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It baffles me how anyone can consider Latin 'useless knowledge'. I know of no other language which opens so many doors to so many European languages, and most c
by interfixus 10y ago
It baffles me how anyone can consider Latin 'useless knowledge'. I know of no other language which opens so many doors to so many European languages, and most certainly to English as a second one.
- jejones3141 10y agoHear, hear! It can help with vocabulary, especially if you know a little bit about how things changed on their way to some Romance language you're trying to communicate in, e.g. working your way back from Spanish "hongo" to Latin "fungus" (the "f" -> "h" switch is pretty common, e.g. ferrum -> hierro, facere -> hacer).
- tom_mellior 10y agoLatin grammar doesn't help you with English grammar, of course. Latin vocabulary can help you with English vocabulary, but the effort of learning Latin, then transferring that knowledge to English, is much larger than the effort of just learning English. I had some Latin in school, and yes, from time to time it comes to mind when encountering a new French or Italian word. But even if you want to learn several Romance languages, I'd guess that just learning them and recognizing/exploiting relationships is easier than also learning Latin. It does add a common denominator, but it also adds a lot of cruft.
- mattmanser 10y agoI'm not saying per se Latin is useless, I'm saying that my half-hearted, school-forced attempt to learn it was worthless.
- matttheatheist 10y agoAs a native Spanish speaker (who also speaks French and Italian and can read Portuguese), let me tell you:Latin is pointless. I'm sorry to be the one to break it to you. But that's the way it is.