Benefits of Studying Latin

Manus Correctrix

QVAE CORRIGIT

  • Civis Illustris

Location:
Victoria
I wonder if ‘It’s I’ sounds pompous to a native.
Just sounds wrong.

‘It is I’ (without contraction) sounds pompous.

‘It’s me’ sounds normal.
 

Avarus

Active Member

Location:
USA
‘It is I’ (without contraction) sounds pompous.
Pompous, no. A line from a Zorro or Robin Hood movie, yes. I would laugh at someone that said that; I wouldn't think it pompous, unless he/she has their nose up in the air or a poodle in their arms.
 

Quasus

Civis Illustris

  • Civis Illustris

Location:
Águas Santas
Thanks!

It turns out Latin grammar can be misleading in English. Who could have thought? :)
 

Manus Correctrix

QVAE CORRIGIT

  • Civis Illustris

Location:
Victoria
Pompous, no. A line from a Zorro or Robin Hood movie, yes. I would laugh at someone that said that;
Well, exactly. You’d laugh, because it’s so pompous that the person couldn’t possibly be saying it without deliberate irony.
 

Quasus

Civis Illustris

  • Civis Illustris

Location:
Águas Santas
Latin grammar is inappropriate in English! English grammar is inappropriate in Latin!
Latin grammar is appropriate in Latin! English grammar is appropriate in English!
:cool:
 

Adrian

Civis Illustris

  • Civis Illustris

Grammatica latina = crux ac via doloris
Compositio melica latina = maxima crux ac via longa arduaque doloris
 

Nikolaos

schmikolaos

  • Censor

Location:
Matsumoto, Nagano, Japan
Grammatica latina = crux ac via doloris
Compositio melica latina = maxima crux ac via longa arduaque doloris
Melica -> mel? Similis verbo "dulcis"?

My dictionary is packed away right now.
 

Adrian

Civis Illustris

  • Civis Illustris

Melica -> mel? Similis verbo "dulcis"?

My dictionary is packed away right now.
Oxford Latin Dictionary 1982
melicus, melica, melicum; adj. declension 2 : musical, lyrical; concernig lyrical poetry
I referd to Latin lyrical composition - art of composing songs, lyrical poems - not only classicial but also medieval, renaissance and neolatin. (aspect of metrics, poetic expressions, poetic vocabulary - Ovid and Virgil; literary figures - metaphor, oxymoron, tautology etc., aspect of archaic grammatical forms in latin poetry e.g. vita - vitai instead of vitae).
I asked three students of classical philology, two M.A. of classical philology and one PhD of classial philology and all of them confirmed that composing poetry, lyrical poetry is the most difficult aspect of learning latin language.
 

Adrian

Civis Illustris

  • Civis Illustris

One needs to be a poet at least. :)
Quasus, I was referring to scale of difficulty. Composing poetry in latin (with correct metrics, rhymes, top-quality poetic expressions and literary figures, etc) is the most difficult to achieve competence (surpasses even prose composition Cicero style) - and you know it.
 

Quasus

Civis Illustris

  • Civis Illustris

Location:
Águas Santas
I don’t know it, I’m not a poet. I think one has to be a poet so as to compose poetry. If one needs just something that matches formal criteria, it may be more reasonable to write a computer programme. :)
 

Adrian

Civis Illustris

  • Civis Illustris

I don’t know it, I’m not a poet. I think one has to be a poet so as to compose poetry. If one needs just something that matches formal criteria, it may be more reasonable to write a computer programme. :)
O Di Immortales! Only a mathematician could have said such thing. Quasus, obiously you have not understood my point.
Writing poetry (quality poetry not some gibberish found on the internet or medieval student songs) in latin is the most difficult competence because:
1. Simply because
2. It requires many years of studying latin language in all of its aspects
3. It requires many years of studying poetry written in latin and also poetry written in other languages - the most renown world poets from many ages (classical, medieval, renaissance, baroque, age of enlightment, etc) - understanding the poetic vocabulary, grammar construction, literary figures
4. Knowledge and practical appliance of theory of poetry (proper composition - metrics, types of rhymes, utilisation of proper interpunctual marks, literary figures etc)
Everyone can learn to read latin, most of the ones who gained knowledge in reading latin texts poses the competence to write their own simple latin texts; fewer can mimic Cycero's prose composition, only some (who gained supreme level of command in latin language) have the competence to translate poetry into latin (with corresponding metrics, rhymes, expressions and vocabulary) and compose their own quality latin poetry.
 

Quasus

Civis Illustris

  • Civis Illustris

Location:
Águas Santas
I don’t object, if inspiration is included in #1. On the other hand, I suppose #2–4 are less painful than they seem once you’ve got inspiration.
 

metrodorus

Civis Illustris

  • Civis Illustris

Location:
Londinium
‘It’s I’ sounds pompous to a native....actually, it sounds ungrammatical. 'me' has moved from accusative to nominative in actual usage across large areas of London.
 

PeterW

New Member

And elsewhere in England. I once "corrected" a German friend when he said, "Me and Jim are going to town." I said, "We don't say that." He replied, " Yes you do. Listen!". So I did, and found that even in the Midlands, people do. Except me, of course.
 

Christophorus

New Member

One might, also, benefit from studying Latin depending on what field they decide to go into. For instance, I would like to have an ecclesiastical vocation, and Latin (well Ecclesiastical Latin) is still the language of the Church.
 

Arca Defectionis

Civis Illustris

  • Civis Illustris

Location:
USA
Latin has been really helpful for pointless etymological inquiry... which is something I find very diverting. It also means I can read the Spanish Wikipedia without ever having seriously studied the language, and chunks of the Italian, French, Portuguese, and even Romanian ones too.

Other than that, it's pretty useless. I was quite disappointed when I realized most binomial names after Linnaeus are either Greek or names of scientists.
 
Top