altyfc Posted January 6, 2004 Report Share Posted January 6, 2004 Just wondered how many of you here had to endure Latin and Greek in your school days. I had to. Actually, I quite enjoyed Greek (Latin less so), but now looking back especially, I have no regrets whatsoever. Although my knowledge isn't great, I truly feel it gives us a much better insight into the English language and how it works. I like to know quirky things like the origin of the words 'hippopotamus' or 'rhododendron' but without this early grounding I would be unlikely to have this appreciation. Would you agree? Aaron Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jugurtha Posted January 6, 2004 Report Share Posted January 6, 2004 I'll meet you halfway there. I had some close encounters with Latin and Greek myself in my school years, and like you I was more partial to Greek than Latin. At that age however a lot depends on what kind of teacher you have. Later on I studied Germanic philology and to be honest the Latin doesn't make a huge difference really when it comes to English. I think you make it a lot easier for yourself if you start your comparison with the battle of Hastings and study the influence of the French language, which as you know belongs to the Romance language stock and thus is heir to Latin. The relation French-English is a much stronger one just because they are closer in time. That way some knowledge of French can actually help you quite a bit when you learn English. The real influence of Latin (and Greek) on any western language came much later, in my humble opinion, with the coming of the renaissance and classicism and once again when the industrial revolution kicked in and people needed new words for new appliances. Latin and Greek do become important however when you start digging into the indo-European language tree and start jumping from branch to branch. I love comparative linguistics but the further you dig into it, the more you realise we aren't there yet. One very interesting thing for instance is the fact that the Latin we know wasn't really the Latin people spoke, thus it is probably not the kind of Latin that influenced other languages. That's what makes it so hard to evaluate to what extent a language is tributary to Latin or any language that crossed its road. - JUG Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Viggen Posted July 22, 2004 Report Share Posted July 22, 2004 Some say romanian is the closest surviving language to latin, actually strange that surrounded by slavic languages this languages survived all those years... cheers viggen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ursus Posted July 22, 2004 Report Share Posted July 22, 2004 I would have loved to have "suffered" through Latin and Greek, but it wasn't part of my education. I think in the US, that is increasingly a rarer course of study - except maybe for religious schools or upper class schools. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valens Posted July 22, 2004 Report Share Posted July 22, 2004 I would have loved to have "suffered" through Latin and Greek, but it wasn't part of my education. I think in the US, that is increasingly a rarer course of study - except maybe for religious schools or upper class schools. That's odd, the two High School's in my county(these all being in Tnnessee) surrounding counties all offer Latin(two of these schools being only 3A). In fact, we have Latin translation competitions. However, I chose to take Spanish instead of Latin. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ursus Posted July 22, 2004 Report Share Posted July 22, 2004 Well, the US having a highly decentralized education system, I suppose there will be dramatic differences from region to region. But I don't know of any public schools in a considerable radius that teach Latin or Greek. Spanish is the language of choice, sometimes French. Once in a great while, German. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ursus Posted August 23, 2004 Report Share Posted August 23, 2004 Can anyone actually recommend me some good textbooks for self-study in either Latin or Greek? I've tried using "Wheelock's Latin" but not very successfully. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Viggen Posted August 23, 2004 Report Share Posted August 23, 2004 Try this one, bit unusual but probably the funniest way to learn latin Latin for Dummies Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pompeius magnus Posted August 25, 2004 Report Share Posted August 25, 2004 Us Americans live in a society where cultural diversity is stressed, yet learning many different languages at an early age is not, hense some of the discrepensies with learning languages latter in life. I just started Latin and am 21 years old. It is a lot more complex as far as the different endings go, a lot more complex than the French I had in high school, yet it is not too bad after you learn some of the patterns. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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