/lit/ - Literature

*I am

>>19749414
>BEST LANGUAGES
UH, EXCUSE ME CHUDDY. THERE"S NO SUCH THING AS A HECKIN' BEST LANGUAGE. THAT"S A HECKIN' UNWHOLESOME RACISMERINO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WE ALL SPEAK ONE HECKIN' LANGUAGE: THE HUMAN RACE. CHUDDIES WILL COPE AND SEETHE BELOW.

>>19749414
Latin -> Italian/French/Spanish is the best bang for your buck

>>19749414
Greek, Latin, German, French, possibly Hebrew

>>19749414
>What are the best languages to learn in order to read fiction and poetry?
Japanese (German being second)

>>19749414
The three main latin language (italian, french, spanish), german and russian
that's about it.
>>19749535
>>19749539
>Hebrew
>Japanese
none of those languages have any relevant literature.

>>19749545
>>Hebrew
>no relevant literature
UH, EXCUSE ME CHUDDY, BUT YOU JUST DONE A HECKIN ANTISEMITIERONO. DO BETTER, SWEATY. CHUDSTERS WILL COPE AND SEETHE BELOW.

>>19749545
Japanese has great poetry

>>19749545
Hebrew is a quasi magical language: esoteric, alchemic

>>19749545
The only reason most people would list those two languages is because of the Bible and anime

>>19749545
>>19749510
Is spanish worth learning?
I can't think of many authors that are universally regarded as greats

>>19749561
Spanish is worth learning in the sense that you won't ever need to read in another language ever again. There are a bunch of great classics and also if you want to read something else then you can just read a translation to spanish.

>>19749414
Scottish Gaelic has the best poetry.
Maybe Irish Gaelic has good things but I can't read that so no comment.

>>19749578
Any examples?

>>19749550
this
>>19749561
bait?

>>19749561
>>19749578
>Is spanish worth learning?
Spanish is worthy reading even for practical reasons.
In my life I've had more opportunities of speaking spanish than english.
And you'll get some lit/ kino as a combo.

Depends on w hat you w ant to read as all languages have their own mission delegated to them at the time of creation. If you feel the language calling for you, you know that you are part of that mission.

>>19750150
And if you are just doing it just to learn, don't bother. Or do, but don't imagine you'll ever assist the mission by dabbling in grammar books and funny reading.

>>19749420
No natural language is objectively better than another, but depending on what you're looking for there are certainly some you'd be better advised to learn.

>>19750392
Well that isn't accurate at all. Certain languages develop the mind better than ofhdsy

>>19749654
You can read Scottish Gaelic but not Irish Gaelic? Isn't it easy enough to adjust to one once you know the other.

>>19750402
That is nonsense. Literally ask any actual linguist.

>>19749414
Unironically, Classical Chinese. There are endless oceans of good literature in it; I've heard it estimated that at some point in time half the books in the world were in it.

>>19750447
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/a-neuroscientist-explores-the-sanskrit-effect/

>>19750490
Without a direct comparison to other languages that seems pretty meaningless.

>>19749561
Spanish has tons of great literature, including novels, short stories and poetry, regarded as great worldwide. Who are you basing your opinions on? /lit/?

>>19749809
Start with Gabriel García Márquez my guy

>>19749414
English, French, and Latin are the most important literary languages. Italian and Greek are good too. But really if your interest is poetry, you should be learning French immediately. It's perhaps the most important poetic language of all time.

>>19751828
The most important poetic language of all time? When Classical Chinese exists?

>>19750150
I really like this post
>>19749831
Fairly sure this thread is all about ignoring the practical reasons

When people say that Spanish is worth learning and that it has a lot of literature worth reading, is there essentially only one form of Spanish which I'd need to learn in order to understand it all?
What about German? If I learn modern German will I be able to understand the majority of German literature with the exception of perhaps archaic terms?
Are there any languages I should be aware of which have a canon which is particularly difficult in terms of archaic vocabulary and maybe a different morphology?

bump

>>19751957
Lol

>>19751957
I'm Chinese but I'm never learning Chinese
Fuck Chinese, my parents didn't want me to learn Chinese nor teach me to read and so fuck Chinese
I'm learning Latin instead

>>19751957
Chinese is dog shit

>>19752342
Huge oversimplification, but out of all the modern Spanish dialects, Mexican Spanish has drifted the least from colonial empire Spanish so learning it is the best bet for unlocking the entire Spanish speaking world. Also helps that Mexico is by far the most populous Spanish speaking country. Spanish dialects can vary about as much as the Scandinavian languages do though, which is quite a bit

>>19754944
Ah right, sorry I was talking more about time rather than location
I hoped that dialects would have been minimised in the language of the great spanish authors though

>>19754944
All this is completely false and inaccurate

>>19749414
For truly great poetry:
-Georgian
-Old Irish and Modern Scots Gaelic
-Siberian Turkic

>>19749414
The actual answer is Latin -> Italian, Spanish and French.
It is one the most efficient path in terms of hours needed per literature quality, you will have literally several lifetimes worth of masterpieces in every possible lit genre. It is also the best in terms of actual usefullness for your life both in America and Europe.
Other good options, but less efficient in terms of actual study hours needed are Ancient Greek, Sanskrit, Farsi, German and Russian in order of quality lit.
MSA -> Classical Arabic, Japanese -> Classical and Mandarin -> Classical are great but extremely cost intensive so I would only get there if you have some strong interest in those cultures (ie not anime).
Just stop wasting time and get to it. Assuming you are in your 20s you could be reading fluently in 5 of those languages by the time you are in your 40s, still relatively young and with plenty of time to enjoy literature and travel.

>>19750440
No they are totally different
Poetry definitely cant work since there are large phonetic differences

>>19750489
This is my dream but i do struggle with finding good resources to teach myself, as the vast majority of content is about modern day mandarin. Have any resources to share?

>>19754155
Your parents sound like westernized liberal fags. Im sorry that you and your family had turned their backs on the motherland.

>>19755231
>by the time you are in your 40s
most anons won't live that long though

>>19750490
>trusting americans in any matter related to languages
Ngmi