Good day! Today we will get acquainted with the Latin language, find out why a doctor needs it in any country, and also try to learn several important Latin terms.
So, Latin. To be honest, I really enjoyed teaching him for a number of reasons:
- On couples on this subject, the feeling was created that I was touching some secret ancient knowledge. This is understandable, because we are talking about the language spoken by the great doctors of antiquity;
- you will learn exactly in Latin. Therefore, a good knowledge of Latin will make memorizing anatomy relatively easy for you;
- Latin terms (especially medical) sound very, very cool;
- To the point, the term used in Latin in the course of a conversation or report eloquently indicates your erudition. This may not be entirely true, but I always got that impression.
What is Latin for? Doctors need it so that doctors who speak different languages, have always been able to understand each other. Of course, anatomy cannot be imagined without Latin. Biologists, chemists and pharmacists need it because of the use of a single terminology, which greatly facilitates the classification of drugs, animal species, etc.
Clinical terminology is also based on Latin. For example, if the name of a medicine ends with “in”, we can assume with a high degree of probability that it is an antibiotic - amoxicillin, ciprofloxacIN. If the name of the disease has the suffix "Oma", then they say, of course, about a tumor - hemengiOMA, sarcoma, lipOMA. If the suffix "it" is present, it is inflammation. For example, stomatitis, bronchitis, colitis.
Learning Latin for doctors has its own specifics. After completing a course in this subject at a medical university, you are unlikely to be able to converse in Latin with your friend over the phone. You will also most likely not be able to easily pronounce phrases in your newly learned language in your arsenal like “Although I am a fan of the Marvel comic book universe, but director Zach Snyder is so good that I loved the films about Superman and Batman more than anyone else.” All you need from this subject is to be able to understand and name from memory anatomical terms, diagnoses of diseases, and also be able to write prescriptions in Latin.
From my own experience, I will say that Latin terms memorized in advance, before starting to study at a medical university, give several advantages at once:
- Firstly, you master the subject much faster and new topics are much easier for you.
- Second, you will quickly conquer good relationship the teacher to himself. Your Latin teacher will definitely consider you a capable student if you answer best in the first couples.
- And thirdly, having a good vocabulary, you will be able to compensate to some extent your lag in grammar if this happens. This is exactly what happened with me - in terms of vocabulary I was very good, but grammar was given very hard. But I got on the list of applicants for the coveted “automaton” precisely because of my vocabulary - at least that's what the teacher told me.
When I created this collection of Latin words, I was guided, first of all, by the very beginning of the first semester of the first year. Therefore, if you have already entered for sure, but wanted to know how to prepare for medical university in advance - this article is for you. After all, it is best in such a situation to start your preparation with Latin.
Actually, the Latin lesson
Let's try to remember a few simple words with pronunciation. I will make a reservation right away that in our first collection I will not indicate the gender, the variation of the spelling of the word in the genitive case or in the plural, as is customary in dictionaries.
For our first Latin lesson, I suggest memorizing two simple ruleswhich we'll be using right now:
- In Latin, the stress on the last syllable is NEVER placed;
- The sound of the letter "L" is always softened. The word "clavicula" will never sound "clavicula". We will read it as "klyavikulya". Just like "scapula" - it will sound right like this: "scapula".
So, let's start learning Latin for doctors. Our lexical minimum for this lesson:
- Caput (kaput) - head;
- Cranium (cranium) - skull. Quite a common word. There is even the science of craniology, which studies the structure of the human skull in normal conditions;
- Basis cranii (basis crani) - the base of the skull;
- Fornix cranii (fornix crani) - the vault of the skull, that is, the lid of the skull;
- Maxilla (maxilya) - upper jaw. Do not forget our second rule and read it as "maxil";
- Mandibula (mandibula) - lower jaw. “Mandible” will sound right;
I used Da Vinci's classic illustration to show you what it was about. With a red dotted line, I have marked the border between the fornix cranii and the basis cranii. The rounded part on top is the vault. Below is the basis.
I highlighted the upper jaw (maxilla) in blue, and the lower jaw (mandibula) in green.
- Cervix (tserviks) - neck;
- Vertebra (vertebra) - vertebra;
- Columna vertebralis (kolyumna vertebralis) - the spinal column. It is he who consists of the vertebrae;
- Corpus vertebrae (corpus vertebre) - vertebral body. It is very easy to memorize Latin using associations - often, especially in sports, the human body is called "corpus". Boxers say so: "blow to the body";
- Arcus vertebrae (arcus vertebre) - vertebral arch. It is also not without reason that an architectural figure in the form of an arc is called an "arch";
This is what the spine looks like:
The next block of words:
- Thorax (thorax) - chest. The same term is called the chest - an anatomical formation, inside which is the chest cavity.
- Cavum thoracis (kavum toratsis) - chest cavity. It is bounded by the sternum, ribs and vertebrae, that is, the chest.
- Sternum (sternum) - sternum. One of the coolest bones to learn. Just a few elements need to be remembered, the main one is ...
- Corpus sterni (corpus stärni) - the body of the sternum. I think you already know the translation of this word, by analogy with the vertebral body;
- Costa (kosta) - edge;
- Caput costae (kaput koste) - the head of the rib. Yes, at first I myself thought that the human head and the head of some anatomical formation have different names, it turns out not
- Corpus costae (corpus coste) - rib body. I think you already remember well what corpus is;
In this illustration, you can see the ribcage from the front. The sternum is the long, vertical bone located in front. The body of the sternum is even signed here, only in English - the body of sternum. By the way, Latin and English have a large number of similar words.
And the last block of Latin words for today.
- Сingulum membri superioris (cingulum membri superioris) - upper limb belt. The word superior, like its opposite, inferior, will be very common throughout anatomy.
- Superior (superior) - upper. Simple association. "Super" - above all others;
- Inferior (inferior) - lower. Also easy to remember. Inferno is another name for hell. "Infernal" - hellish, devilish. The stereotypical hell is always below;
- Scapula (skapulya) - the word already parsed today. As you remember, this translates to "scapula";
- Clavicula (klyavikulya) - collarbone. We analyzed this too. By the way, it was very surprising for me in anatomy that the upper limb girdle consists of only two bones - the scapula and the clavicle. I thought it was full of bones.
I highlighted the collarbone in red, and the shoulder blade in green.
Here's a list. I would recommend that you teach it in parts. Write each term several times, say it aloud, and then tell a few learned terms with translation into Russian to your household or a friend on the phone (I periodically told the cat).
This concludes our first (hopefully not the last) lesson in Latin for doctors. If you teach a few expressions a week before starting your studies, you will become a very skillful student in pairs in Latin. Good luck to everyone, study and love science!
Why do we say "Latin", "Latin"? When it comes to ancient languages, first of all, Greek and Latin languages \u200b\u200bappear in memory. It is quite obvious that the Greek language, in its various dialects, was spoken by the Greeks, and Latin was the language of the Romans. And then the question arises: why romans spoke in latin language?
Latin language (lingua Latina) is the language of the ancient inhabitants of Latium, a small region in central Italy bordered by the lands of the Sabines, Etruria and Campania. The inhabitants of Latium were called Latins, their language was Latin (lingua Latina). It was Latius who - according to traditional Roman legend - was to receive Aeneas, who fled from the captured Troy, and his distant descendant Romulus was destined to become the founder and first king of Rome (in 753 BC). And it was Rome, at first only the capital of Latium, thanks to its expansionist policy, first took possession of all of Italy, and then the basin Mediterranean Sea and became the capital of the whole Roman Empire. And although the power and political influence of the Romans spread far beyond Latium and their language became the language of the entire Roman Empire, it was still called latin.
For a very long time, Lingust could not find high-quality materials for independent study of the Latin language, to everyone's joy, heritage Soviet Union, in the form of a self-study guide of the Latin language by the Polish author Lidia Vinnichuk (), solved this problem. The site presents is free Not only course of 60 online lessons , but also the texts of Roman authors, such as Caesar, Cicero, Horace, Ovid, etc. To view the answers to the exercises and translations of Latin texts, move the mouse over the key: We sincerely advise the student to abandon dependent moods, maintain character and refer to the “Key” in the last the moment when everything that depends on your own knowledge and ingenuity has already been done in grammar exercises and translations.
Go to → list of lessons ← (Click)
Is Latin a dead language?
Let us answer this with the words of Julian Tuwim: "What kind of a dead language is it if, without fading, it survived thousands of years? ..." But how, in what form, did it "survive"? First of all, in texts, in works that have survived to our time and thanks to which we can observe the development and change of the Latin language over the centuries; in historical monuments and documents of the Middle Ages, in the creations of the Renaissance. And, in addition, it was preserved in the Romance languages, in the languages \u200b\u200bof those peoples conquered by Rome who experienced its political and cultural influence. These are Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and other foreign languages.
Finally - and this should also be remembered - other languages \u200b\u200bwere also influenced by Latin, although this impact is manifested mainly in the fact that their vocabulary is largely saturated with Latin words. Scientists estimate that out of 20,000, the most common words English is about 10,400 of Latin origin, about 2,200 of Greek and only 5,400 of Anglo-Saxon origin.
A lot of Latin words have entered the Russian language. And this is not only scientific terminology, which in most cases is international, but also the words of colloquial speech. They have penetrated so deeply into our language that, using them since childhood, we no longer perceive them as words of foreign origin. Here are some examples related to the field of education: “school”, “institute”, “student”, “table”, “director”, “lecture”, “audience”, etc. Therefore, we advise you to accompany the learning of Latin vocabulary by searching for borrowed words in in Russian. You will discover how exciting the life of the word is.
You've probably found something interesting on this page. Recommend it to a friend! Better yet, place a link to this page on the Internet, VKontakte, blog, forum, etc. For example:
Learning Latin
Despite the fact that it is considered dead, it is studied and applied in many spheres of human activity: law, medicine, pharmacology, biology. The amount of knowledge a person needs depends on the scope and end goal, but in any case, you need to know the basics. In this article, we will consider the question of what the "for beginners" course looks like. The alphabet, grammar overview and practice tips are the bare minimum to help you self-study.
Alphabet and phonetics
Where to start learning Latin? For beginners, knowledge of the alphabet is important first of all. It includes 24 letters. On the basis of research, their pronunciation is unified and close to the approximate pronunciation of the ancient Romans. Below is the transcription in Russian.
There are some peculiarities of reading them.
The vowel i is read like [and] and [th] before vowels, h is aspirated, l is softly like in French, y sounds like [and]. The letter c is read as [c] before e, i, y, ae, oe or as [k] before a, o, u and at the end of words. S sounds like [z] between vowels, x - like [ks].
Diphthongs are read like this:
- ae - [eh]
- oe - [Ö]
- au - [ay]
- eu - [eu]
- ch - [x]
- ngu - [ngv]
- ph - [f]
- qu - [sq]
- rh - [p]
- th - [t]
- ti - [ty]
Stress
- short (pronounced quickly) - ă, ĕ, ĭ, ŏ, ŭ, y̆;
- long (stretch when pronouncing) - ā, ē, ī, ō, ū, ȳ.
Syllables are:
- open - end in a vowel;
- closed - end in a consonant.
The stress is put on the first syllable if the word is two-syllable (it is never put on the last syllable). If a word consists of three or more syllables, then the stress is placed on the second syllable from the end, if it is long, and on the third, if it is short.
Grammar
The beginner course assumes knowledge of the basics of grammar. In Latin, all parts of speech are divided into a changeable numeral, a pronoun) and an unchangeable interjection).
When studying grammar on your own, you should study according to those manuals that have answers to exercises for self-examination. It is advisable to complete a large number of practical tasks, which will automate the skill of using grammatical structures, and, as a result, the material covered will be remembered for a long time.
Practice
When studying the alphabet and grammar, a passive vocabulary gradually accumulates, which later needs to be activated when reading texts. At this stage, new words will appear, for the translation of which you will need an academic dictionary, for example, the Large Latin-Russian. If you know English, you can prioritize Elementary Latin Dictionary and Oxford Latin Dictuonary. You also need to create your own dictionary and periodically repeat words from it.
Reading is the final stage of the Latin for Beginners course. At this level, it is recommended to read such texts as:
- Fabulae Facilies.
- Latin Reader.
- De Viris Illustribus.
- The Latin Vulgate Bible.
Gradually, you need to complicate the tasks and move from simple reading to understanding without a dictionary. For this purpose, the courses "Assimil", Schola Latina Universalis and forums for Latin learners, where you can practice speaking and get advice if something is not clear, are suitable.
Instructions
You need to start learning Latin by learning the alphabet. The Latin alphabet has 25 letters. Six letters (a, e, i, o, u, y) convey 12 vowel sounds of the Latin language. There are also 4 diphthongs in Latin. You need to know that Latin has long and short vowels. Brevity and longitude are indicated using superscript characters: ā - "a" is long, ă - "a" is short. Stress in latin words never put on last syllable... In two-syllable words, the stress is on the initial syllable. In trisyllabic and polysyllabic words, stress is placed on the second syllable from the end, if this second syllable is long. The stress is placed on the third syllable from the end if the second syllable is short. For example, in transformatio the stress is on "a".
Further, in Latin 4. In the first conjugation, the stem ends in a long (ā). For example, "ornāre", in which "ornā" is the stem and "re" is the suffix. The suffix can also be "ere". The second conjugation includes verbs whose stem ends in "e" long (ē), for example, "habēre". The third conjugation includes verbs whose stem ends in a consonant, “u” is short and “i” is short (ŭ and ĭ), for example, “tangere” (stem is “tang”). The fourth conjugation includes verbs with a long “i” (ī), for example, “audīre”, where “audī” is the stem and “re” is the suffix.
Verbs in Latin have the following grammatical categories: tense (six tenses: present, future first, future second, imperfect, perfect, plusamperfect), mood (indicative, subjunctive and imperative), voice (real and), number (singular and plural ), person (1, 2 and 3 person). Of course, you need to study each section gradually. However, you should start somewhere, for example, to start with four correct conjugations. Consider how the verbs I-IV of the conjugation in the present tense of the indicative mood of the active voice change.
Verb I conjugation of ornāre: orno, ornas, ornat, ornāmus, ornatis, ornānt. Verb II conjugation of tacēre: taceo, taces, tacet, tacēmus, tacētis, tacent. Verb III conjugation tangere: tango, tangĭs, tangĭt, tangĭmus, tangĭtis, tangŭnt. Verb IV conjugation of audīre: audio, audis, audit, audīmus, audītis, audiuŭt.
Let's talk a little about nouns in Latin. They have a gender category (masculine, feminine, neuter), numbers (singular, plural). There are 6 cases in Latin: Nominativus (nominative), Genetivus ( genitive), Dativus (dative), Accusativus (accusative), Ablativus (decisive), Vocativus (vocative). Latin nouns have 5 declensions. The first includes nouns with stems in ā and ă. To the second - on ŏ and ĕ. To the third - into a consonant and ĭ. To IV - by ŭ. By the fifth - on ē.
So, we learned a little about the Latin verb and noun. It is important that now, when we can already distinguish them a little, some Latin sentences can be translated with the help of a dictionary;
Fortuna caeca est - Fortune is blind;
Epistula non erubescit - Paper does not blush;
Mala herba cito crescit - Bad grass grows quickly;
Amicitia vitam ornat - Friendship adorns life;
Amat victoria curam - Victory loves care;
Terra incognita - Unknown land;
Cogito ergo sum - I think, therefore I exist.
WikiHow works like a wiki, which means that many of our articles are written by multiple authors. To create this article, 15 people, some anonymous, worked to edit and improve it over time.
You can learn Latin on your own if you approach this issue correctly. All you need is a set of correct textbooks, exercises, and writing practice in Latin. Chances are, your family and friends will not be able to speak to you in Latin, but practice oral language will help you improve your knowledge of Latin in general. If you try, you can speak Latin as well as the Pope, and in no time.
Steps
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Pick up a beginner's book with lots of exercises and answers. The answers are important because there is no one to check you.
- Wheelock "s Latin is a well-known book of answers. This is perhaps the best choice for self-study. The book contains a huge number of exercises, as well as online training groups.
- There are several publicly available books with answers, for example:
- Choosing the right vocabulary is important for what you will read. If you are interested in classical Latin, use Elementary Latin Dictionary or Oxford Latin Dictionaryif you can buy it. If you are interested in Late Latin, Middle Ages, Renaissance and Neo-Latin, you are better off using the Lewis and the Short "s Latin Dictionary, although it is expensive. Otherwise, you will have to use Cassell, which is not very useful and not small in size. Unfortunately, choosing the right and inexpensive dictionary will not be easy. If you understand French, then the dictionary Grand gaffiot would be a good choice.
- While you are still studying from the textbook, you will have to memorize a lot: declensions, conjugations, vocabulary. There is no shortcut. In this case, your morale is very important.
- Latin is a poor vocabulary language, in other words, one word can have multiple meanings. This also means that there are many idioms in Latin that you will also need to memorize. You will get to the point where you understand every word, but the meaning of the sentence as a whole will not be clear to you. This is because you ponder the meaning of each word individually. For example, the expression hominem e medio tollere means "to kill a person", but if you do not know this phrase, then literally it translates to "remove a person from the center."
- Avoid poetry while studying prose. Would you recommend reading Shakespeare to someone who teaches english language, not yet knowing how to read a newspaper. The same goes for Latin.
- Learn words. Carry a word list or flashcards with you to look on the bus, toilet, or wherever.
- Write in Latin. Even if you want to learn how to read, don't avoid the English to Latin translation exercise.
- Take your time. One lesson every few days is enough. If you are in a hurry, you will not have time to remember the information you need. On the other hand, don't hesitate. Try to exercise at least once a week.
- If your answers do not match the answers in the tutorial, you are most likely missing something. Return to class and reread.