|
 |
Latin and Ancient Greek - worth learning? | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| rippletoad Newbie United States Joined 4863 days ago 5 posts - 8 votes | Message 1 of 6 01 January 2012 at 4:05am | IP Logged |
|
Are most documents in those languages already translated to English? I think I would enjoy reading those two languages, especially about Roman history, but if all the Roman history documents are in English already, I think the purpose of learning them would be greatly diminished.
2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| yawn Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 5427 days ago 141 posts - 209 votes  Speaks: English*, Mandarin*, FrenchC2, SpanishC2 Studies: GermanB1 | Message 2 of 6 01 January 2012 at 7:51am | IP Logged |
|
It ultimately depends on your goals. For me, Latin and Ancient Greek are of interest because of religious reasons. As a Christian, it is my desire as a believer to be able to read the New Testament in its original language (though I'm aware that the Greek used in it is actually koine Greek and not truly Ancient Greek), as well as know more about the history of the Christian church (which would be where Latin comes in handy). There are also philological reasons motivating me to learn them - many Indo-European languages borrow so heavily from Latin/Greek that it would be interesting to see where they were all derived from.
You cited Roman history as one reason, but remember: even if all the documents have been translated into English at this point, it is still intellectually satisfying to be able to read and understand them in their original language. ;) There are truly some elements/nuances that get lost in translation and thus end up in the words losing some of their power. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| darkwhispersdal Senior Member Wales Joined 6041 days ago 294 posts - 363 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Ancient Greek, French, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Mandarin, Japanese, Latin | Message 3 of 6 01 January 2012 at 2:22pm | IP Logged |
|
They are an excellent way to understand your own language and a great entry into learning other languages. My study of Russian has improved massively from learning Ancient Greek I understand the case system better.
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| akkadboy Triglot Senior Member France Joined 5409 days ago 264 posts - 497 votes Speaks: French*, English, Yiddish Studies: Latin, Ancient Egyptian, Welsh | Message 4 of 6 01 January 2012 at 10:25pm | IP Logged |
|
As far as I know, the "classical" (i. e. 5th cent. BC/5th cent. AD) authors are available in English but the vast majority of medieval/Renaissance Latin and Greek authors remain untranslated.
And even if all these texts were translated, it would be much more enjoyable to read them in Latin/Greek. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| sipes23 Diglot Senior Member United States pluteopleno.com/wprs Joined 4871 days ago 134 posts - 235 votes Speaks: English*, Latin Studies: Spanish, Ancient Greek, Persian | Message 5 of 6 03 January 2012 at 1:18am | IP Logged |
|
If you consider that the greatest hits are translated and the one-hit wonders aren't, you might have a handle on the
situation. That said, there is no shortage of wondrous stuff written in Latin, and there's really a pleasure in reading the lesser- known stuff. And of course, a certain something is lost in translation. Latin poetry seems to suffer quite a bit in my opinion. Greek literature is a blast in Greek. I read somewhere that if you like the classics in translation, you'll love them in the original. I can vouch for the truth of that. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| tokenrove Diglot Newbie Canada cipht.netRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4722 days ago 2 posts - 2 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German, Swedish, Mandarin, Japanese, Latin | Message 6 of 6 08 January 2012 at 3:56am | IP Logged |
|
Also, while learning Latin, I was shocked to discover how bowdlerized many translations
(especially stuff like Martial) were. There's no substitute for reading the original, especially in the case of these "dead" languages. 1 person has voted this message useful |
If you wish to post a reply to this topic you must first login. If you are not already registered you must first register
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
