And then there's the traditional English pronunciation, which assumes that Latin is pronounced more or less the same as English: e.g., mater is made to rhyme with "later".
Church latin was the working language of the catholic church. Services switched to Latin (from Greek) around 200, but as the church spread through Europe and the middle east, services were often in vernacular. Since this led to a lot of local interpretation and variance (many -- perhaps most? -- priests were illiterate at the time) by 1000, I believe, the popes started insisting that the priests use Latin and turn their back on the audience.
I didn't know this exists. Funny how reading all this Latin instills a feeling of home. Have I been a Roman in a previous life? But then, I'm not a believer in reincarnation.
I do wonder about a "global Latin community", though. My personal experience with Latin "speakers" has been tinged by an atmosphere of Elitism. Not just about knowing the language, but the whole curriculum of literature. A bit like when you're thrown into a club of people quoting Star Wars all the time, just a bit more high-falutin'. Comes with centuries of "classical education" being a hallmark of upper class schooling. Compare that with the basic concept of languages like Esperanto...
[1]: https://www.amazon.com/Lingua-Latina-Illustrata-Pars-Familia...
That said, it can be difficult at times, especially around Chapter 16. I would recommend picking up a copy of Wheelock's* as well, which is much more focused on grammar and structure. You might want to either go through Wheelock's and LL together, or tackle Wheelock's first and then LL second.
This question is basically just "what's the verb for 'rain'?". The syntax is exactly what you'd expect.
As it happens, the word is very well documented ( http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%... ), but it's not obvious that your TA should have been reading about rain. You know the words you use frequently.
If you asked someone who specialized in the Eleusinian mysteries, which involved the command "rain!" given to the sky by the participants, they would have had no trouble telling you how to say "it's raining". If you asked someone who had been reading the Iliad, they'd be able to tell you all kinds of words for spears, fighting, armor, walls, and viscera, but rain might not come up as frequently.
This sounds absurd. At my high school‡ Latin and Greek were living languages, and we studied them, as we studied French, as a way of reading literature and understanding a culture distant yet related to ours. Unless you were an actual linguist, what would be the point of studying a language without using it?
‡ which was, I admit, a "Latin School"
The implication that Shakspear spoke in meter feels false. Poets rhyme for amusement, but can also just "say" pass the salt and mean it non-ironically.
You can ask for the nearest coffee shop in Latin without using ciceronian style, and its good latin. Spending the mental energy to think it may be going beyond the pale.
