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March 1, 2010 7:16 AM   Subscribe

Do you know of any fun, innovative resources for casual Latin study?

I want to improve my understanding of Latin before starting my PhD program in the fall. It's been years and years since I've been in a Latin class, and even then I never got much beyond a beginner's level. I've been going through Lingua Latina a bit on my own, and I like it, but I'm looking for something complementary that's focused on grammar and linguistics-- and not mind-numbingly boring.

My Holy Grail would be an engaging, recent book that would include some linguistics-type comparisons with Ancient Greek (which I know) and Proto-Indo-European (which I don't know much about). I think I'd prefer something more like a scholarly text and less like a classroom workbook, but if there are any standouts in the latter field I'm interested in hearing about them.

I'd also be interested to know if there are any recent, innovative online or software solutions. I've gone through the answers for this question and this one, but they're both a bit dated. Tools along the lines of NoDictionaries would be perfect (I already know about and use Perseus; it's not quite what I'm looking for in this situation).
posted by oinopaponton to Education (5 answers total) 11 users marked this as a favorite
 
Andrew Sihler's New Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin sounds like it would be right up your alley. He brings PIE into the discussion from the very start. I can't say I've read it straight through, but the sections I've dipped into have been great.
posted by Bromius at 7:33 AM on March 1, 2010


Reginald Foster is doing his class in Milwaukee this summer. Fun, innovative resource, but not casual. Contact address is on this revision of his Wikipedia page.
posted by xueexueg at 7:45 AM on March 1, 2010 [1 favorite]


seconding Bromius on Sihler. I also found Fortson's Indo-European Language and Culture to be a great introduction to Proto-IE and a very methodical approach to IE's branches. I'd be interested to hear your followup if you do find any useful resources.
posted by palionex at 3:28 AM on March 2, 2010


My Holy Grail would be an engaging, recent book that would include some linguistics-type comparisons with Ancient Greek (which I know) and Proto-Indo-European (which I don't know much about).

Sihler, mentioned above, would be the best place to start.

For historical grammars of Latin, I've heard good things about Michael Weiss' Outline.

If you read German (which obviously you'll need for a PhD program), Gerhard Meiser's Historische Laut- und Formenlehre der lateinischen Sprache is excellent. (Unfortunately might be very hard to get a hold of a copy if your Uni library doesn't have one.)

Of course, none of that is really all that helpful in actually bringing your language competency up to speed (though it will do lots for your philological knowledge). The best thing I can suggest to improve your Latin is to read, read, read. Read things that are fun and, in fact, just a bit *below* your current competence (easy things). There's so much wonderful source material for doing that on Google books now, it's amazing. What kinds of texts are you interested in? If you like linguistics/language development, I can't recommend Plautus highly enough -- for me, it was the easiest thing I'd ever read because it felt like a "real" language, and I actually ended up doing one of my PhD special topics exams on Old Latin because it was so much fun. (A lot of people find it difficult, caveat lector.)
posted by lysimache at 2:21 PM on March 2, 2010


Response by poster: Thanks! Looks like the good ones will be painfully expensive to get ahold of before I have access to a university library in the fall, but I'll try to check out Sihler and Meiser.
posted by oinopaponton at 6:36 AM on March 4, 2010


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