I take Latin and I LOVE it... I take it for my own reasons...I want to know what others believe are the benefits/drawbacks of taking a dead language?
2007-01-01 07:42:13 · 9 answers · asked by mzoo 2 in Society & Culture ➔ Languages
Latin is a great language, dead or alive. One might say it's dead, but to me, it's very much alive. The Romance languages, French, Italaian, Spanish, Catalan, Romanian, Romansh, etc., have Latin roots. Even words in the English language have Latin roots (etc., i.e., and e.g. all have Latin roots as well). Not only that, it is also the official language of the Holy See (Vatican City) and the Roman Catholic Church.
And that's just Latin. Most of the dead langauges that are studied today (like Ancient Greek, and a few others) are studied because the civilization that spoke it made huge contributions that could only be fully comprehended in the native langauge. To understand the past is to understand the present and the future. Many of these langauges also gave way to and are common ancestors of many modern langauges.
The only real drawback I can think of is that it has no practical use in the real world. You can't jump into a foreign country and expect to be able to communicate in a dead language.
2007-01-01 08:56:30 · answer #1 · answered by Sungchul 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Many religious scholars take Latin to read old Biblical texts, and Latin is still the official language of Vatican City (the smallest nation in the world).
Learning dead languages is great for anthropologists and linguists as well, because dead languages help us to understand and observe how modern languages developed and how they are related (or not related).
2007-01-01 08:43:00 · answer #2 · answered by Rabbityama 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
In addition to the earlier answers I would say that you do get to use your Latin when you go to Italy. It is great to be able to understand a little when you visit the Forum Romanum or Pompeii or one of the other Roman places.
Apart from having a good basis for learning the Roman languages (French, Spanish, Italian etc.), you also gain a very good understanding of how grammar works. This will help you understand the functions of your own language better and make it easier for you to learn other languages.
Keep it up. It's cool learning languages.
2007-01-01 08:10:28 · answer #3 · answered by Great Dane 4 · 2⤊ 0⤋
well the drawback is that you never get to communicate with other people in a dead language.. the benefit is that learning a dead language may help you to understand current languages.. Latin helps understand italiano, francais, espanol, romanian,...
2007-01-01 07:47:15 · answer #4 · answered by hedZy ♀ The Dancing Banana 4 · 2⤊ 0⤋
German: die Schule (between dee SHOOL-uh and dee SHOOL-er) Spanish: la escuela (la es-KWAY-luh) Italian: la scuola (skoo-OH-lah) All German nouns are capitalized, so as this is why "die Schule" is. I secure the specific articles with the words and in the pronunciations, the stress is going on the capital letters. i be attentive to a thank you to place in writing college interior of right here languages, yet i don't be attentive to a thank you to pronounce them and that i don't be attentive to the specific articles the two. Czech: Škola Portuguese: Escola Finnish: Koulu Danish: Skole wish that facilitates.
2016-10-06 07:21:05 · answer #5 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
it will give you links to almost all of the other languages like spanish and french and many european languages like poco is just a little in Latin and spanish
2007-01-01 07:51:27 · answer #6 · answered by meacai10 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
all techenical words come from this dead language, so i can see the benifits of greater understanding of this language.
2007-01-01 07:50:52 · answer #7 · answered by taffneygreen 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Latin will help u on the SAT and figuring words out in general...It will also help if your going into pharmcy
2007-01-01 08:57:28 · answer #8 · answered by Soccerstar 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
so you can curse people out in it!
2007-01-01 07:49:28 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 4⤋