A New Method of Learning With Facility the Latin Tongue: Containing the Rules of Genders, Declensions, Preterites, Syntax, Quantity, and the Latin Accents, Digested in the Clearest and Concisest Order

A New Method Of Learning With Facility The Latin Tongue: Containing The Rules Of Genders, Declensions, Preterites, Syntax, Quantity, And The Latin Accents, Digested In The Clearest And Concisest Order — Claude Lancelot. This English edition (translated by Thomas Nugent) presents a practical Port-Royal-inspired Latin grammar, emphasizing rule-based learning and a learner’s mother tongue approach. The excerpt focuses on verb morphology, offering a thorough reference on the formation of preterites and supines across all conjugations, including regular patterns and extensive irregularities. It surveys four broad irregularity categories, plus additional phenomena such as syncope, vowel shifts, reduplication, and consonant changes, and provides special treatments for deponents, neuter passives, impersonals, and verbs with no or unusual supines. The work includes numerous paradigms, historical and etymological notes (Greek influence, derivations, orthographic variants), and guidance on how preterites relate to present-tense forms. It furthermore addresses derivatives and compounds, metaplasm (transformations in letters or syllables), and practical rules to recognize and generate forms. The pedagogical aim is a concise, analogy-based toolkit reinforced by tables and explicit rules for students and teachers preparing to read classical authors with accurate verbal forms. The excerpt includes front matter and the opening Book I on genders, reflecting the Port-Royal teaching program of clear rules and authoritative annotations.