71–80 of 112 posts
Also Duolingo has had a latin course since some time, worth checking it out if you want to get a feel of latin.
Has anyone found good interactive resources for learning (Attic or Koine) Greek? I started self-studying (with Jones’ book and Great Courses online) and found that I liked the focus on real classical texts (as opposed to Ecce Romani) style. But ultimately it wanted to move too fast to grammatical completeness (banging out one conjugation after another). I felt I didn’t get enough practice or vocab, and interactive le…
If someone is interested in learning a new language for the hell of it, however your school days of learning that Caecilius was sitting in the garden fills you with dread, a really cool alternative is Lojban. It is a completely unambiguous language created by the Logical Language Group and has some pretty interesting elements that sit between software and non-computational linguistics. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L…
That is instead of two people learning some weird language why doesn't one of you learn the others and gain the whole world of people who speak that other language instead of a rare language where everyone speaks something else.
It's a pity English speakers are often taught the wrong (English based) pronunciation. For self study I also suggest reading Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata, it's a book completely written in Latin that gets progressively more complex and guides you through the language in an utilitarian way.
Really? Still? I was taught Latin many years ago by a very conservative teacher, who insisted on classical pronunciation rather than the anglicised version (so "mah-ter" rather than "may-ter" for mater, etc.)
I have been interested in learning Latin by self study, but memorizing conjugations and declinations seems like a chore. There are some modern variants of Latin that seems to simplify these aspects mainly Interlingua and Latine-sine-flexione(LSF). Are these worth while to learn?. For example if one is up to speed in LSF, can one still make sense of classical latin texts and poetry etc?.
I'd imagine it would depend on your goal. Do you want to be able to work your way through a text, or do you want to be able to appreciate poetry in the language? I'd say it might work for the former, it almost certainly wouldn't for the latter.
As an aside, I'd like to recommend to people the Cambridge Latin Course ( https://www.cambridgescp.com/ ) This was the course I followed learning Latin in school. Whilst it may be tailored more towards a school audience, much of the content of their books is available for free online, which includes lots of translation and vocabulary practice. The books and stories are all very light-hearted and fun and teach a lot a…
Thanks for the link to a great resource. I don't mean to detract in any way from any of the other terrific resources available online - free or otherwise. I created selfstudyclassics.com to scratch a very particular itch. When I started to re-learn Latin after many years, I was looking for something which was focused on examples and featured a lot of practice with instant feedback - something like Khan Academy, which…
It's a pity English speakers are often taught the wrong (English based) pronunciation. For self study I also suggest reading Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata, it's a book completely written in Latin that gets progressively more complex and guides you through the language in an utilitarian way.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not knowing Latin myself, I would imagine that learning Latin could also be a stepping stone to more thoroughly understand other related languages?
The written form, maybe, but the spoken form not likely. The Youtuber Ecolinguist ran an experiment where he had Romance language speakers (Spanish, Portuguese, Italian) try to guess at riddles in Latin. Turns out Classical Latin is actually very different from most Romance languages, which descended more from "Vulgar Latin". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C77anb2DJGk
It's a pity English speakers are often taught the wrong (English based) pronunciation. For self study I also suggest reading Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata, it's a book completely written in Latin that gets progressively more complex and guides you through the language in an utilitarian way.
> It's a pity English speakers are often taught the wrong (English based) pronunciation. Really? Still? I was taught Latin many years ago by a very conservative teacher, who insisted on classical pronunciation rather than the anglicised version (so "mah-ter" rather than "may-ter" for mater , etc.)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
One of my Latin teachers (the one who was under 60) did try to teach us a proper pronuncation once, but quickly gave up. But i wonder, what is the point? I think the use cases for Latin are, from most to least important: 1. reading Latin texts 2. casually dropping Latin phrases to impress your friends and intimidate your enemies 3. writing Latin mottoes, naming species, etc 4. listening to that Finnish radio station…
> One of my Latin teachers did try to teach us a proper pronuncation once, but quickly gave up. Basically what happens in Europe when students need to learn English pronunciation, but no way to give up. > But i wonder, what is the point? By learning Latin you multiply the speed at which you learn romance languages, which will allow you to understand and communicate with a much larger share of the world. Moreover, but…
As someone else said, you can just as well learn a Romance language and you'll have the same benefit when learning a second. My grandfather's first language was an obscure French dialect, and he's able to communicate with Mexican Spanish speakers without much trouble.
> Moreover, but this is a personal sidenote: why do people outside of the Anglosphere need to learn how to speak perfect English (and get the usual banter about pronunciation not being spotless), while the Anglosphere generally doesn't bother returning the favour (while at the same time complaining about being treated as uneducated, rude gringos)
I don't know if this holds true elsewhere in the Anglosphere, but in my experience Americans who are interested in learning foreign languages are generally eager to perfect their pronunciation (whether or not they succeed is another question entirely, though to be fair the same is true about most English learners). That "uneducated, rude gringos" are a long-standing negative trope in popular American media reflects this insecurity. And with regard to classical languages in particular, the Anglosphere has been mocked for reviving 'spotless' classical pronunciations instead of simply using, for example, modern Italian or Greek pronunciation.