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What do you like about dead languages? | ||
Tags: Dead Languages | Reasons for study | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Zireael Triglot Senior Member Poland Joined 4651 days ago 518 posts - 636 votes  Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, Spanish Studies: German, Sign Language, Tok Pisin, Arabic (Yemeni), Old English | Message 17 of 30 21 August 2012 at 2:14pm | IP Logged | ||
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Are there any Old English readers? I had an OE course in uni and I'd be interested in continuing it on my own...
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| Qbe Tetraglot Senior Member United States joewright.org/var Joined 7135 days ago 289 posts - 335 votes Speaks: English*, Latin, Ancient Greek, Biblical Hebrew Studies: Japanese, German, Mandarin, Aramaic | Message 18 of 30 21 August 2012 at 5:45pm | IP Logged | ||
My old copy of Teach Yourself OE suggested Henry Sweet's "Anglo-Saxon Reader". Since it's out of copyright, you can obtain it easily. On my shelf I also have "The English Language: A Historical Reader" by A.G. Rigg, which has a fair amount of OE as well as more modern texts. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| boon Diglot Groupie Ireland Joined 6159 days ago 91 posts - 177 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: German, Mandarin, Latin | Message 19 of 30 21 August 2012 at 7:00pm | IP Logged | ||
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You never have to worry about talking to native speakers, unless you have access to a time machine.
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| darkwhispersdal Senior Member Wales Joined 6040 days ago 294 posts - 363 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Ancient Greek, French, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Mandarin, Japanese, Latin | Message 20 of 30 21 August 2012 at 8:19pm | IP Logged | ||
There is the Cambridge Old English Reader by Richard Marsden which is a nice book. It has a wide range of texts to study including the Battle of Maldon, proverbs, psalms etc. It's not too expensive either. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Coheed Triglot Newbie Canada Joined 4686 days ago 26 posts - 40 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish Studies: Romanian, Irish | Message 21 of 30 22 August 2012 at 5:19am | IP Logged | ||
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I'm a necrolinguaphile. Can't help it. It's a deviance.
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| eebeejay Newbie Canada Joined 4480 days ago 34 posts - 43 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Norwegian, Latin, French | Message 22 of 30 22 August 2012 at 5:45am | IP Logged | ||
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I'm going to second the points mentioned above that it is very refreshing to read the works of ancient writers in their own words and discover that they were every bit as human as we are.
Dead languages are also very useful for the study of history and other subjects. Both Latin and Greek were both used as languages of scholarship for a long period of time so some old texts can contain a lot of fascinating information. For example, another big interest of mine is gemstones. The writings of Theophrastus and Pliny the Elder are really illuminating in this regard. They wrote about a lot of systematic study of the properties of gemstones before the field was taken over by mysticism in the Middle Ages. Their works reveal a lot of great information about treatments, enhancements and techniques that enable one to identify and date artifacts. Edited by eebeejay on 22 August 2012 at 5:49am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5009 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 23 of 30 22 August 2012 at 9:46pm | IP Logged | ||
Yes, the chances someone will tease you for your accent are quite low. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5009 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 24 of 30 22 August 2012 at 9:50pm | IP Logged | ||
Yes, and Latin is still so alive in medicine. Today I bought some ressources in German. My German is weak but the Latin, which describes the images, is still the same so I can really use the ressources as designed (some flashcards and a colouring book :-) ) (And on the way, I will improve my German as a sideeffect) 1 person has voted this message useful |
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