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Latin
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| Gauss |
| Is it hard to learn it? And how hard is it? |
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| Zild |
| Not too difficult. Took it in high school and a semester in college. The only difficulty is memorizing the declensions and conjugations and vocabulary. Remembering which words are what declension/conjugation. The grammar isn't difficult, and you don't really need to learn how to speak it. |
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| Lira |
If you speak Croatian, the grammar shouldn't be much difficult, given both language's complex case system, verbal tenses and such - the most striking difference would be the word order, because the main verb tends to go at the end of sentences in Latin (I don't think that happens in Croatian).
Maybe the hardest part will be, at first, mastering the vocabulary. Although both Slavic and Latin language share a common distant ancestor, the words have become slightly different as time went on... for example, whereas the Croatian word for "snow" (Snijeg) has preserved this initial "s" (just like English "snow" and Russian "sneg" did), Latin not only dropped it but also changed the final sound, reason why snow was then "Nix". This kind of change is certainly annoying at first but, once you get used to it, you're probably going to understand some of the words right away (specially if you speak English).
Finally, try not to think too much about the pronunciation: Latin is, mostly, a written language, given its "dead" status, and you probably won't "speak" in Latin to anyone in your lifetime :p |
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| Gauss |
| quote: | Originally posted by Lira
If you speak Croatian, the grammar shouldn't be much difficult, given both language's complex case system, verbal tenses and such - the most striking difference would be the word order, because the main verb tends to go at the end of sentences in Latin (I don't think that happens in Croatian).
Maybe the hardest part will be, at first, mastering the vocabulary. Although both Slavic and Latin language share a common distant ancestor, the words have become slightly different as time went on... for example, whereas the Croatian word for "snow" (Snijeg) has preserved this initial "s" (just like English "snow" and Russian "sneg" did), Latin not only dropped it but also changed the final sound, reason why snow was then "Nix". This kind of change is certainly annoying at first but, once you get used to it, you're probably going to understand some of the words right away (specially if you speak English).
Finally, try not to think too much about the pronunciation: Latin is, mostly, a written language, given its "dead" status, and you probably won't "speak" in Latin to anyone in your lifetime :p |
Wow, nice explanation, thanks. :)
Yeah, I obviously speak both Croatian and English. :p
I don't learn Latin at school but I think it's a cool language and I'd like to know it and espcecially speak it (:D), that's why I made this thread.
Whether I'm going to take lessons outside of school or not is another story, but I doubt it because of time it takes and time I don't have. :p |
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| Scoops |
i took 3 years of latin in HS...
biggest bull course i ever took. I got suckered into taking Latin 3 my senior year of os HS. What a crock of that was |
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| Omega_M |
| Learn java instead. :o |
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| LoveHate |
| failed spanish 10 last year lol, what messed me up was how you have to learn he same word in different accents. :nervous: |
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| Lira |
| quote: | Originally posted by LoveHate
failed spanish 10 last year lol, what messed me up was how you have to learn he same word in different accents. :nervous: |
Heh?
That happens in English too (think of "record" both as a noun and as a verb) :conf: |
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| LoveHate |
| feminine and mescaline:nervous: |
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| Lira |
| quote: | Originally posted by LoveHate
feminine and mescaline:nervous: |
Oh... yeah, that's tricky :( |
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| LoveHate |
| quote: | Originally posted by Lira
Oh... yeah, that's tricky :( |
hard to tell if you are being sarcastic. :( |
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| Lira |
| quote: | Originally posted by LoveHate
hard to tell if you are being sarcastic. :( |
No, no, I'm not being sarcastic, I swear.
I can just imagine how complicated that is for foreigners. They hardly ever get it 100% right, and I admit it doesn't make much sense either, because it's highly arbitrary. |
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