How to learn a dead language? | Specific language questions | Forum

Necromancy?

Besides: these languages aren't dead once there are people who want to use them!

frapy said:

This being said, I should add that dead languages often have hard grammar

Bah. Certainly no worse than modern languages, and they (given proper mindset) are easy. What makes classical languages tough is that people are showing off how much they know in some of the literature.

Raphaël Serve said:

How to learn a dead language like Latin or Ancient Egyptian?

Funny you should ask, as my current mission is Ancient Greek. I'll use the term classical instead of dead, since I'm assuming you want to read classical literature and not show off your knowledge of Gothic or Hittite. Since I am most familiar with resources aimed at English speakers, I'll deal with them pretty exclusively.

The key—like any other language—is enough comprehensible input. Now, for most folks that means lots of text since they want to read. Speaking a classical language is fun. I speak Latin every day. That Latin. I firmly believe it will speed your ability to comprehend literature and deepen your appreciation once you do get there. But I digress. You want comprehensible input, and most textbooks for classical languages stink in that regard. They really take it from a heavy grammar learning tack. Ugh. Very few people can manage to pull together an understanding of a language that way, for if people could, reading a Russian grammar would suffice to make us Russian speakers. And that isn't the case.

So, where is this elusive comprehensible input?

For Latin, many of us feel this is the book. It uses nothing but Latin. Others of us feel it isn't quite enough on its own. I disagree. It is competitively priced, so even if you don't like it, you're not out a million bucks and you can always dip into it after your grammar lessons. The Cambridge Latin course is also good as far as the volume of comprehensible input. Its edition for little kids is Minimus. There are certainly worse ways to get into Latin than talking mice and cartoons. There's a book published in Germany called Piper Salve, but it may be out of print. From the few glances I've made through it, it also looks pretty solid.

Once you get to where you feel comfortable with some of Latin's tricks, try heading over to aesopica.net. Prof. Gibbs has provided mountains of Aesop material. Some of it is in Latin. The stories are short and the language isn't hard. Personally, I love the Gesta Romanorum at this stage. Eventually you will want to get to the big classics—take your time. They are deliberately difficult—particularly in the opening bits where the author is showing off his command of Latin. Once you're at the reading the big classics stage, there are lots of ways at them: student commentaries (there are loads of them of varying quality), Loeb editions (Latin on the verso, English on the recto) and Bristol Classics. Online, the Perseus project is another outstanding resource. All good, but don't think you have to stick to the Golden Age of Latin literature. There's loads of great stuff written in the Middle Ages and Renaissance. 

For Greek the picture is much different. First, there are a few dialects: you're going to learn Epic, Attic or Koine (or at least that's what's available in textbooks). Cristophe Rico has written a gem called Polis, but I think it may work better in a classroom setting. Order it from amazon.fr as it is cheaper than ordering from amazon.ca (for people in the United States). It definitely takes a conversational language approach to Koine Greek. JACT's Reading Greek teaches Attic Greek and uses adapted literature. Once you're feeling good about your skills with Greek, Geoffrey Steadman has been putting out some good commentaries for intermediate readers. Otherwise, Loeb to the rescue again.

I'd tell you about Ancient Egyptian, but I'm pretty ignorant there. Same with Sanskrit. If you're serious about Latin or Greek, respond or drop me a PM. 

I'm thinking my next mission will be either Old English or Sanskrit. I'll let you know how I tackle another historical language (I just hate the term dead).

Alasdair said:

I'm well-informed that Sanskrit is actually still spoken on the subcontinent by a few isolated villages that never got the memo about it being 'dead'

 

Do Sanskrit! I'd love to watch you learn a language I could read (but not understand) 

Yeah. Hence my aversion to "dead". As for Sanskrit, absolutely every classicist I've talked to about this idea says I should absolutely, no-hesitations, pure-joy go for Sanskrit. But I'm leaning Old English first, so I can have a relative success mission after the Farsi thing—though I would by *no means* classify the Farsi mission as a pure fail. 

Yes, Old English is magnificent! I would love to learn it too, in some time. There is plenty of resources in the Internet. As for me, it is a bit strange that English have problem with older version of their own language (I checked it reciting once two first verses of Beowulf and nobody knew what that was.. I thought it is kind of classic?), although it really resembles more German than contemporary English.

Regarding Sanskrit: I was once lucky because on one of my trips I went to the local charity shop and bam! there was huge Sanskrit-English Dictionary by Monier-Williams for only 20£! (240$ on Amazon…) But there is online version too.