Latin

Worthless thread. Fuck yourself.

>>9589472
Not a fan of supporting ancient dialect I suppose. That's cool, have a good day

Studied medical latin. While far from actual latin, I know that latin as a whole is a completely useless waste of time.

>>9589468
It will give you an excellent understanding of grammar, because traditional Latin education involves a deliberate study of grammar, unlike typical modern language education.

There are a number of interesting works that can be read in original Latin if you have an antiquarian streak, although at this point quality English translations are readily available of pretty much anything. De Bello Gallico is pretty accessible even at a beginner level so you'll see some returns here quite quickly.

You'll max out (or nearly) every vocabulary-based English test that isn't specifically written to befuddle Latin adepts for the rest of your life; this includes a lot of high stakes tests like the GRE. Even if you don't care about that, Latin will massively increase your ability to guess the meanings of unfamiliar words or understand subtle meanings of known words; this ability alone will appear like magic to normies.

It makes it easier to learn other Romance languages, I guess. The Latin grammar education I mentioned above has even made it easier for me to deal with completely unrelated Asian languages.

If you combine it with other aspects of a classical education, even on a DIY basis, you'll gain incredible knowledge and insight into both history and the present, the first insight of which is unfortunately how far liberal arts education has been debased in recent decades. You don't actually need to learn Latin for that, though.

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For word etymology. Along with some Greek, of course. You can finally be the guy who says, "Oh, 'finally'. Did you know 'fin' was Latin for 'end'? That's where we get the words finish and final and finite...,"

>>9589468
>dead language
It's not entirely dead.
They still speak it in the Vatikan. (Yes, even the ATM supports it.)

But yeah, it's a waste of time. Then again, so is our entire lives, because we all rot in the end.

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>tfw learning a dead language
>tfw it's Old English
>all the effort I had put into it could have been put into Latin or Greek
>tfw still like Old English more
>tfw doomed to reread Beowulf and Christian scribbles

>>9589468
Apparently reading it in the original language completely changes the meaning of the text. You are, after all, reading it and not reading someone's interpretation. And we are talking about a thousand of years of literature to choose from.

Most normies will think you are really cool.

>>9589722
Read some middle English

>>9589718
>Then again, so is our entire lives, because we all rot in the end.

>tfw technology advances to the level where a stem cell cluster of your imprinted DNA can be shot into your central nervous system, keeping your body regenerating tissue and looking permanently at age 25.
>tfw you watch this news, aged 86, through the opaque plastic of your respirator as you're in a hospital bed dying from Parkinsons.

>>9589739
>Read some middle English
Don't really like it.

Beautiful poetry that is not translatable. You can say that about any language, though.

Lots of Latin stuff from the early modern period and renaissance has never been translated and much of it is very interesting.

It's also a lot of fun for some people and I couldn't tell you why anymore than I could tell you why people spend hours and hours practicing a musical instrument.

>>9590571
>Beautiful poetry
This. Nothing else matters.

>>9589468
you'll shit your pants when you realize how many words have Latin roots, right now this is just an abstraction to you, you need to learn Latin to really understand. You'll also be a forensic grammarian. And you get to tell people you know Latin, panty dropper for sure bro, not that I'd know though

>>9589468
>I'm on the verge of learning it
nah you're on the verge of pirating a "latin for dummies" pdf that will sit there all sad on your desktop with all your other "projects" that you're always "on the verge" of starting.

Aeneadum genetrix, hominum divumque voluptas,
alma Venus, caeli subter labentia signa
quae mare navigerum, quae terras frugiferentis
concelebras, per te quoniam genus omne animantum
concipitur visitque exortum lumina solis:
te, dea, te fugiunt venti, te nubila caeli
adventumque tuum, tibi suavis daedala tellus
summittit flores, tibi rident aequora ponti
placatumque nitet diffuso lumine caelum.
Nam simul ac species patefactast verna diei
et reserata viget genitabilis aura favoni,
aëriae primum volucres te, diva, tuumque
significant initum perculsae corda tua vi.
Inde ferae pecudes persultant pabula laeta
et rapidos tranant amnis: ita capta lepore
te sequitur cupide quo quamque inducere pergis.
Denique per maria ac montis fluviosque rapaces
frondiferasque domos avium camposque virentis
omnibus incutiens blandum per pectora amorem
efficis ut cupide generatim saecla propagent.
Quae quoniam rerum naturam sola gubernas
nec sine te quicquam dias in luminis oras
exoritur neque fit laetum neque amabile quicquam,
te sociam studeo scribendis versibus esse
quos ego de rerum natura pangere conor
Memmiadae nostro, quem tu, dea, tempore in omni
omnibus ornatum voluisti excellere rebus.
Quo magis aeternum da dictis, diva, leporem.
Effice ut interea fera moenera militiai
per maria ac terras omnis sopita quiescant.
Nam tu sola potes tranquilla pace iuvare
mortalis, quoniam belli fera moenera Mavors
armipotens regit, in gremium qui saepe tuum se
reicit aeterno devictus vulnere amoris,
atque ita suspiciens tereti cervice reposta
pascit amore avidos inhians in te, dea, visus,
eque tuo pendet resupini spiritus ore.
Hunc tu, diva, tuo recubantem corpore sancto
circumfusa super, suavis ex ore loquelas
funde petens placidam Romanis, incluta, pacem.
Nam neque nos agere hoc patriai tempore iniquo
possumus aequo animo nec Memmi clara propago
talibus in rebus communi desse saluti.


These lines alone are enough to learn a whole language.

>>9589468
You can impress random people.

>>9589468
Classical Historian Ongoing Phd.
DO NOT LEARN LATIN OR GREEK.
Unless the juice is worth the squeeze, for most cases it is not.
Almost all classical works are translated to english. Yes you lose some 'nuances' but they can be explained in the footnotes, and I highly doubt learning latin just to understand nuances is a worthwhile endavour.

Learn french and learn german, you will have more access to their books, their media, their music etc not only that but it will also help your career, 2 modern languages is always a plus.

Learn latin if you want to read obscure medieval-early modern shit that are not worthy of translating, there we still have some books that are not translated. But even then french,german italian etc are already making their apperance in literature so I highly doubt it will be usefull to you

>all these monolinguals saying its a waste of time
You guys probably believe reading a translation is the same as reading the original language and that there is no loss in it, to the point of believing reading a masterpiece like the Divine Comedy in English is a 1:1 copy of the work in italian. You guys sadden me

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>>9589681
>You can finally be the guy who says, "Oh, 'finally'. Did you know 'fin' was Latin for 'end'?"

Not the same guy of your quote, but I never ever do that.
It makes me feel like an Albert Bloch from "the search for lost time" by proust.
Instead I make small grammatical errors when with plebs for being correct and make them comfortable.

>>9590584
if youre an anglophone, french would be more rewarding in this regard (muh anglo-norman)

>>9593440
>divine comedy
>italian

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why is latin so commonly taught as opposed to ancient greek? it seems like the vocabulary of ancient greek would be a much more valuable tool to read ancient texts

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>>9589681
>>9589681
>>9590584
>tfw I'm Italian and I can recognize the Latin origin of English words without referring to actual Latin because Latin and Italian are so much similar

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>already trying to learn two languages
>also want to learn Latin so I can read Caesar, Terrance, Plautus, and Cicero
>but want to learn Koine for Herodotus, Aristophanes, and Aeschylus

>>9594177
>Caesar, Terrance, Plautus, and Cicero
Man don't leave out the poetry though

>>9594184
don't tempt me
I am but a humble frogposter of meager means and smaller dreams

>>9594177
Herodotus, Aristophanes and Aeschylus are all written in Ancient Greek though, not Koine

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If I practice an hour a day, how long will it take me to learn French?

>>9594303
Not long, considering it is a closely related language (assuming you are a native english speaker).
http://www.effectivelanguagelearning.com/language-guide/language-difficulty