My Latin Mind

 In my struggle to learn the Latin Language, I tried various study materials but found myself spending too much time adjusting them to my own understandings and connections. 

I began thinking about how I would pull out and sort the patterns that I knew were there. I began to understand how I would approach it if the amount of data was smaller, and from that created a database to reflect those connections. With the use of drop down menus that include givens such as the verb’s conjugation mixed with things that I saw as relevant to my own understandings such as root verbs and any special cases governed. This allows me to jump from one filter to the next or layer one filter after another to follow a particular verb through the transfers and transformations.

The end result is a cyber extension of my own thought process with its own memory.

Latin as a language is not alone in that it assigns gender to particular words, but it is one of the few languages that also include a neuter gender. Neuter in Latin translates as neither. In addition to this third gender, there are suffixes that can be added to the end of any verb (which have no gender) to mean “one who does”. Yes, these suffixes are broken down into gender, but for word economy not for limiting. Latin uses pronouns infrequently, and then mostly for emphasis or clarity because of a flexible sentence structure. Each word is formed so that it shows its relation to the other words in the sentence and therefore must convey many aspects at once. In addition to gender, a noun must signify case and number. A verb on the other hand conveys person, number, tense, voice, and mood nut not gender. In Latin, the verb is the most important part of speech. It dictates the force and meaning of the sentence. Therefore it is the action, not the actors that are most important.

Concern for gender bias in learning is rooted in the underlying assumptions of the structure or content to play to the strengths and weaknesses of individual genders or classes. But with a tool like a database, where the user dictates the scope and structure , the result is tailored the strengths and needs of and individual.   

The pdfs included are examples of different ways the data from the database can be sorted.