[net.nlang] Learning Latin and Greek

riddle@ut-sally.UUCP (Prentiss Riddle) (01/15/85)

> > the classics would not be easily read, but I'd rather the children
> > were able to read the one hundred periodicals now published in
> > Esperanto world-wide with an emphasis on peace, rather than
> > the Helenic wars!
> 
> If we do not study history, we will be doomed to repeat it.
> I'd suggest learning Latin instead.

How many people do you know who really read the classics in the original?
As far as I'm concerned, learning Latin or Greek is like studying
butterflies, pottery or chess: interesting, rewarding, broadening, and part
of what life is all about for those to whom it appeals, but not to be
compared with the practical importance of learning a language spoken by
living people.

--- Prentiss Riddle ("Aprendiz de todo, maestro de nada.")
--- {ihnp4,harvard,seismo,gatech,ctvax}!ut-sally!riddle
--- riddle@ut-sally.UUCP, riddle@ut-sally.ARPA, riddle@zotz.ARPA

ellis@spar.UUCP (Michael Ellis) (01/17/85)

From Prentiss Riddle:
>
>How many people do you know who really read the classics in the original?
>As far as I'm concerned, learning Latin or Greek is like studying
>butterflies, pottery or chess: interesting, rewarding, broadening, and part
>of what life is all about for those to whom it appeals, but not to be
>compared with the practical importance of learning a language spoken by
>living people.

Don't get me wrong -- I have no desire to diminish anyone's enthusiasm for
Esperanto. Furthermore, I hope that interest in international languages
may eventually become a vehicle for world peace and understanding.

But I am in total disagreement with Prentiss's apparent belief that spoken
languages are somehow inherently more practical than dead ones.

Frankly, I can think of no languages more important than Latin and ANCIENT
Greek, especially for English speakers.  A great deal that is
incomprehensible about our language becomes very clear after studying the
classics.

English orthography, one of the worst on this planet, is `designed' to
preserve the appearance Latin and Greek words, far more so than French,
Italian, Spanish, or Esperanto. Intimate knowledge of, for instance, ancient
irregular verbs, is indispensible to correct English spelling.

Moreover, our native roots, prefixes, and suffixes have largely been
displaced by borrowings taken almost directly from original classical forms.
Meanwhile many of these morphemes have drifted in meaning or disappeared
entirely in the modern Romance languages (and thus usually in Esperanto as
well), thereby diminishing the relevance of those languages. There is simply
no substitute for the study of Latin and Greek vocabulary, morphology, and
etymology (topics strongly emphasized in classical studies) for improving
one's comprehension of new or unfamiliar English or international words.

Finally, whether we like it or not, the grammar of formal English evolved to
its present state only after centuries of influence by writers who were
making a conscious attempt to force English into the classical mold, which
is why high-school grammar sounds like so much gibberish to most people who
did not study Latin.

Note that my arguments in support of the classics have focused on only
the most mundane and practical of considerations -- namely:

  "Why learn a spoken language in which you are likely NEVER TO GAIN
   FLUENCY (and will probably forget) when, by studying a dead language, 
   you can understand your native tongue with depth that is otherwise
   unattainable?"

I have not yet mentioned the eloquence of Cicero, the dignity of Socrates,
nor the blinding light of Plato; nor have I mentioned the intuitive power
available to one who shares the very language in which western art, science,
in fact, civilization, were created.  But then this article is too long
already.

The opinion that classical studies lack `relevance' seems to have been one
symptom of the tragic decay in American education during the myopic 70's.
I hope that the recent resurgence of interest in high school Latin is a sign
an upcoming renaissance.

-michael

urban@spp2.UUCP (01/19/85)

At UCLA, there are (were?) two classes from the Classics department,
Greek 40 and Latin 40, entitled "The Greek(latin) Element in the
English Language."  These are basically etymology classes and
fairly easy.  Football jocks take them as vocabulary-building
classes, for example, but someone with a deeper interest in
language can derive a lot more from these classes than that.