A dictionary is only as good as the quality of data within it. We do our best to keep all of our dictionaries up-to-date and accurate, sometimes using specialized language editors to improve and build upon our data. This month we're talking with Rob Hardy, a research associate at Carleton College in Northfield, MN and our new Latin-English dictionary editor.
Ultralingua: Where and how did your interest in Latin begin?
Rob Hardy: In my grandmother's house, there was a room with an entire wall of books. When I would go to visit, I loved to explore them. One of the intriguing things I found was a late nineteenth-century Latin grammar book. My grandmother was a teacher, and one of the first women in Upstate New York to become a high school principal. So on the one hand, Latin became associated with my ideal of a cultured, well-educated person. On the other hand, because I was immersed in Tolkien and other fantasy novels at the time, Latin seemed like a fantasy language: a language that was found only in books, spoken by people so far removed from me in time and space that they seemed almost imaginary.
When I started college, Latin was the first class I signed up for. In college, I discovered that the real pleasure of Latin was reading the authors of late Republican and Augustan Rome, especially the poets Vergil, Catullus, and Ovid.
UL: What are you most looking forward to in your work with Ultralingua?
RH: I'm looking forward to making the Ultralingua Latin-English Dictionary the best, most reliable, most user-friendly dictionary available. At the moment, that involves a lot of meticulous and time-consuming work: making sure all the long marks on vowels are in the right place, making sure the definitions are clear and accurate, etc. It also involves writing a thorough Latin reference grammar to complement the dictionary. But I'm also looking forward to being part of the great team at Ultralingua. One of the great advantages of an Ultralingua dictionary is that there is always a smart and creative group of linguists and developers behind it, constantly supporting and improving it. I'm really looking forward to responding to feedback from users of the Latin dictionary.
UL: Other than Latin, what languages or fields of study have you pursued?
RH: I majored in both Latin and history in college. In history, I concentrated on the Renaissance and Reformation, and wrote a senior thesis analyzing Erasmus's two critical editions (1515 and 1526) of the works of Seneca the Elder. I also read ancient Greek. I took Spanish in high school (and lived in Spanish House in college), and studied enough French and German to pass the exams for graduate school in classics.
I've also published on a wide variety of topics, including a chapter in a book of essays on the nineteenth-century American nature writer Susan Fenimore Cooper, articles on Vergil, an article about Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm in a children's literature journal, another article in a political science journal called Utopian Studies, and literary essays in the New England Review on Sinclair Lewis and Theodore Roosevelt and Rose Cleveland (the lesbian sister of President Grover Cleveland).
UL: What are some of the biggest challenges Latin learners face, and what advice can you offer individuals struggling with these challenges today?
RH: Latin presents a number of challenges: it's an inflected language, which is a new concept to many students; word order is more flexible than it is in English; it doesn't offer an opportunity for immersion, which is the best way to learn languages; and learning it requires a huge amount of memorization. It helps to be disciplined, methodical, and to have a good teacher. If you can, study with other Latin students. My best Latin students have always been the ones who get together to drill each other and ask each other questions. If you can explain something to someone else, it helps you solidify your own knowledge. Don't think of working together as cheating; think of it as collaboration.
Professor John Gruber-Miller at Cornell College in Iowa has provided some sensible "Tips for Learning Latin with Less Stress." But I think the most important thing is to fall in love with Latin. You have to be motivated to work past the initial challenges to arrive at an appreciation of the real beauty and power of Latin literature.
UL: How does your work as a writer impact your work at Ultralingua?
RH: Poets are always looking for the right word. A poem stands or falls on the right words. I remember agonizing over whether to use "instinctive" or "instinctual" in one of my poems. In 33 Minnesota Poets, "instinctual" appears. In my chapbook, I changed it to "instinctive," which has more of a poetic pedigree (it was first used in a poem in the seventeenth century) as well as a scientific meaning. An obsession with the right word has to be an asset to a lexicographer.
For the Roman poets, the right word often speaks volumes about the culture in which the poet was living. Why does Catullus refer to his love for Lesbia as an aeternum foedus amicitiae ("eternal treaty of friendship")? The words foedus ("treaty") and amicitia ("friendship") are loaded with specific cultural meaning, and Catullus, genius as he was, stretches them to embrace new possibilities. A good dictionary is a window into the world of the people who spoke and wrote (or, with modern languages, speak and write) the language.
Along those lines, I recommend a book by my friend Christopher Francese, a professor at Dickinson College, called Ancient Rome in So Many Words (Hippocrene Books 2007), which looks at Roman culture through the lens of significant Latin words.
UL: How do you spend your time when you aren't working with Ultralingua?
RH: I spend all of my time on Facebook.
Actually, I spend a lot of time reading and writing. I'm usually reading two or three books at the time. Right now, I'm reading a history of World War II and Winifred Holtby's novel South Riding (1936), which will be dramatized on Masterpiece on public television in May. As for writing, at the moment I'm working on an adaptation—an abridgement and modernization—of Aeschylus's Oresteia, which will be performed at Carleton College in spring 2012.
In the winter, I cross-country ski. The rest of the year, I do a lot of walking. This summer, my wife and I are planning a trip to Scotland to walk the West Highland Way—96 miles over six days, followed by a walk up Ben Nevis, the highest peak in Great Britain. I don't much like flying on airplanes, but I love to travel.
I enjoy theatre and classical music concerts (especially the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra), and I love to cook and bake bread. I make excellent bagels. I also serve on a couple of non-profit boards and do other volunteer work in my community.
Curious about the rest of the Ultralingua staff? Check out our Staff and Editors page for more on who makes Ultralingua run.
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