Lectio sexta

Notes

1. Multiplicare (multiplico, multiplicas, etc.), to multiply (verb); multiplicatio, multiplication (noun); multiplicatorius (feminine multiplicatoria, neuter multiplicatorium), relating to multiplication (adjective).

   Latin often uses derived adjectives, in preference to possessive phrases (complement of the noun). We could have said tabula multiplicationis, by putting multiplicatio in the form of the complement of the noun, but this expression would have been less correct.

   Tabula, feminine noun, means plank, flat surface, and then by extension, a plank coated with wax where one writes with a stylus, or even a plaque on which an inscription is found (tables of the law), and finally it can mean the contents of the table, i.e. what is written there. We could also have used the word abacus, the original sense of which was: the table of Pythagoras, or, to avoid any possible confusion, abacus multiplicatorius. The title would then have been: "Victor abacum (multiplicatorium) novit". Note finally that the table on which one eats is not called tabula, but mensa, as we shall see again later.

2. Eam. We could have said illam. Do not seek to know why yet and just let yourself be guided by usage.

3. Novi, novisti: yet new verb forms of which we will speak again soon. Novisti can be shortened to nosti as in P 1.

The song replaces the exercise today. The completely classical tune should not be unknown to you. Try to sing it: even if you do not perfectly understand the words, it will be a very easy exercise of living pronunciation for you.

The recordings include fragments of Latin popular songs. But of course there are Latin songs, some very old and others more recent, and which are not always adaptations as the one you have in front of your eyes. You will notice that the music helps to recall the words and especially the pronunciation.

These words often leave the domain of our lessons, and so you should not let their meaning torment you. Even if you are not gifted in music, do not skip this exercise, which is at the same time both useful and entertaining.

Do not forget that we have written for you, at the top of every page of the textbook, the corresponding Latin (cardinal) number. But Latin more frequently uses the ordinal numbers (first, second, umpteenth). You will find the ordinal number adjectives corresponding to the numbers of the lessons at the head of those lessons, and their abbreviated forms at the bottom of the right-hand side pages.

Our names Victor and Felix were originally nicknames. These two words also happen to be adjectives: victor, winner; felix, happy.

The tune and words of the tabula multiplicatoria are not completely the same in Latin as they are in English! Here are some examples:

Bis singula sunt duo: 2 times 1 = 2;

Bis bina sunt quattuor: 2 times 2 = 4;

Quinquies trina sunt quindecim: 5 times 3 = 15.

Do not yet linger over this issue and simply note in passing that there are adverbs, very easy to form, meaning by themselves: n times.

We shall not always be able to indicate to you, for lack of time and space, everything Latin words mean and convey. If, as we think, you are able little by little to discover it by yourself, Latin will teach you volumes of things on the sense and origin of many words of our own language, that too often we employ without knowing them well. But especially do not forget that we have undertaken a practical task, and that for the moment this is a question of listening and speaking, of reading and writing, most naturally in the world, and not yet to deliver us to grammatical or etymological research.

Omnia tempus habent: every thing in its own time (all-things time they-have).

Cantilena

In nemore vīcīnō
Audītur cucūlus,
Nam ē quercū būbōnī
Respondet vōcibus:
Cucu, cucū, cucucucucucū! (bis)

In the neighboring forest
the cuckoo is heard,
for from its oak tree to the owl
it answers [by these] words:
cuckoo, etc. (repeat)

(Latin words borrowed from Palæstra Latina. Classical tune.)