Latin

[Gunnhvatr]

Do any of you know latin?  I've recently begun attempting to learn it, just for fun.

[dazed and confused]

memento mori

[Culain]

I've learned a little bit of the structure of Latin from spending a few years in the medical field and I found that it really helps me break down a lot of english terms. English is a compilation of various languages with many of its roots in Latin or ancient Greek, language is the most powerful tool in the world and learning another language will help you develop defenses against sophist attacks.

[Magnus]

I've been doing the same for a few years. I have an older version of Rosetta Stone that I enjoy, but there is a ton of free resources online. I bought the Wheelock book, but it just sits on the shelf gathering dust.

 

How are you approaching it?

[Withanametocome]

Do any of you know latin?  I've recently begun attempting to learn it, just for fun.

 

'Just for fun' is the paradigm of failed language learning. Plus, a language that has Virgil, Ovid, Plautus, Catullus, and many other illustrious us-ended names, you want to learn 'just for fun'?

 

 

How are you approaching it?

 

Why would you want to learn it for? I will gladly give you advice, but to do so properly I think important that you share your goals with Latin with us!

 

 

Regards.

[Gunnhvatr]

I've been doing the same for a few years. I have an older version of Rosetta Stone that I enjoy, but there is a ton of free resources online. I bought the Wheelock book, but it just sits on the shelf gathering dust.How are you approaching it?

 

I've got Rosetta Stone and some of the Cambridge Latin Course work.  Part of the reason I posted was to hear if any of you know any better ways of which I am not yet aware.

 

 

'Just for fun' is the paradigm of failed language learning. Plus, a language that has Virgil, Ovid, Plautus, Catullus, and many other illustrious us-ended names, you want to learn 'just for fun'?

 

 

 

Why would you want to learn it for? I will gladly give you advice, but to do so properly I think important that you share your goals with Latin with us!

 

 

Regards.

 

You don't sound like very much fun.  I mean that I do not expect to earn extra income or meet any utilitarian goals with this.  People frown on learning a dead language when you can pick up a living one, don't they? 

I want to learn a second language and I have fancied latin for a long time and been interested in etymology.

[Withanametocome]

You don't sound like very much fun.

 

Because it's no fun that most people who begin learning a language fail somewhere along the way; still I thought it's worth having in mind, specially if you want to be among those who walk the whole way through.

 

 

 

People frown on learning a dead language when you can pick up a living one, don't they?

 

Dunno, sorry, I don't pay attention to them, for I am too busy learning languages.

 

 

I want to learn a second language and I have fancied latin for a long time and been interested in etymology.

 

Assimil has a recent 'Latin sans peine' (written by Isabelle Ducos-Filippi) that has an etymology fetish, and which I overall recommend (although I can't attest to the English version, since I haven't read that one...).

 

Then there is always the Wiktionary, with <17.000 entrances in this list:

 

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Category:English_terms_derived_from_Latin

 

...that I bet will keep you entertained for a noon or two. And Tuft's Perseus as well, with word statistics, morphology and classical usage examples.

 

Also, the Vatican Radio has a program with the former Papal Latinist, Cardinal Reginald Forster, so badass.

 

Youtube's 'Worlds of the World' has as well some nice etymological explanations, just search for the Latinates and grab the popcorn.

 

Additionally, asking in the NOVA ROMA forum and joining the community doesn't hurt either.

 

And I still feel like I am forgetting something important... In a few days I will have access to my Latin resources' stash, and I could then search more closely if you wish me to.

 

 

Regards,

Withanametocome

[Gunnhvatr]

Because it's no fun that most people who begin learning a language fail somewhere along the way; still I thought it's worth having in mind, specially if you want to be among those who walk the whole way through.

 

Cheers for the resources!  I heard reference to some Finnish radio station or program that is done in latin, I have not looked into that.

Well if I stop before I am well versed by some standard I don't think I will consider that a failure.  Because it means it is no longer doing anything for me as a hobby, right?  It could be that I look at another language and decide it is both more useful and more fun to learn that.

[Withanametocome]

Cheers for the resources!  I heard reference to some Finnish radio station or program that is done in latin, I have not looked into that.

 

Of course, all the girls are talking about it! Here's the podcast:

 

http://areena.yle.fi/radio/2178991

 

And here the glossaries:

 

http://oppiminen.yle.fi/kielet-kulttuurit-piilotetut/latina/nuntii-latini?ref=leiki-op

 

 

 

Well if I stop before I am well versed by some standard I don't think I will consider that a failure.  Because it means it is no longer doing anything for me as a hobby, right?  It could be that I look at another language and decide it is both more useful and more fun to learn that.

 

Sure: while taunting in the dark anything you find somehow helps.

[Magnus]

I've got Rosetta Stone and some of the Cambridge Latin Course work.  Part of the reason I posted was to hear if any of you know any better ways of which I am not yet aware.

 

 

 

I don't like the usual grammar books, like Wheelock or Cambridge or the others.  No one teaches modern languages that way. 

 

My hands-down all-time No. 1 recommendation is the Hans Orberg series of books, Lingua Latina per se Illustrata (Pars I et II).  It's entirely in Latin.  It begins by presenting basic information to you as you would a child -- "Sardinia is an island.  Rome is a large city in Italy.  Sparta is a Greek city." 

 

You learn by figuring out what the illustrations and passages are about, so you get a dose of grammar and prose application all at once, without ever learning by rote.  It's truly great.  (The series also has a College Companion grammar guide by Jeanne Marie Neumann, which explains the main text in a more conventional rule-based way, but I didn't have to use the Companion all that much.)

 

I also enjoy readers, like 38 Latin Stories, or the Latin versions of The Hobbit or Harry Potter. 

 

I also sometimes listen to the YLE Radio, linked above.  And occasionally read Radio Bremen's Latin news page.  There are some interesting apps at www.RomansGoHome.com, but I haven't tried them yet. 

 

 

 

Why would you want to learn it for? I will gladly give you advice, but to do so properly I think important that you share your goals with Latin with us!

 

 

I was a medieval history major in college, and always wanted to be able to read the source material.

 

My more recent motivation to learn Latin was to help me write a novel I've been working on (and have almost finished, I think).  It's a conspiracy thriller about a young man who joins an underground resistance movement that communicates and preserves its history in Latin.  I needed a basic proficiency in Latin to give the book some texture and depth. 

[Dylan Lawrence Moore]

As someone who failed to learn 3 different languages (Japanese, classical Greek, and Sanskrit) before finally managing to grasp one (German), the only thing I can say is muscle memory is everything. Teach yourself how to speak the words outloud without translating in your head, even if this involves repetition until you go nuts. If you ever want to know a language as more than something in your internal museum, you have to break that "gotta translate it in my head first" gap.

 

Unfortunately I figured this out after studying all those languages, but the best way to remember something is to make a stupid phrase in your own language (English, obviously in this case) that vaguely sounds like what you're trying to remember.

 

For example, I'm working with a girl from the Arapaho Native Tribe and I've been bugging her to teach me some of the language at work. I learned quickly that "Arapaho" is the English word for Hananetit--what the tribe calls themselves. I had a hell of a time remembering it and had to ask the girl several times when I finally took a second to figure out what sounds similar in English. After a few moments of pondering I came up with "Hand on a teat" and the word hasn't left my head since.

[Withanametocome]

I was a medieval history major in college, and always wanted to be able to read the source material.

 

My more recent motivation to learn Latin was to help me write a novel I've been working on (and have almost finished, I think).  It's a conspiracy thriller about a young man who joins an underground resistance movement that communicates and preserves its history in Latin.  I needed a basic proficiency in Latin to give the book some texture and depth. 

 

 

I see. Well, since you mentioned the Cambridge course, there is a videos series that deals with (and complements) that one:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=if4XZVFTK5A

 

Also, from the same guy, 'Learning Latin with Virgil', which is great if you do it with a notebook by your side and write down the Latin sentences while pronouncing them out loud WITHOUT looking at the screen:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfxK6fC2v6c

 

 

 

But I gather from the earlier part of your message that you are more advanced than that already. So, there is another channel that deals with intermediate grammar and Catullus' work (pronounced in the most elegant manner, no Late-Medieval Filo-Italian quacking):

 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC30yV4OSzNd_uDJ9c1OFXBg

 

 

Other than that, and if you want to get some serious traction, I would get some Latin audios of works you are already familiar with (the Gospels, Caesar, Cicero...) and listen to them regularly while pronouncing them at the same time: you will internalize the patterns, absorb a lot of vocabulary and succeed in your literary life*!

 

 

*This last step is not yet guaranteed by the FDIC.

[Sal9000]

I know Latin and Greek really well (I studied philology at Uni). I would start with easy stuff like Aesop's tales or Cesar. Be careful though: Cesar's latin has its own rules. If possible, get some Latin text with an English translation. Once you have mastered this, you can start reading the Vulgate (Latin Bible) or Sueton (Life of the Emperors). Don't start with Cicero unless you are really good at it. He certainly knew how to speak and how to construct some complicated sentences.

[Withanametocome]

I know Latin and Greek really well (I studied philology at Uni). I would start with easy stuff like Aesop's tales or Cesar. Be careful though: Cesar's latin has its own rules. If possible, get some Latin text with an English translation. Once you have mastered this, you can start reading the Vulgate (Latin Bible) or Sueton (Life of the Emperors). Don't start with Cicero unless you are really good at it. He certainly knew how to speak and how to construct some complicated sentences.

 

I don't have stats, but I would say Aesop has (nominative aside!) much more flection and hepax legomena than Caesar and, certainly, the Vulgate.

 

And yes, Cicero's speeches are top-notch verbal abuse (ie, 'complicated sentences'), although the bulk of his work remains correspondence, as nice and dandy for starters as Caesar's.

[Sal9000]

I don't have stats, but I would say Aesop has (nominative aside!) much more flection and hepax legomena than Caesar and, certainly, the Vulgate.

 

And yes, Cicero's speeches are top-notch verbal abuse (ie, 'complicated sentences'), although the bulk of his work remains correspondence, as nice and dandy for starters as Caesar's.

 

You are right with regards to Aesop. However, the hapax legomena don't complicate the story. And chances are high you already know the story. I have no clue if Cicero's letters are translated into English, but I guess some of them are. I told my students to have a good translation ready to check their translation if need be. Nice meetin another person interested in the Antiquities :Welcome:Vale!

[greekredemption]

I managed to study classics without really reaching anything approaching 'fluency' in latin, but I can work my way around inscriptions and burials. 

 

If you need someone to tell you how to say "the cook whips the slave" in a variety of tenses, I'm your man.