The Vatican's Latinist (2017) • Hacker News Board

Re: The Vatican's Latinist (2017)

#71

Post by adrianN » Tue, Mar 25, 2025, 4:47 AM UTC

nkrisc wrote: post #58

mmooss wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How could you not gain that fluency after years? Every human naturally learns languages; you don't need a Ph.D. at all.

> Every human naturally learns languages ... in the first few years of life. Beyond that, it's an intentional, conscious and often challenging effort for many. Some people, even as adults, are far more adept at learning new languages than others. For the rest of us, it typically requires devotion to the subject for years.

Small children are devoted for years to learn the language. Being unable to communicate your basic needs is a strong motivator.

Re: The Vatican's Latinist (2017)

#72

Post by nkrisc » Tue, Mar 25, 2025, 7:35 AM UTC

adrianN wrote: post #71

nkrisc wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Every human naturally learns languages ... in the first few years of life. Beyond that, it's an intentional, conscious and often challenging effort for many. Some people, even as adults, are far more adept at learning new languages than others. For the rest of us, it typically requires devotion to the subject for years.

Small children are devoted for years to learn the language. Being unable to communicate your basic needs is a strong motivator.

Yes, though what I meant (though neglected to specify) was devoted, conscious study. Young children do not learn language the way adults typically do.

Re: The Vatican's Latinist (2017)

#73

Post by gorgonical » Wed, Mar 26, 2025, 3:40 PM UTC

Jun8 wrote: post #43

Who would be a person with similar competency in Ancient Greek living now?

I don't know but if you want to find out a good place to look is Luke Ranieri's Polymathy/ScorpioMartianus channels. He engages very actively with the Ancient Greek and Latin languages and his content is also useful for discovering other links.

The tl;dr with Ancient Greek as I understand it (warning) is that dramatically less content was written and over a much larger time period. Homer's works are even described as their own (Homeric) and as such it makes "Ancient Greek" a more nebulous term than "Latin," even when you account for Old/Classical/Late branches. In turn, making it in my estimation harder to have a Fr. Foster equivalent.

Look into it and let me know.