thevagrant88 wrote:Ok well since I'm here, I have questions.
What are your experience/s with studying both an ancient language and its modern descendant? I find myself in a situation where I would really like to learn both the ancient and modern varieties of my languages of choice. MSA and a dialect, Ancient and Modern Greek, Latin and (in my case) Spanish, etc, and I wanted other's perspectives. How do you feel learning both added you? Do you prefer starting with the older language and going to the modern variant or the other way around?
With Ancient Greek, I really, really would love to fully utilize Assimil for A. Greek, but I don't know French and/or Italian. Are there any other course with quality, reconstructed pronunciation audio? The first part of the Italian Athenaze has been translated in Spanish, but I really would like audio content whenever possible.
It's generally a matter of preference as to what is more important and motivational in the immediate term, but overall it is probably easier to go backward. You can get more exposure to a modern language to internalize its sounds and structures, and modern languages tend to be simplified versions of their ancestors. The content of modern languages also deals with modern life - not ancient life. To understand Tacitus in the original, you need to know Latin as well as the historical context he lived in. To understand Zafón in the original, you just need Spanish.