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Latin vs. Russian | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Michael K. Senior Member United States Joined 5729 days ago 568 posts - 886 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Esperanto | Message 9 of 19 30 May 2012 at 2:26am | IP Logged | ||
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Thank you very much, Tanya. I appreciate your review.
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| Марк Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 5056 days ago 2096 posts - 2972 votes Speaks: Russian* | Message 10 of 19 30 May 2012 at 7:29am | IP Logged | ||
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Prepositions are probably a pain too.
latin syntax seems to be very complex, at least in written styles, prepositions are less used than in Russian and it is sometimes hard to guess what form means what. There are three verbal stems, in Russian - two. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Pisces Bilingual Pentaglot Senior Member Finland Joined 4622 days ago 143 posts - 284 votes Speaks: English*, Finnish*, French, SwedishC1, Esperanto Studies: German, Spanish, Russian | Message 11 of 19 30 May 2012 at 10:18am | IP Logged | ||
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I've tried learning Latin, and the difficulties for me mostly relate to its not being a spoken language:
1. Many of the cases and other word forms are hard to differentiate. It doesn't help that long vowels are usually not marked in texts. 2. I wanted to learn Latin mostly to read texts. The written styles (from the Empire, medieval Latin is easier) are very complicated. I could successfully read simple Russian texts long before I knew all the declensions, but to read in Latin you really need to know the grammar. 3. There are a lot of 'false friends'. There are a lot of words that look familiar, but that have a much more specific meaning in Latin. That said, I must admit I significantly underestimated the difficulty of Latin, so my methods were not systematic enough. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Марк Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 5056 days ago 2096 posts - 2972 votes Speaks: Russian* | Message 12 of 19 30 May 2012 at 10:40am | IP Logged | ||
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And it's hard to remeber words and constructions because you don't hear and pronounce
them. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4707 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 13 of 19 30 May 2012 at 11:30am | IP Logged | ||
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I've studied Latin for five years and now almost completed 9-10 months of Russian (of which 6 pretty seriously).
Both have their downsides and both rank among the most grammatically complex languages I've studied (which isn't saying much, because two of them are Dutch and English which have much simpler grammar, and French, which only has really annoying verb tenses, and y/en). When I compare the troubles I had between the two: Pronunciation Don't need to know this for Latin. Latin wins this one as Russian pronunciation is quite difficult (and I'm someone that usually has a decent grasp of pronunciation so I can make that statement). Verb tenses Latin has way more. Russian covers some of the distinctions by using aspect instead, which is tricky because verb aspect implies using a different verb (and which one to use isn't always clear, whereas in Latin you just conjugate it). I'll still give this to Russian though because Latin's moods, tenses, and voices are so numerous (and they're all used, even the subjunctives) that you really need to learn all of them. Ugh. Latin is a verbal nightmare. Make no mistake, Russian is not a walk in the park. Declensions They're similar, and almost equally difficult. I studied Latin in high school so I cannot recommend you any books, but the Assimil Russian course for English speakers is very good and I've been using it extensively. I have also used Teach Yourself but that's not as good. I recommend supplementing it with grammar exercises since both Assimil and TY skimp on practicing those Edited by tarvos on 30 May 2012 at 11:30am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Ogrim Heptaglot Senior Member France Joined 4639 days ago 991 posts - 1896 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, French, Romansh, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Catalan, Latin, Greek, Romanian | Message 14 of 19 30 May 2012 at 11:56am | IP Logged | ||
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I did 18 months of Latin intensively at University, and I am now studying Russian on my own. One of the things I found most difficult with Latin was word order. Especially when reading classical litterature, like Cicero, Ovid or Horats, I could spend hours making sense of a few sentences. It seems that Russian is easier in this respect (although I haven't reach the level where I can read classical litterature). On the other hand, the declensions with their many exceptions and the verb aspect is a bigger challenge in Russian.
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| Michael K. Senior Member United States Joined 5729 days ago 568 posts - 886 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Esperanto | Message 15 of 19 30 May 2012 at 1:40pm | IP Logged | ||
I remember seeing the quote that Russian is not a walk in the park, it's a walk through hell. Thanks to everyone who has contributed to this thread. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4707 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 16 of 19 30 May 2012 at 3:12pm | IP Logged | ||
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