Re:Ask HN: Self-taught webdev with lots of free time. What s...
by monoideism on Wednesday August 12, 2020 @09:28AM
(#24131851)
My observation about most of the new spoken Latin courses and lessons is that they're teaching Vulgar Latin or something akin to early medieval Latin.
That's cool, and very interesting. As you alluded to, you're basically learning proto-Romance.
However, as you likely know, people should not expect to be able to read classical Latin based on that knowledge. They should be able to read many medieval Latin works (including many notable scientific works!), but forget Cicero, Ovid, or Tacitus. Those will require significant additional study.
Re:Ask HN: Self-taught webdev with lots of free time. What s...
by wyclif on Thursday August 13, 2020 @01:28AM
(#24140205)
Luke Ranieri has some of the best advice on learning Latin. But note, even though Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata is one of the best Latin books available, he doesn't recommend starting with that. It's more effective to first learn your noun, accusative, dative, genitive, and ablative cases, plus verb tenses and moods, by brute memorisation. Then move on to the Ørberg readers: http://wcdrutgers.net/Latin.htm
I recently discovered that it is possible to learn Latin by listening to it. I struggle getting through written material so I had given up on my dream of learning Latin, until I found out there's audiobooks [0] and even YouTube channels where people speak it! [1]
[0]: Lingua Latina per se illustrata by Hans Ørberg, also available in audio -- this one's entirely in Latin, yet I could understand the first few chapters very well just from knowing English and some Spanish
[1]: Luke Ranieri on YouTube https://youtu.be/j7hd799IznU
He also has Skype lessons and conversations, super cool!