January Progress
LLSPI : (Anki & understood) +1
LLSPI : (Pensa)
LLSPI : (Excercita) +1
TY Latin : +1
Moreland & Fleischer : +0
Anki Words to 6000 : (to 6000) +904
LanguageCrush words = 6329 (approx. Intermediate 1 according to LingQ) +0
Very little progress on LLPSI, as I took the time off for some extensive reading (see below). But vocab learning has been satisfactory - I’ve got well ahead of my target, triple the speed I need to hit 6000 this year, though there were some very low hanging fruit to pick this month. The extra words are already making a difference with reading. I'll need buffer this week at least - exams next week.
Readers:
Harrius Potter et Camera Secretorum
LLPSI Fabellae Latinae
LLPSI Fabulae Syrae
Ritchie’s Fabulae Faciles
Ritchie’s Fabulae ab urbe Condita
Lhomond Epitome Historia Sacra
Sidwell Mediaeval Latin.
I naturally gravitate to extensive reading with little care for precision, which is exactly why I have been trying to restrain myself from it. I wanted to finish the basic grammar before I let myself go, so that my Latin didn’t end up as woolly and imprecise as my Greek.
Unfortunately I got Harry Potter 1 & 2 in Latin for my birthday (along with Sidwell’s Medieval Latin and a copy of LLPSI part II). I couldn’t resist dipping into it, and was delighted to find how easy it was. While the first couple of chapters took some effort, and I needed the English in parallel, I was able to to work through a chapter every evening. The first couple were hard, and I re-read them; by the middle of the book I was finding pages where I didn’t need to look up anything or check it in the English (though not many). Going back to pages I’ve read, it’s amazing how much has stuck.
And it feels like it’s come at exactly the right time; there is still too much grammar I’m not clear on, but it felt like reading this volume now was exactly what I needed. Suddenly reading is far easier, and it feels like my Latin has taken a great leap forward.
It seems like a good translation - it does stick to English word order more than it should, but it’s enjoyable and well done. And the English word order makes comparing it with the English easier. The Latin is noticeably easier than the Ancient Greek version, possibly because Ancient Greek is just more…. Ancient. It seems to me that translating a novel is mostly hard because Ancient languages just don’t have that many descriptive words. They weren’t as interested in colour and facial expressions and tone of voice as we are, let alone landscape description - as you can see from the bald style of narrative in the Bible (especially the Old Testament), or the Icelandic Sagas, or Ancient Chronicles… So while it's actually not hard to come up with words for modern things (cars, telephones, magic wands...) it is hard to come up with the words for the way modern people use narrative to describe the world. Ancient Greek, despite a very large vocabulary, just doesn’t naturally have this rich descriptive capacity, and that makes any translation clumsy. Latin has those extra centuries of use, and even Classical Latin is just that little bit later than the most canonical Ancient Greek. It makes a real difference. There are plenty of odd circumlocutions in the book, but far less than in the Greek.
Listening:
Roma Aeterna
Though I am still theoretically working through Familia Romana, I’ve started listening to Roma Aeterna, hoping that a bit of pre-listening will ease the famously difficult transition between the two volumes. The first chapter is remarkably easy, but my comprehension begins to slip rapidly after that. It’s nice to listen to something new and challenging, though.
Greek:
Usual NT daily reading
Lysias Against Eratosthenes (Intensive) (on hold)
Athenaze Ephodion I (on hold)
Nothing to report
Hebrew:
Nothing to report.
Farsi:
Nothing to report.
