Benefits of Studying Latin

[Notascooby]

No surprise there. Milton sometimes tends to write Latin with English words.

Seems about right lol. I was reading a thread on another forum where native English speakers were discussing strategies on how to read it and the consensus seemed to be to treat it like a foreign language. Find the subject, object, verb etc. Can't be that bad surely.

 

[Pacifica]

Old authors, and especially poets, tend to give trouble to the average English speaker unused to that older style of writing. To take the most obvious example, I keep reading that people find Shakespeare hard, and modern editions of his works are full of notes explaining every other phrase (95% of which notes I myself have no need of). So it's not just Milton. And, in all cases, Shakespeare included, knowing Latin helps. But Milton is especially Latinate. Shakespeare doesn't feel that way.

 

[Glabrigausapes]

I think these years of studying Latin (and Greek) have helped immeasurably.

Probably so.
Elsewhere on the forum I think I've mentioned my admiration for Alastair Fowler, whose annotated edition of Paradise Lost is definitely worth looking into.

 

[Glabrigausapes]

It's mentioned on M's wiki page that he 'swapped knowledge of such-&-such language for someone's expertise in Hebrew', and I always wondered to what extent he knew the language (that is, Biblical Hebrew). Wasn't it still current in his time, the notion that Hebrew antedated all the world's languages?

 

[kurwamac]

Nor can I do better, in conclusion, than impress upon you the study of Greek literature, which not only elevates above the vulgar herd, but leads not infrequently to positions of considerable emolument.
-- Thomas Gaisford

Mutatis mutandis, obviously.

 

[kev67]

A knowledge of Latin can help at pub quizzes, although maybe not as much as keeping up to date with popular music and soap operas. For instance, on Thursday the quiz master asked which season animals that aestivate sleep through, and I immediately knew is was summer. Of course, there was a one in three chance of guessing correctly, but we did not need to.

 

[kurwamac]

There are only three seasons where you are? Which one are you missing?

 

[kev67]

There are only three seasons where you are? Which one are you missing?

Well, it's not hibernate.

 

[kev67]

I have found another use for Latin. I was walking around Exeter Cathedral reading the memorials. Most of them were written in English, but several were in Latin, so I could make a stab at those. One was in Ancient Greek. Some of these memorials had quite a lot to say.

 

[slv]

Mathematicians are very careless about their own history. Gian Carlo Rota wrote about this too (p 157). So for example the work of Euler, the greatest Mathematician of all time, is mostly untranslated. Therefore if you want to read eg de seriebus divergentibus you are not going to get around knowning Latin. So it is with all of european mathematics since the scholastics, not to speak of more spurious works such as numerorum mysteria.

 

[kev67]

I once saw a notice for a lecture on Egyptology. I think there is an Egyptology society in Reading. I went along. At 50 I was one of the youngest there. A retired lecturer gave us his lecture with the aid of an old fashioned slide projector. It struck me there was a lot to Egyptology. There was the language and the hieroglyphics. There were the pyramids and the Sphinx. There were the pharaohs, the religion, the mummies, the artefacts, the wars, the politics, the myths, the government. Then there were the ancient dynasties, and there was Cleopatra. But then it did not end there, because translation of the Rosetta Stone was interesting, and the early 20th Century expedition to uncover Tutankhamun's tomb. Egyptology covers the whole range of humanities topics about a culture that was different to ours. Then I thought that is actually true about the study of any ancient language. The study of Latin involves the study of language, but also of Roman culture, wars, politics, religion, poetry and the rest. The Romans were different to us, but what they thought and did has profoundly affected us. But then Latin is not just about the Romans. It was used by the church for centuries. It was an official language for centuries. It was a lingua franca across Europe. Scientists and philosophers wrote in Latin. So a study of any ancient language is like a multi-disciplinary humanities course, but Latin has more written resources than most.

 

[Robert Emery]

We have had this question here a couple of times, yet we still do not have a comprehensive answer. Let's compile our own list of the benefits of studying/knowing Latin language. This way we will have something to point Latin beginners to and to inspire ourselves with

Latin can help you develop analytical and systematic-thinking skills.

 

[kev67]

Another benefit, if you subscribe to a newspaper, is that you can play Latin one-up-manship in the comments section of the articles. Either you can post an apposite Latin phrase, or you can correct someone else's inferior grammar. Of course, there is always the risk someone might correct yours. For example, this week someone posted that someone he knew was an alumni from a certain university. Someone else posted that it was alumnus, because the person was singular. I suggested it should be alumna, because the person was female, which I thing was wrong, but I wanted to sow doubt in his mind. It is probably better if you know Greek as well, because then if someone posts that the plural of octopus is octopi, you can say that it is a Greek word meaning eight feet, so it should be octopodes. I am not sure if that is true, but I read it somewhere. In Britain, this game is probably best played in The Daily Telegraph, and possibly The Times. Guardian readers probably regard Latin as an elitist anachronism used to exclude the working classes from the best jobs.

 

[ChoraulaSilens]

We have had this question here a couple of times, yet we still do not have a comprehensive answer.

Let's compile our own list of the benefits of studying/knowing Latin language.

This way we will have something to point Latin beginners to and to inspire ourselves with

This is a question that opens up a lot of angles. My main point I like to stress is I noticed Latin has suffered from isolation within narrow academic circles. I find the same problem exists in psychology research. Latin is much more appealing than potential students imagine but many view the subject as connected to elite education, or the Vatican.
What strikes me is that electronics and electrical engineering can be very complex, but you notice a lot of expertise in that area online, outside of academia or institutions. Why? Probably because the subject is viewed as "possible". Add to that, it's also an Alpha subject (competitive).
My point is I'd like to see Latin more open and de-traditionalised. O.K. there is Mary Beard and a recent new-wave of Latin speaking groups (which is positive). Ultimately, though, we can all eventually get good at Latin, or Greek, and it's not beyond the average student.

 

[Iacobinus]

Another benefit, if you subscribe to a newspaper, is that you can play Latin one-up-manship in the comments section of the articles. Either you can post an apposite Latin phrase, or you can correct someone else's inferior grammar. Of course, there is always the risk someone might correct yours. For example, this week someone posted that someone he knew was an alumni from a certain university. Someone else posted that it was alumnus, because the person was singular. I suggested it should be alumna, because the person was female, which I thing was wrong, but I wanted to sow doubt in his mind.

It reminds me : « Amusons-nous donc : Montherlant sait mal le latin, mais il est de ces gens qui ne sont pas peu fiers de passer pour le savoir et puis une citation latine fait toujours bien dans une déclamation. Il ne pouvait manquer, évoquant Constantin [dans Le Solstice de Juin publié par la N.R.F. en 1941], de jouer sur le mot trop connu : In hoc signo vinces. Il crie son mépris au Galiléen : In hoc signo fuges. C'est ouvrir trop grand la bouche pour faire un couac. Le Galiléen, qui est décidément Dieu, s'est déjà vengé en lui soufflant un barbarisme. » (Jean GUÉHENNO, Journal des années noires ou 1940-1944, extrait de la note du 2 novembre 1941).

It is probably better if you know Greek as well, because then if someone posts that the plural of octopus is octopi, you can say that it is a Greek word meaning eight feet, so it should be octopodes. I am not sure if that is true, but I read it somewhere.

The word is indeed borrowed from Greek, but that's not the reason of such nominative plural. The nominative singular endings in *-od-s or in *-ot-s gave the easier to pronounce -u-s; while the nominative plural in -od-es or in -ot-es were maintained.
It goes the same with other non-neutral 3rd imparisyllabic declension such as fraus (pl. fraudes; rad. fraud-); virtus (pl. virtutes; rad. virtut-); palus (pl. paludes; rad. palud-)... Confer sus (pl. sues). The root of octopus is octopod-.

 

[Clemens]

Isn't it also true that the actual attested word (in Latin) is polypus?

 

[Iacobinus]

Which is borrowed from Greek too, indeed: pō̆lўpŭs, i, [or odis] m. (fem., Lucil. ap. Non. 220, 4), = πολύπους (first in Arist.), later Gr. for πουλύπους, ποδος, ὁ ; [...] — the common poulp or octopus, Od. l.c., Thgn. l.c., Arist. HA 524a3, etc. of insects, Id. PA 682a36, al. ; esp. of the myriapods, Id. HA 531b29, al.
I. An aquatic animal, sea-polypus: Sepia octopodia, Linn.: piscis polypus, Plaut. Rud. 4, 3, 71; Plin. 9, 12, 14, § 40; 9, 19, 35, § 71 al. (Jahn, polybi); Lucil. l. l.; Enn. ap. App. Mag. p. 299 (Heduph. v. 10 Vahl.); Ov. M. 4, 366; id. Hal. 31 (with the o long).—Transf., of rapacious men, Plaut. Aul. 2, 2, 21...

Octopus is however attested in later Latin. My dictionary quotes Alexander of Tralles (5. 16) and the Medical Pliny (2. 22).

Alexander of Tralles - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Medicina Plinii - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[ChoraulaSilens]

Latin can help you develop analytical and systematic-thinking skills.

 

[ChoraulaSilens]

Regionally, our main university Classics Department had to close down some years ago. Once student debt became a factor, few students would risk a Classics degree. Instead, I.T. or biology, business studies survived, driven by practicality. So, we can conclude the era of prestige around Classics (still strong in the 1960s) has had its day.
Still, personally, when I discovered there was plenty of philosophy written in Latin, I guess that became my emphasis. Seneca, for example (a Stoic).

 

[syntaxianus]

A recent video calls Latin "the most powerful language in human history."