Kennedy's Revised Latin Primer Paper 1st Edition

My children (8 and 13 years old) and I (their mother) are Americans and new to learning this ancient language. It is NOT a language commonly taught in the US, thus attaining quality Latin books for the purpose of learning is rather a chore. Those few people who are familiar with Latin have raised their brows when I’ve told them we are using Kennedy’s (I bought this Revised as well as the Shorter), since (as many reviewers here state) it is a very technically heavy piece of Latin tutelage, especially for beginners.That being said, this book has proven to be indispensable in our studies; the book already turns to page 64 without effort, we refer to it so often. We are learning with a tutor in England (the beauty of technology!) on a weekly basis, and his style of teaching is strictly Classical. My 8-year old is grating against the unfamiliar teaching style, while my 13-year old is progressing quickly. I’m taking lessons as well, to support to my children’s learning (mostly explaining things to the 8-year old) and to expand my own intellectual capacity. As a working mom, I’m finding the rigor of Latin to be a refreshing shift from my professional life as well as from the responsibilities of single parenthood. I know this may sound odd, but learning Latin in our little family trio has been a bonding experience as we conjugate verbs, from the present to the pluperfect, as we make meals or take a walk. Who knew we’d so thoroughly geek out on this ancient language?This primer is an absolute “must have” in our Latin toolkit. According to our tutor, it is in keeping with the original. Its revisions are mostly along the lines of making the language more accessible to the contemporary ear, but content has remained largely untouched. That this book has continued to be in print for over 120 years I believe attests to its value as a learning tool.

The book is well organized , making it easy to access topics.

Thank you.

this book's reputation is unequalled in u.k. public schools. the original edition is over a hundered years old, although sir james mountford's revised edition is the one most people are familiar with. full paradigms of the four model verbs are given in both active and passive forms. the verbs being - amo, moneo, rego, audio.the second part of the book covers latin syntax, sentence constructions, and all the noun declensions.highly recommended.

Kennedy's Revised Latin Primer is one of the best Latin primers of its size and scope I have seen to date. The classical Latin language is described in all its essential details, with some reference to pre-classical Latin that the student might encounter in his readings. The history, phonology, morphology, syntax and prosody are covered successively as is usual in primers. All the essential facts, both the regularities and the irregularities, of the language are presented in clear, easy-to-read manner, with paradigms well set-out in tables and lists.I should consider this book to be one of the classic Latin primers, well known and used commonly in schools. Note, though, that this book is not an introductory textbook for learning Latin; it is rather a primer for the purposes of revising and getting a deeper understanding of what is already learnt, as well as for acquiring further instruction on matters of syntax, etc., once the basics are known. It is one of the best primers available for intermediate students, and would serve admirably as a reference grammar for beginning students as well. I would recommend it as a supplement to any introductory textbook, and as a guide to those progressing further.

If you are Latin-curious, this is not the book for self learning in my humble opinion. It is written in the stuffy patois of 19th century Oxford-educated pedagogues. I believe it was used by generations of schoolboys in England in the days of yore, and is probably good if you have a teacher. But I don't. Reading through the book made my eyes glaze over.Teaching methods have advanced so much since then. For example, self-learners might instead consider Lingua Latina: Familia Romana by Hans Orberg. This "newish" method of learning takes the reader right into Latin. You literally start reading Latin at a basic level, and through this method, develop an understanding for verb conjugation and the dreaded declensions.