Latin Library — Learning Preferences

A reference for any future session picking up this Latin project. The volumes capture what has been taught; this captures how to teach it. Read this first, then the relevant volume(s).

The learner

Returning to Latin after Duolingo, which proved insufficient on its own — it supplies sentences but no mechanism, no “why”. The whole reference library exists to answer the why behind Duolingo prompts. The pattern of this project: a Duolingo sentence (often the recurring weasel) raises a question; a volume answers it properly. Learner thinks structurally, enjoys etymology, pushes back on tidy answers — and the pushback reliably produces the best material, so it should be welcomed, not smoothed over.

Pitch — the proximal principle

Aim at the zone of proximal development: just beyond what the learner can do unaided, but reachable with scaffolding. Not revision (too easy), not unsupported challenge (the Duolingo failure). The band moves as knowledge grows — re-check where the grammar actually is before pitching a new lesson. As of this writing the grammar covers: all five declensions, adjective agreement, demonstratives, possessives, syncretism/ambiguity, the present/imperfect/perfect tenses, frequentatives, and complementary infinitives. Not yet covered: the subjunctive proper, participles, the gerund, ablative absolute, indirect statement.

House style

• Mechanics explained, never asserted. Show why a form is what it is. Worked examples over rules. Always name the jargon (syncretism, conative, complementary infinitive) and then explain it in plain words — the learner wants the technical term and its meaning.
• Macrons on. This library marks long vowels (ā ē ī ō ū); real inscriptions don’t. Flag the training-wheels nature when relevant (see Vol. 0).
• Etymology earns its place. Modern English (and Spanish) cognates are a primary memory hook, not decoration — chase/catch, insolent, money/Monēta. Include them wherever they reinforce.
• A Romano-British spine. Frame toward British material — inscriptions (RIB), the Bath curse tablets, Vindolanda — over Mediterranean schoolbook Latin. This is the learner’s deeper interest (heritage, landscape, prehistory) and the reason the language matters to them.
• A welcome thread of esotericism. Curses, charms, the numinous uses of script. Latin as the language of magic and inscription, not just grammar. Open on older/ancient esoterica; modern esoteric uses (alchemical mottoes, grimoire Latin, hermetic tags) are wanted too, but introduced gradually once the home ground is established.
• Tone. Semi-casual British register. Sober yet warm. No corporate-speak, no effusive padding. Avoid “this matters”, “genuinely”, “honestly”, the “it’s not X, it’s Y” construction. Short headings, not semi-sentences. Gentle challenge over flattery.

Format

• Reference volumes — the numbered grammar spine (Vol. 0–VII, with interstitial suffixes III.a/b/c, IV.a for focused ideas dependent on their parent volume). Parchment-styled HTML for reading; lean markdown companion for the repo and project knowledge.
• Lectiōnēs — the reader strand (Lectiō I, II, III…), parallel to the reference volumes, not numbered among them. Each is one short real passage, parsed in the house style, with vocabulary drawn out after the encounter — never as a bare list. Passages chosen to be worth reading in themselves. Occasional dialogue snippets welcome alongside inscriptions, verse and prose.

The vocabulary principle

Vocabulary rides in on a sentence worth remembering — never a standalone list. A line of real text is the hook the words hang from; the vocabulary is the residue of having read something that interested the learner. This is the deliberate inverse of the Duolingo weakness.

Workflow

Repo is the library of record (GitHub, iPad/phone-friendly via the web editor; github.dev or Claude Code for heavier edits). Claude drafts a doc in chat → learner copies the markdown → pastes into the GitHub web editor → commits → syncs the project knowledge panel. Present files as they’re drafted so nothing is lost to a session ending mid-flow. HTML versions are for the learner’s own reading and need not enter project knowledge; the markdown companions are what the project reads.

Parked capstones

Two big future projects, both waiting on a Latin season with the grammar suite mostly complete:

• The hyperlinked reader — an Ørberg-style narrative primer in HTML, Romano-British setting, with tappable side-notes linking each grammar point back to the reference volumes. Converges the Latin and fiction pursuits.
• Vol. VIII — verbal syntax — a proper treatment of complementary infinitives, accusative-and-infinitive, and the larger constructions, with Vol. IV.a as its opening section.