Ancient language learning thread

[Anonymous No.17366307]

For those who are learning ancient languages, what are you studying and what are your goals? I spent last year perfecting my Latin and this year I'd like to do the same with Greek.

[Anonymous No.17366330]

>>17366307
>Welcome to /his/.
>This board is dedicated to the discussion of history and the other humanities such as philosophy, religion, law, classical artwork, archeology, anthropology, ancient languages, etc. Please use /lit/ for discussions of literature. Threads should be about specific topics, and the creation of "general" threads is discouraged.

[Anonymous No.17366356]

>>17366307
I’m learning Latin because I’m interested in both Medieval and Classical history, but more Medieval really. As of right now, I can struggle through some authors (many Medieval authors are easier than Cicero or Livy, for example), but I’m really looking forward to using this year to expand my vocabulary and just overall improve my reading and writing skills.

[Anonymous No.17366529]

>>17366330
lmao gonna cry fag?

[Anonymous No.17366555]

>>17366307
Old Norse
It seemed cool

[Anonymous No.17367102]

I've practiced laryngeal consonant pronunciation to recite Semitic languages more authentically. Not really aiming to be fluent though but more as a hobby.

[Anonymous No.17367124]

>>17367102
I'd like to learn Babylonian but I can't justify it. I told my friends and they laughed at me and called me a retard. Perhaps they are right.

[Anonymous No.17367582]

If I wanted to learn Latin, where do I start? I don't really trust Googling this because I'll most likely get Jews shilling their own courses and I'd rather trust your guys' opinions.

[Anonymous No.17367593]

>latin and greek.
ive become decent at latin but only recently started with greek and am having a hard time. Does anyone have some personal tips?

[Anonymous No.17367597]

>>17367582
Copy grammar tables for a year and then read Caesar. You have to do the tables. Everything else is a scam.

[Anonymous No.17367711]

>>17366330

[Anonymous No.17367818]

>>17367582
there are two books passed around here and on the internet.
one of them is Wheelock's Latin. THe other is Latina Familia or something like that, modern language learning book all in Latin.

Then there's these couple of books who were used in late 19th and early 20th centuries for learning, which fell into public domain. They are available on archiveDOTorg, also there's a website for learning thru those two books but names I cannot remember.

[Anonymous No.17367890]

>I arrived at Gastons (so the Knock's home was called) on a Saturday, and he announced that we would begin Homer on Monday. I explained that I had never read a word in any dialect but the Attic, assuming that when he knew this he would approach Homer through some preliminary lessons on the Epic language. He replied merely with a sound very frequent in his conversation which I can only spell "Huh". I found this rather disquieting; and I woke on Monday saying to myself, "Now for Homer. Golly!" The name struck awe into my soul. At nine o'clock we sat down to work in the little upstairs study which soon became so familiar to me. It contained a sofa (on which we sat side by side when he was working with me), a table and chair (which I used when I was alone), a bookcase, a gas stove, and a framed photograph of Mr. Gladstone. We opened our books at Iliad, Book I. Without a word of introduction Knock read aloud the first twenty lines or so in the "new" pronunciation, which I had never heard before. Like Smewgy, he was a chanter; less mellow in voice, yet his frill gutturals and rolling R's and more varied vowels seemed to suit the bronze-age epic as well as Smewgy's honey tongue had suited Horace. For Kirk, even after years of residence in England, spoke the purest Ulster. He then translated, with a few, a very few explanations, about a hundred lines. I had never seen a classical author taken in such large gulps before. When he had finished he handed me over Crusius' Lexicon and, having told me to go through again as much as I could of what he had done, left the room. It seems an odd method of teaching, but it worked. At first I could travel only a very short way along the trail he had blazed, but every day I could travel further. Presently I could travel the whole way. Then I could go a line or two beyond his furthest North. Then it became a kind of game to see how far beyond. He appeared at this stage to value speed more than absolute accuracy. The great gain was that I very soon became able to understand a great deal without (even mentally) translating it; I was beginning to think in Greek. That is the great Rubicon to cross in learning any language.Those in whom the Greek word lives only while they are hunting for it in the lexicon, and who then substitute the English word for it, are not reading the Greek at all; they are only solving a puzzle. The very formula, "Naus means a ship," is wrong. Naus and ship both mean a thing, they do not mean one another. Behind Naus, as behind navis or naca, we want to have a picture of a dark, slender mass with sail or oars, climbing the ridges, with no officious English word intruding.

[Anonymous No.17367911]

>>17367890
Based. I had the same experience with Latin and I can think in the language now. Still not there yet with Greek. Sometimes I doubt if I will ever get to the point where I can think in it.

[Anonymous No.17368061]

Learning classical Arabic.

There's something amazing about reading the writings of a man who was born in 680AD as casually as the writings of your neighbour Steve.

>Read "The Testament" by Imam Abu Hanifa
>Work of early Islamic theology
>Last couple of lines he calls Shi'a the children of adultery
Kek

[Anonymous No.17368096]

>>17366555
How's it going?

[Anonymous No.17368105]

>>17367124
They are right

[Anonymous No.17368108]

>>17368105
Yeah I know

[Anonymous No.17368664]

>>17368061
>There's something amazing about reading the writings of a man who was born in 680AD as casually as the writings of your neighbour Steve.
Based

[Anonymous No.17368741]

>>17368061
inshallah brother

[Anonymous No.17368755]

>>17368061
Is it worth it if I have a very low opinion of Islam?

[Anonymous No.17368759]

>>17368755
lol you wouldn't get past learning the script.

[Anonymous No.17368846]

ancient greek!

[Anonymous No.17368878]

>>17366307
Currently studying Assyriology, so I'm learning Akkadian and Sumerian. My goals are to become proficient enough to research in the field, I suppose, as Mesopotamian (and broader Near Eastern such as Hebrew and Egyptian) literature and poetry are of great interest to me.
>>17367124
>>17368105
If you're not inherently interested in the culture, then yes, you'd be better off learning a language with more immediate literary rewards like Greek or Sanskrit.

[Anonymous No.17368952]

>>17366555
>ancient

[Anonymous No.17369031]

>>17366307
>currently know French and English given my cultural heritage.
Two main languages come to mind: Latin and German, since, if I'm not mistaken, they are the roots of both the Romance and the Germanic languages.
Add Ancient Greek to the mix and you've got the origins of most of the languages that I know covered.
I want to learn them since translations usually leave a lot to be desired, and as I've written, they are the roots.
Learning the other "vulgar" languages will come easier.

[Anonymous No.17369080]

Reminder that if you know an East-asian language (Mandarin, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, etc.), you can get started with Classical Chinese through that language.

[Anonymous No.17369147]

>>17368061
Based, inshallah I will learn it too as well

[Anonymous No.17369172]

>>17368061
>Last couple of lines he calls Shi'a the children of adultery
Interesting considering he was taught by Jafar al Sadiq and offered support to Zayd Ibn Ali in his rebellion against the Ummyads, and by all accounts he was very fond of both of them.

[Anonymous No.17369913]

Does someone know a good book to learn Ancient Greek? I want to be able to read Homer, Plato and so on in their own language.

[Anonymous No.17369917]

Got this book for Christmas. I was also reading a bit of Confessions in Latin with someone who knows more than me. I'd like to be able to read Virgil and Cicero eventually.

[Anonymous No.17369926]

>>17367582
It probably doesn't matter so much in the long run what textbook you use as long as you really are learning Latin by what you're doing and are practicing it consistently.

>>17367597
I'm assuming this is a joke, but I'll take it seriously in case any unwitting people are taken in by this so they don't waste their time. Taken literally, this would be a ridiculously stupid approach. If you just copy grammar tables, all you will learn how to do is to write out grammar tables. Maybe you will be able to take words from a Latin text and categorizethem according to their grammatical forms, but you will not be able to read and understand the Latin text. Also, if your only goal is to memorize grammar tables, does it really take a year to memorize the fundamental grammar tables, for example, what you find in the back of Wheelock?

>>17367818
The "Latina Familia" book you're probably thinking of is the "Lingua Latina per Se Illustrata" series by Hans Ørberg. The main text is two volumes, and the first volume is called "Familia Romana." I think this series probably the best for self-study. The approach of the textbook ensures that the student practices reading Latin and not is not just learning about Latin grammar in English, which is a common pitfall.

This is a Google Doc I found that some redditards put together. It has more info about the LLPSI series and should have links to files too (the series is in print though, so you shouldn't have trouble finding it for purchase). Even if you don't use LLPSI, it's a good collection of links to all kinds of Latin resources, so bookmark it anyway. (I would save a backup copy of it in case anything happens to it.)
https://docs.google.com/document/d/13JLLzsLUmMa_jD1WOMXeTvSS9WKHjnOjwxygXtjAkcc/edit

[Anonymous No.17369953]

>>17369917
What's that one like? I have a copy of another book from the same author, that I've only skimmed through, but it seemed more like it was explanation of how Latin or Greek was taught in ancient times, and not really a course intended to teach Latin.

[Anonymous No.17369962]

>>17369913
I haven't studied ancient Greek, but I've seen people that like LLPSI for Latin recommend the Athenaze series (specifically, the Italian edition for reasons I'm not familiar with).

[Anonymous No.17369994]

>>17369953
It's like learning Latin, but only this time it's the ancient way.

[Anonymous No.17370757]

If I learn Latin will my english improve in some way? ESL btw.

[Anonymous No.17370805]

>>17370757
No

[Anonymous No.17370840]

>>17370757
>>17370805
I would say it depends on what your native language is. If it's a romance language: no. Otherwise you will at least pick up some words that ended up in English in one form or another.

[Anonymous No.17370959]

>>17369913
These threads will generally give you a very wrong idea regarding what it actually takes to learn Greek. It will take you years of daily toil just to acquire knowledge sufficient for reading easy prose without much trouble in terms of syntax and naturally with generous help of a dictionary. Reading Homer in Greek for instance in the same manner as you'd read a translation of the work is a goal perhaps attainable after decades of dedicated study.

I appreciate these threads because they might motivate someone to learn some Greek or Latin, but it is not an easy task mate.

[Anonymous No.17371046]

>>17370959
I don't have any problem with that. It took me years to be able to read English and even more to shitpost on 4chan. How long it takes is no more important for me than how to get started.

[Anonymous No.17371350]

>>17367582
If you want to learn to read and write Latin, Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata, if you want to do what they do at schools, then Wheelock.
Ideally you'd have both but if you can only get one, they choose based on what your goal is.

[Anonymous No.17371453]

Ic nywan ongann gecneordlæcan Englisc, ac fullonge hæbbe ic gecneordlæcende boclæden

Ignoscite fratres, pro certo habeo linguam anglicam meam merdam esse

[Anonymous No.17371625]

>>17369962
I started Athenaze but it moves way too slow grammarwise and introduces way too much vocabulary early on. Like you don't even reach another tempus form until 120 pages in. I think that especially in Greek it's way more important to understand the grammar first, since otherwise you won't even recognize the words with all the augments, tempus and casus signals

[Anonymous No.17371842]

>>17368952
Norse was the language of Hyperborea

[Anonymous No.17372526]

burp

[Anonymous No.17372569]

>>17370959
>Reading Homer in Greek for instance in the same manner as you'd read a translation of the work is a goal perhaps attainable after decades of dedicated study.
Two hundred years ago eight-year-olds were reading Homer in Greek.

[Anonymous No.17372586]

>>17372569
Source

[Anonymous No.17372643]

>>17370959
Yeah I had to learn this the hard way

[Anonymous No.17372655]

>>17366307
chanting declensions atm then starting on verbs

[Anonymous No.17372659]

>>17367582
http://wcdrutgers.net/Latin.htm

[Anonymous No.17372701]

>>17372586
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/6081/6081-h/6081-h.htm

[Anonymous No.17372726]

>>17372701
>kids immersed in a language can speak it
wow. what point are you trying to make?

[Anonymous No.17372733]

>>17372726
It shouldn't take decades of intense study to be able to read Homer.

[Anonymous No.17372746]

>>17372733
people dont learn the tables well enough now
chanting isnt cool bro
you look and sound silly

[Anonymous No.17372771]

>>17372733
kids and adults do not acquire languages the same way.

[Anonymous No.17372873]

>>17372771
Yeah, kids have the magical ability of learning Latin, Greek, Hebrew and English at the same time.

[Anonymous No.17373085]

what resources do you guys recommend for learning Koine Greek?

[Anonymous No.17373170]

>>17372771
krashen, kaufmen and matt disagrees

[Anonymous No.17373287]

>>17373170
who

[Anonymous No.17373330]

>>17366330
Imagine being this retarded on a daily basis.