Classical Languages - Study Group

An area with study groups for various languages. Group members help each other, share resources and experience. Study groups are permanent but the members rotate and change.
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einzelne
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Re: Classical Languages - Study Group

Postby einzelne » Mon Aug 08, 2022 1:33 am

I've been reading a very intriguing book on the history of Latin since the 16th century — Francoise Waquet's Latin, or, the empire of the sign (if you happen to know French, you can read it in the original). It narrates the story of Latin since its revival thanks to humanists of the Renaissance. Lots of historical evidence and surprising details. The chapter on the history of oral Latin is the most shocking. While people praised Classical Latin, very little if few could actually speak it fluently even among those who were supposed to know it at a very high level (teachers and clergymen). I don't want to spoil Living Latin's party but the evidence is rather damning! Anyway, no matter what position you take in this debate, this book is highly recommended. (on a side note, I didn't expect Verso to publish such a book, it was a pleasant surprise.)
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Herodotean
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Re: Classical Languages - Study Group

Postby Herodotean » Mon Aug 08, 2022 2:23 am

einzelne wrote:I've been reading a very intriguing book on the history of Latin since the 16th century — Francoise Waquet's Latin, or, the empire of the sign (if you happen to know French, you can read it in the original). It narrates the story of Latin since its revival thanks to humanists of the Renaissance. Lots of historical evidence and surprising details. The chapter on the history of oral Latin is the most shocking. While people praised Classical Latin, very little if few could actually speak it fluently even among those who were supposed to know it at a very high level (teachers and clergymen). I don't want to spoil Living Latin's party but the evidence is rather damning! Anyway, no matter what position you take in this debate, this book is highly recommended. (on a side note, I didn't expect Verso to publish such a book, it was a pleasant surprise.)

Not everyone agrees with Waquet's take. See, for instance, the review by Terence Tunberg, himself an expert on spoken Latin in the Renaissance.
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MorkTheFiddle
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Re: Classical Languages - Study Group

Postby MorkTheFiddle » Tue Aug 09, 2022 6:06 pm

MorkTheFiddle wrote:Geoffrey Steadman recently posted a pdf of Book 6 of The History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides.
FWIW, the Perseus site has a running commentary of Book 6 by E. C. Marchant.

Other commentaries on Book 6, which I have not seen:

Bryn Mawr Commentaries, Shelmerdine
Thucydides: The Peloponnesian War Book VI (Cambridge Greek and Latin Classics), Christopher Pelling.
Searching on Amazon for Thucydides Book 6 brings up a couple more.
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Many things which are false are transmitted from book to book, and gain credit in the world. -- attributed to Samuel Johnson

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einzelne
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Re: Classical Languages - Study Group

Postby einzelne » Wed Aug 10, 2022 4:11 pm

A new graded reader in the tradition of LLPSI was published earlier this year — Via Latina: De lingua et vita Romanorum.

277000572_5478733932139279_1071943368283799964_n.jpg
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ros
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Re: Classical Languages - Study Group

Postby ros » Thu Sep 01, 2022 12:57 am

I'm curious if anyone in this group has some insight into this: I've started studying Old English due to finding this thread on the Resources board and have noticed that while the letters thorn and eth are preserved, wynn is replaced with "w" in every text I've found. The only reasoning I've found online for replacing ƿ with w is that it looks too much like þ, but to me they look sufficiently different not to be confused, at least with the fonts on my computer. The þ's in the book linked in that thread do look like ƿ, but that seems to be a result of the particular font (probably one of very few available for a typewriter) used at the time, which shouldn't be a problem today.

Is there any other reason?
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Shelmerdine Intro. to Greek: 6 / 34

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Herodotean
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Re: Classical Languages - Study Group

Postby Herodotean » Mon Sep 12, 2022 3:04 pm

Textkit's Bedwere has completed another massive project: a recording of Xenophon's Cyropaedia, weighing in at almost 17 hours.
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guyome
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Re: Classical Languages - Study Group

Postby guyome » Tue Sep 13, 2022 7:35 am

ros wrote:I'm curious if anyone in this group has some insight into this: I've started studying Old English due to finding this thread on the Resources board and have noticed that while the letters thorn and eth are preserved, wynn is replaced with "w" in every text I've found. The only reasoning I've found online for replacing ƿ with w is that it looks too much like þ, but to me they look sufficiently different not to be confused, at least with the fonts on my computer. The þ's in the book linked in that thread do look like ƿ, but that seems to be a result of the particular font (probably one of very few available for a typewriter) used at the time, which shouldn't be a problem today.

Is there any other reason?
It's not just ƿ. For instance, ſ is also standardised as "s" despite being very different in shape.
So, it's more why have þ and ð been spared when every other letter is mercilessly brought in conformity with modern fonts? My guess is that there is no simple way to differentiate between þ and ð if you want to use the modern English alphabet. Using something like "th" and "dh" is rather clumsy, so it's easier to go with þ and ð. No such problem exists for other letters, where a one-to-one correspondence with modern English letters can be found.
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einzelne
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Re: Classical Languages - Study Group

Postby einzelne » Wed Sep 14, 2022 10:16 pm

Bits of Spinoza's Ethica in audio (Ecclesiastic pronunciation)
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einzelne
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Re: Classical Languages - Study Group

Postby einzelne » Thu Sep 15, 2022 5:38 pm

Treasure Island in Latin on Project Gutenberg.
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Re: Classical Languages - Study Group

Postby IronMike » Sat Sep 17, 2022 11:28 pm

I just finished the 10-month-ish Glyphstudy through Collier & Manley's How to read Hieroglyphs. Moving on now to translating Amenemhat's Instructions to his son. Looks hard already!

Image

Thankfully, we're not translating the Hieratic. We're translating a hieroglypic transliteration of it:

Image
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