich variety of Latin words  and expressions for the act of killing (necare, trucidare, iugulare, interficere , caedere etc etc), then you might also appreciate this collection of words, largely euphemistic, which account for the act of dying: 

If you want to refer to someone’s departure from life, you could use a conjugated version of one of the following phrases:

• [(de) vita] decedere
• (ex) vita excedere
• ex vita abire
• mortem obire
• de vita exire
• de (ex) vita migrare

In Latin you can “give up the ghost” by saying:

• animam edere or efflare
• extremum vitae spiritum edere

Someone who dies before his time dies in these ways:

• mature decedere
• subita morte exstingui
• mors immatura or praematura

Committing suicide can be done in a variety of ways. Here are Latin expressions connoting self-inflicted death.

• mortem sibi consciscere
• se vita privare
• vitae finem facere

Taking poison for suicide:

• veneno sibi mortem consciscere
• poculum mortis exhaurire
• poculum mortiferem exhaurire

Killing someone violently:

• plagam extremam infligere
• plagam mortiferam infligere

A patriotic Roman death might be described using the following:

• mortem occumbere pro patria
• sanguinem suum pro patria effundere
• vitam profundere pro patria
• se morti offerre pro salute patriae

the source is C. Meissner’s Latin Phrase Book and the list appears on N.S. Gill’s Ancient History Blog here http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/deathafterlife/qt/LatinDeathe.htm

Main page  (“How to say someone kicked the bucket in Latin” is here : http://ancienthistory.about.com/b/2009/06/29/how-to-say-someone-kicked-the-bucket-in-latin.htm