Re: Latin a loglang? (was Re: Unambiguous languages (was: EU allumettes))

I doubt that Latin can be teached as a modern
language, or rather, the problem is: the texts we
studied were literary texts, not everyday spoken
Latin, of course. So, reading Cicero as if it were a
today article in the Sun seems a little bit difficult
(especially without the photographs). If the Romans
had left us newspapers, it would probably be much
easier to read them than pieces of academic eloquence.

Latin literary sentences usually look as if a horse
had kicked into them and scattered the words all over.
You have to lead a police investigation to gather
clues and try to put the words back together. I bet
this was not the case when a Roman told his wife,
well, you again forgot to tell the slave to wash my
toga, guess you were gossiping with the senator's
wife, huh ?

--- Ray Brown <ray.brown@...> wrote:
>
> I'm glad to say in the 6th Form (it's got some other
> name now - it what
> you did after 16 while still st school) I did get
> around to reading it as
> one would normally read a language.
[...]
>
> Also, indeed, since the 1960s, Latin has tended to
> be taught much more in
> similar way to modern languages.
[...]
>
> Ray

=====
Philippe Caquant

"High thoughts must have high language." (Aristophanes, Frogs)


	
		
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