I was thinking about the roman invasion in England (I'm studing that) and thought about asking if any of you knows Latin or is interested in the language. Its interesting to me because its part of the Italic branch of languages (along with French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and Romanian) and so it has very similar words to the portuguese.
Please, let me know your opinion about it. What do you think about the language itself? The pronunciation, etc.

I'm somehow interested in it, don't really know why... might take a few courses of it in school if I can squeeze 'em in my schedule within my fourth year.

Well what you nead about it I Use to study roman time 3 years ago in uni, but doubt I can expain all in eglish

About latin I like it I need it then I can read all medieval articles, some old church documents and also need ancinet greek and ancient herber, but moust important think I can speek in all mediterainian langueges

well, I'm started to stdy latin tis semester, it's a requieremnt for my career as well as greek (classic). I think it's a really cool language and I've always been interested in it so I really have high hopes for it.

@BloodTears: you mean it's (was) part of the romance languages. You know latin is now a dead language, the small part that still exists in some religious stuff is eclesiastic latin, and it's different in some stuff, although I don't know exactlly which.
Anyway, I think it's cool it's still taught in some places, even though it's now a dead language.

I can translate youif you need something to be translated, I know latin very well but I don't know english very good, so I can make few mistakes, I can speak French but I can't write it very good, I know little of ancient Greek but I fail my exam this year and now I have to wait til Jun to go on exam again, I learnd French very quick, maybe cause I knew latin, they are very similar and French gramma has many things from latin so it wasn't so hard for me, you studying Roman invasion of Britain, great thing to study, I will have that in one maybe two years.
@Tulkas - I don't want to call latin dead languages cause it is still in use, latin is active in many proffesions and staff, you can hear it everywhere not only in religion, so as soon as somebudy is using that language it is not dead, but of cause it is only my opinion

@Aronax: well, what they mean when they say that a language is dead, is not that there's no living person that uses it, like I said, even though it's another 'style' a bit different it's still used in some religious stuff. What they mean is that it's no longer an 'active' language, like used as an official language, like spanish, or english etc...

Hope I expalined myself

@Tulkas - I know, I didn't accuse you, I just said my opinion of that term

@tulkas - latin may be "dead" when compared to the other languages I mentioned, in a sence. But I agree with Aronax, its still used and practised, even if its just to understand the origin of some words (in the case of my university use of latin).

yeah, I get that. I was also just giving my point of view from what I learned and from what I've heard. I'm not acussing anyone either, so we're all ok

Yeah, we are happy family, who knows latin, isn't it cool?
My sister said that it is not but screw her!

Written by APOHAKC on 01.02.2007 at 01:54

Yeah, we are happy family, who knows latin, isn't it cool?
My sister said that it is not but screw her!

lol lunaticus

I know lot of latin words , but most of them are medical . I prefer to study live languages .;D

well, i know romanian and i learnt latin in 8th grade, but all i can remember is salve magistra!. latin is a good language, it makes you think, not like english for ex i heard that there are over 20tnces in latin, is thi sireally true, or just something tachers invent?

I took Latin course few years ago, plus I learned it for about 3 years in high-school. I haven't used it much since that, so I have forgotten all those grammatic rules.

Latin gramma is not very hard, once you learn the basics, ou can easily learn everything else, but basics are most important

Language is considered dead when nobody speaks it as a mother tongue any more....no matter if people use it or not....it must be population's first language.....
I have smelt latin a little bit....though I'd say I'm more keen on Spanish....If I learnt it, I would want to learn the vulgar latin....the real language that was spoken by the majority of people....the language that is the source of all other romance languages....The Latin that is studied at universities etc...that is officially taught is called the Cicero Latin....this was rather alienated from the real Latin and it was only spoken by scientists, philosophers and upper upper class.....
A little comparison....

House in Vulgar Latin is 'casa' , in Cicero Latin it is 'domus' and in Spanish it's 'casa'.....so....decide yourself....

About pronounciation.....well...I'm afraid I don't like the official standard it's taught according to....the language seems dry and seems to lose it's flexibility and liveliness.....I prefer to pronounce it as it was Spanish....in Church the majority of people pronounced as it was Italian.....you see.....even during Roman Empire the language had several versions...each different from the others....for example...why does French sound so much different from Spanish and Italian and Romanian.....because of the Celtic influence....Gauls pronounced it their own way.......so...yeh......

It is not difficult, but you forget things fast if you don't use them very often. I guess if you have a solid base in English and French, then Latin shouldn't be a problem. And most European languages use words that come or are derived from Latin.

Yeah, and I am speaking French every day in university, haha, I learned French very quick after Latin, it is all the same
@Mioltahobad yes, you are right but I prefer literature Latin, it sounds better then common Latin

I would really like to learn latin. Mainly because In Extremo has a lot of songs in latin, and because I'm currenty studying italian, and latin is the base of italian, so it would be cool.

I've been learning Latin for four years now, I've just had my last test in high-school (grade 12) today and it should be almost without mistakes. If anyone here needs something translated or has questions, feel free to ask =) I do also speak and learn French, English and my mother tongue is German, but I can understand almost all roman languages.

I bellieve Latin to be a dead language because nobody can possibly say how it should be pronounced. All these suggestions they give in the books are just possibilities. For example, you can pronounce the letter "C" like [c] or like [k] depending on the time it was spoken. Then, there's dialects, of course. Even if somebody (Church, doctors, lecturers) claim to know the "real" pronounciation, this should be questionned because Latin wasn't spoken in most parts of Europe around the time when the other languages formed and the Roman Empire fell. It was only later, that clergy "discovered" Latin again. By that time, nobody had ever heard "real" citizens of the Roman Empire speak - by the way, I believe that the heart of cleric Latin as found in the carmina burana. This collection of drinking songs was found in Bavaria and if believed to be written in Austria or Bavaria at about 1200 or a little later. This means, that at this time, there was no Latin around, only ancient German. So the Latin we meet today cannot be pronounced right and in all the clergy literature, there are lots of mistakes that became common because the monks that copied the writings didn't know Latin.

I find it very wrong that the Church used Latin and is still using it today in masses as well because the majority of the people doesn't know it. Until the 70s, the priests in Austria were still preaching in Latin!

@ Damnated: I really like the grammar because I just have to read over it and I got it in my mind again. In Latin, the tenses aren't too difficult. There is Present (I am), Future 1 (I will be), Imperfectus (I have been), Perfect (I was), Future 2 (depending on the sentence...e.g. you will read what you have done), past perfect (I had been); subjunctive present, imperfectus, perfect and past perfect. all of those do also go in passive form. so, you end up having 20. the verbs are divided in five groups and there are some irregular verbs. but compared to German or Finnish, it is easier because you don't have so many irregular verbs and you can tell easily. I believe that the tenses are very similar to french as well as italian.

Sorry for getting so long..hope that keeps you arguing and carrying on the discussion =)

To me it is the most charismatic language.If any of my lecturers here thi, i may be kicked in the ass as there is noyhing for alinguist beautiful language or ugly language.If i talk about the language,yes it is very close to latin rooted european languages(french,perteguese,italian,spanish,romanian) and it also affected lots of other euorpean languages with the words it'd lended.

today I had my first latin exam of the semester, and hope I did ok. I was able to finish everything we had to do, so I have to wait and see how I did...

Which kind of texts do you guys translate? I take it, you're basically translating some of the "famous writers" from back then (at least that's what we do). On my latin calendar (bought it to have fun with latin), the topic today is a passage by Ovid (ars amatoria 1) that deals with the beauty of men

Written by BloodTears on 30.01.2007 at 23:10

I was thinking about the roman invasion in England (I'm studing that) and thought about asking if any of you knows Latin or is interested in the language. Its interesting to me because its part of the Italic branch of languages (along with French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and Romanian) and so it has very similar words to the portuguese.
Please, let me know your opinion about it. What do you think about the language itself? The pronunciation, etc.

ABout history part i can help you . I love roman empire histroy , and it is my best subject . ABout the latin lang. , i really want to learn it . My nick is latin and my title is latin .

I think that latin is a beautiful language! The pronounce is great! Someday I will study it! But I think that is a complicated language to learn, because of the verbal times...

took 3 years of latin in school, first 2 years were not so difficult, the 3rd year i couldnt pass, its very difficult to learn.

I know some wondrous sentences....Quad licet Iovi non licet bovi....
Sic transit gloria mundi....

I liked the Latin book I studied after once....years ago...it had really awesome pictures in it....for example..."Sic transit gloria munci"(So the glory of world fades) had a picture of a dead man and a small dog pissing on the corpse....I loved that book....

Latin is a wonderful language! I had Latin in my 1st year of college, but unfortunately our glossary was limited to veterinary medicine tremonology. We also didn't work on tenses, and that really bugs me. But I got the feeling of what latin is like, it's definately not an easy language - well, it wasn't for me, because my native language is one of the group of slavonic languages, but it is not that difficult that it would be impossible to learn. But you just need a push, like I did, because I had to pass my Latin exam if I wanted to pass the year And next year I will be forced again to write reports for my pathology class in pure Latin. It's gonna be whole lotta fun

And I've decided I'm going to upgrade my knowledge of Latin language and I already got me some books and some excercise books, because I know the basics and it would be a great shame not to upgrade it.

Written by Lupas on 09.03.2007 at 17:15

My nick is latin and my title is latin .

What does it mean then? Your name....is it Lupas or Iupas?

Written by Ernis on 13.07.2007 at 04:26

Written by Lupas on 09.03.2007 at 17:15

My nick is latin and my title is latin .

What does it mean then? Your name....is it Lupas or Iupas?

Its Lupas and means Wolf =P
I took latin last year because I wanted to learn other romance langueges quicker (although I already speak portuguese) and also I quite like the Roman Empire's culture