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Latin or Greek? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| MixedUpCody Senior Member United States Joined 5065 days ago 144 posts - 280 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin | Message 1 of 11 13 June 2013 at 5:25am | IP Logged | ||
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Hey all,
The class I was planning on taking next school year got cancelled, so I have a random spot to fill, and I've decided to take Latin or Greek. I have no real preference and they were both on my hit list anyway. I know language selection is highly personal and their are good reasons for both language, I was just curious if people had any good things to say about either language that might sway me. Cody Edited by Fasulye on 19 June 2013 at 11:19am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| renaissancemedi Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Greece Joined 4167 days ago 941 posts - 1309 votes Speaks: Greek*, Ancient Greek*, EnglishC2 Studies: French, Russian, Turkish, Modern Hebrew | Message 2 of 11 13 June 2013 at 7:35am | IP Logged | ||
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It depends on your interests I guess, but if you have no real preference I'd say Latin. Chances are you will find it easier than Greek.
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| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4698 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 3 of 11 13 June 2013 at 7:54am | IP Logged | ||
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Latin. It's much more manageable.
I'm working on Greek on my own right now, and the sheer amount of tenses, cases, and moods is overwhelming. I am taking it nice and slow and at my own pace. I think I would hate Greek passionately if I had to memorize all these charts for an exam. Edited by kanewai on 13 June 2013 at 7:54am 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| akkadboy Triglot Senior Member France Joined 5217 days ago 264 posts - 497 votes Speaks: French*, English, Yiddish Studies: Latin, Ancient Egyptian, Welsh | Message 4 of 11 13 June 2013 at 8:15am | IP Logged | ||
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If you planned to study both, this may not matter but what really made push my Latin studies further than my Ancient Greek was the enormous amount of medieval, Renaissance and modern Latin works.
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| MixedUpCody Senior Member United States Joined 5065 days ago 144 posts - 280 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin | Message 5 of 11 13 June 2013 at 8:18am | IP Logged | ||
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I really appreciate the answers, everyone. Thank you.
Cody 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Γρηγόρη Tetraglot Groupie United States Joined 4264 days ago 55 posts - 154 votes Speaks: English*, Greek, Latin, Ancient Greek Studies: German, French, Russian | Message 6 of 11 13 June 2013 at 5:33pm | IP Logged | ||
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I would give the opposite advice. Because Greek is more difficult, it makes sense to me (who teach Greek and Latin
at the college level) to take it in a class setting with someone who can walk you through the difficult parts. It will be a much greater challenge to teach yourself Greek than it would to teach yourself Latin. Also, there will be plenty of grammatical overlap between the two, so learning Greek first gets the more difficult task out of the way and makes the next task easier.
To be fair, there is also an enormous number of Greek works written throughout the Byzantine period and after. You could spend your whole life reading post-classical Greek and never run out of things to read. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| ScottScheule Diglot Senior Member United States scheule.blogspot.com Joined 5037 days ago 645 posts - 1176 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Latin, Hungarian, Biblical Hebrew, Old English, Russian, Swedish, German, Italian, French | Message 7 of 11 13 June 2013 at 5:45pm | IP Logged | ||
Is the situation analogous? There are differences between Medieval Latin and Classic Latin, but if you learn the latter you can understand the former without any trouble. Is that the same situation with different ages of Greek? If you learn Koine or Ancient, will Medieval Greek be similarly accessible? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Lykeio Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4053 days ago 120 posts - 357 votes | Message 8 of 11 13 June 2013 at 5:56pm | IP Logged | ||
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The problem is what do you wish to read? In most cases you'll find Greek easier and
from a Classicists pov its much easier to get competent Greek readers and scholars than Latinists. Latin syntax alone can be a bitch in most cases, let alone the wider literary problems. Generally, its ideal to start with Greek. People get confused by the language in the grammar books, morphological endings and whatnot are always the easy bit. You have to view the language in action. Don't be put off by that, just allot enough time to it, and actually distinctive moods ktl are a blessing. That being said the support materials for Latin on a non academic level are much more widespread, whereas I'm seriously having trouble thinking of good treatments of Greek lexicography, semantics, syntaxis and stylistics outside of the big hitters. Either way pick one and stick to it, remember to review frequently and choose your early battles wisely. You're not going to jump from Wheelock's to Senecan Tragedy or Athenaze to middle Attic comic fragments.
Yes due to Atticising tendencies, though one can spot "mistakes" where the vernacular has slipped through. Not to mention the influence of the bible and hagiography. What vernacular literature we have from the middle ages is much coddled due to its usefulness for linguistics. Edited by Lykeio on 13 June 2013 at 5:58pm 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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