FAQ

As of 2021-06-01, the content of Ludus Mobilis should not be offensive, but it is not intended for very young children, despite the use of toys for illustration. Parents, caregivers, teachers, and tutors should always preview the content before sharing it with children.

There are no ads on the site itself, but learners under 18 should be supervised since there are links to external resources (such as quizlet.com).

My name is Ivy and I am the sole creator and maintainer of Ludus Mobilis. I have a PhD in Classics (Classical Languages and Linguistics track) and have been teaching Latin for many years. Ludus Mobilis is a side project and currently unrelated to my actual teaching. For that reason, updates may be quite slow.

You may have noticed that Ludus Mobilis is ad-free. I dislike ads and tracking so much, that I personally pay for the web-hosting, props, and other costs associated with maintaining the site. If you would like to support this work and keep the site free of ads, please consider making a donation.

No; I am completely unaffiliated with Playmobil. I loved their toys as a child and rediscovered them in about 2014 when working on demonstrations of software to support language teaching.

Essentially, yes. I try to follow attested classical usage (ca. 2nd century BCE to 2nd century CE), although some words may be used as they were in the medieval period or later; the Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources is an amazing resource (DMLBS is available at https://logeion.uchicago.edu). But because the alternate-reality world of Ludus Mobilis is similar to 19th-century England in terms of industry and technology, the use of neo-Latin vocabulary is not extensive.

This site is experimental and encourages learners to try to understand Latin through the images. Everyone learns their first language by associating words with objects and ideas, not by translation into another language. I also want the site to be usable by as many people as possible, regardless of their other languages. Each lesson does include a link to a Quizlet set with English definitions.

Learning a language and learning grammatical terminology to describe the language are two different things: for example, the concept of “one” vs “more than one” can be understood without knowing the terms “singular” and “plural.”

My original aim was to make at least the most basic concepts clear solely through the Latin and the images. I still hope that it is possible for learners to understand the early lessons without explicit grammatical explanation. But I have begun to add a “grammatica” section to each lesson, as a way to draw learners’ attention to patterns in the language, to help associate related words and forms, and (yes) to introduce grammatical terminology.

The terminology, however, is also in Latin (in keeping with the goal of making the site useful beyond the Anglophone world). But because most of the English terms are directly taken from the Latin (e.g. “nominative case” < cāsus nōminātīvus), it should not be difficult for English speakers to find more information in English about any concept in a reference grammar or textbook.

I am essentially using what is called “restored” or “Erasmian” (rather than Ecclesiastical) pronunciation, but with the accent of an American who is not very concerned with pronunciation. I primarily approach Latin as a language to be read, but most people do learn second languages better by associating sound with spelling, so I have included audio as a rough guide, not as a model to emulate. If you want to hear Latin spoken much better than I can, look for Luke Ranieri (Scorpio Martianus) or Irene Regini (Satura Lanx), among many others.

No, Ludus Mobilis does not follow a particular curriculum or textbook. I had actually begun the project with the intent of aligning fairly closely with a textbook, but realized that doing so would be too limiting and not allow me to implement the pedagogy that I wanted to try. Aligning with a specific textbook would make the site more immediately accessible for some users, but much less so for many other learners. Ludus Mobilis therefore follows its own sequence of presenting grammatical topics and vocabulary.

The main setting and story of Ludus Mobilis is not historical. It is an alternate-reality version of England, inspired by the idea that the Roman invaders maintained a much longer hold over Britannia than they actually did. Of course, even if that had happened, the language spoken would not be as close to classical Latin as the language of the Ludus Mobilis world. It would have developed into a Romance language, like Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, French, etc. Verulamium, however, where our story takes place, was a real Roman town; the remains of it can be seen near the modern city of St. Albans, Hertfordshire, UK.

No, these figures are Playmobil (also known as “Klickies”), as are most of the props.

Playmobil figures are taller than Lego and are not modular; very few parts of the people themselves can be easily removed (mostly just hair/beards), but hats/headwear, jewelry, and some clothing items can be easily changed. In the image below, the Playmobil garland and white toga can be removed.

Some props used on this site are made from Lego bricks (or other materials), but Playmobil props are generally more realistic, although much harder to customize.

I inherited some from a friend’s children. Others were purchased, either from the official Playmobil online store or from various eBay sellers. Almost all the figures have been customized in some way.

If you are seeing a white bar, it is probably because you have an ad blocker (content blocker) enabled. That bar is not an ad; it is the required cookie notification.

Ludus Mobilis is not supported by ads, so you can turn off your ad blocker. If you would like to support this work, you can buy me a coffee.