Do you think Latin & Greek are worth knowing in this day and age?

greg   Tuesday, March 29, 2005, 18:51 GMT
Latin grammar is perfect introduction to other European languages governed by declension systems : German, Dutch, Polish, Russian etc.

"Qui peut le plus, peut le moins" French proverb
Fredrik from Norway   Tuesday, March 29, 2005, 19:06 GMT
Greg:
Yeah, but Latin grammar is extremely complicated and not of much practical value when learning Romance (or other) languages.
Travis   Tuesday, March 29, 2005, 19:20 GMT
Well, if one's going to be learning German, but wants to learn a more case-heavy language beforehand, I'd probably suggest Icelandic, or if one doesn't care whether it's a living language per se, Old Norse, as it's case-heavy like Latin, but besides that, is much closer grammatically as a whole to German. Of course, though, Old Norse does not have nearly as much general currency as Latin, unless one's going to be studying pre-modern Scandinavia, or at least reading the Sagas and like; hence, if one isn't just going to be studying Germanic languages, Latin'd probably be a better idea in this department. However, on the other hand, Icelandic is a living language, albeit one not spoken by a terribly large population.
Ant_222   Tuesday, March 29, 2005, 19:25 GMT
I think the languages in question are very useful. A lot of fundamental works in medicine, physics, philosophy, mathematics were written in Greek and Latin (Aristotle, Euclidus, Heron, I. Newton, Hippocrates, ...) And they are certainly worth of reading in the original. As to me, I wish I knew the languages.
greg   Wednesday, March 30, 2005, 00:00 GMT
There are so many languages worth learning... And so little time ! Why not try Esperanto ? Its speaking base is said to be growing fast.
Sander   Wednesday, March 30, 2005, 13:13 GMT
Greg,

Esperanto....

I like a challenge,esperanto is just to easy.Not to mention emotionless.
JJM   Wednesday, March 30, 2005, 14:43 GMT
Well, here's a language whose "speaking base" is growing really fast: English.

I do think (Classical) Latin and (Ancient) Greek are still worth learning though I can't say they are absolutely necessary.*

Mind you, I cannot begin to understand how anyone could claim to be a classicist or classical scholar without a grounding in them - the idea of knowing the Greek plays or the Aeneid entirely from translation is rather pathetic.

Similarly, anyone interested in Romance linguistics would be more or less obliged to learn Latin to have any shred of professional credibility.

It's very true that knowledge of Latin grammar can give you an excellent background in grammatical theory. Conversely, it can also skew your perspective. A tremendous amount of English grammar "rules" and "conventions" are tosh based purely on the concept that, since Latin has a particular set of grammatical functions, English must too.

* Sad to think that no one would want to learn them for their own sake (Knowledge as an end in itself).
greg   Friday, April 01, 2005, 08:18 GMT
Sander : why do you think Esperanto could lack emotion ?
Sander   Friday, April 01, 2005, 12:29 GMT
greg,

Because its purely a fuctional language,it was made up by that german bloke to act as an international language.It lacks the emotion of "normal" languages.(?ever heard someone cry in esperanto?)
Cro Magnon   Friday, April 01, 2005, 12:44 GMT
I don't quite understand. How can a language lack emotion? As long as Esperanto has words for "love", "hate", and "F**k you", it can have emotion. As far as crying in Esperanto goes, the probable reason that is rare is because people, when upset, are more likely to fall back to their native tounge, and that's usually NOT Esperanto.
Sander   Friday, April 01, 2005, 13:31 GMT
=>I don't quite understand. How can a language lack emotion? As long as Esperanto has words for "love", "hate", and "F**k you", it can have emotion.<=

Its the way you say the words...by the way,Ive never heard about the emotion "Fuck you" ....
.   Friday, April 01, 2005, 13:36 GMT
Practice saying it to someone... you'll soon get a FEEL for the emotion.
Sander   Friday, April 01, 2005, 14:23 GMT
=>Practice saying it to someone... you'll soon get a FEEL for the emotion.<=

you can't practice what doesnt excist
Damian   Friday, April 01, 2005, 14:25 GMT
A knowledge of Latin is so useful in finding out the origin and roots of many everyday words in English, as well as many other European Languages. The same applies to Greek but to a lesser extent.
greg   Friday, April 01, 2005, 21:24 GMT
Sander : "It was made up by that german bloke".

Dr Zamenhof was a Pole - and a polyglot as many of his fellow citizens.