Learning Latin through Internet

[Procyon]

I`m interested in learning latin, but I don`t know where to study here in my country, so I ask:

What program/Internet site would help me to learn latin? Best if is Spanish-to-Latin learning.

I can`t find a site for Spanish speakers.

[nemafakei]

Haven't got the faintest clue about spanish. But I should know how to point people in the right direction with latin by now. I'll inquire into it, but in the mean time, what languages do you have experience of?

[nemafakei]

If you've got a decent knowledge of the workings languages, this should be helpful:

http://www.fact-index.com/l/la/latin.html

(Thanks, Sard, for pointing out the Danish entry which gave me the idea)

[Caid Ivik]

Ask some older catholic priest or such, these all know latin very well.

[nemafakei]

As I recall, Latin was genrally abandoned by the catholic clergy in Latin America. Um, yeah, looks odd, doesn't it. I may be wrong.

In any case, do not under any circumstances learn the pronunciation from a priest. They tend to pronounce Latin as if it were Italian.

For Latin pronunciation, the most annoying letters to mistreat are as follows:

c - is always hard like k - never an s or ch

v/u - really the same letter. Sometimes a consonant w, sometimes vowel. Never a v sound.

j - if you come across one of these, it's a 'y' sound.

g - almost always a hard g - never a dzh or a kh. Can have a nasalised value before some letters, but don't worry about that yet.

Vowels:

Sometiemes short, sometimes long. To begin with, you don't need to know the difference.

a - pronounce like spanish a or english long a in 'far'

e - pronounce like spanish e or english 'air'

i - pronounce like english i in 'it' or spanish i (sometimes used as a consonant - pronounce y, but basically the same thing)

o - pronounce like spanish o or english au

u - pronounce like english short u in cup or spanish u

y - pronounce like french u in lune

Pronounce ae, oe, etc as if they were spanish ai, oi, etc.

Note that I'm going by Castillian and English pronunciation, not your funny american stuff.

Oh, I suppose I should plug the Cambridge Latin Course.

http://www.classics.cam.ac.uk/Everyone/index.html

The Cambridge Schools' Classics project link within that page might be of most use to you.

[Caid Ivik]

Yes, I was a few times in Rome and catched this "sanctificetur nomen Tuum" infection  ;D  Italians tend to soften "c" in "ce", "ci" or "cae", what latin doesn't; like an Italian would pronounce name of town Cesenatico as "Tchezenatiko", while ancient Roman would say "Cezenatiko". However this you could counter only in Italy, as most pre-council priest learned latin in original. Also now is latin learned mostly for passive purposes, so I wouldn't say it is so important.