From a historians point of view is it better to learn greek or latin?
Tuesday, October 6th, 2009 at
8:37 pm
Im interested in learning languages, but very slow at it, currently i know some spanish(high school) and am learning irish(celtic irish), but i also want to learn either greek or latin, both being key languages of western history.
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Tagged with: latin • learning languages • western history
Filed under: Latin Language
You really should learn both, since as you say, both are key languages. Besides they’re both have many similarities, maybe the vocabularies are very different from each other, but the grammar is very similar. However greek’s morphology is too complex, and since you know some spanish you’ll find latin’s morphology to be easier. On the other hand latin’s sintax is more complex than greek’s. In many Universities they teach the 2 languages at the same time.
Latin…. Why? Because Italian, French, Catalan, Romanian, Spanish, and Portuguese are descended from Latin, while many others, including English, have inherited and acquired much of their vocabulary from Latin.
I’d say Greek, the culture of the classical world developed in Greece.
I suppose it depends whether you intend to be an expert in Roman or Greek culture and history!
Latin will be a little easier, especially since you’ve had some Spanish, and many medieval histories, as well as ancient, were written in Latin. I’d recommend doing Latin first and then Greek as well. Familiarity with Latin will give you a slight head start in Greek.
Latin is easier but is a dead language
Greek is harder but its a language that is used till today
Plus, 10% of the ENglish words derive from ancient Greek