Should I Learn Latin Or Ancient Greek

In this day of computers, and the triumph of science and technology, when there is and then much to learn and and then trivial fourth dimension, why written report a expressionless language? Why not study something applied and useful? Like Castilian, for case. While we agree the study of Castilian is a very practiced thing, what I propose to show y'all here is that in that location is no subject field most useful, more practical, and more valuable than Latin .

1.) Latin is the adjacent stride after phonics.

We all understand the importance of phonics, the systematic study of the English letters and their sounds. But phonics just covers half of our language, the English half, those good quondam concrete words that students learn to speak and read commencement. Simply then we stop, even though there is another one-half of English that has a whole new set of root words, spelling, and pronunciation patterns.

English, you run across, is a hybrid linguistic communication, a spousal relationship of ii languages—English and Latin. The name English comes from the Angles who, along with the Saxons and other barbarians, invaded Britain later the fall of Rome in the 5th century. English is a Germanic language and, the Germans existence barbarians, had mostly physical, common, everyday words, the words children learn to speak and read first in principal school.

Just, kickoff in 3rd grade, students first to encounter the Latin half of English. Latin words are bigger, harder, have more syllables, more abstruse meanings, and dissimilar pronunciation and spelling patterns. How do we teach the Latin half of English in a systematic orderly way like nosotros practice phonics? Nosotros don't. But nosotros should. And the merely truly systematic way to continue the study of the English language afterward phonics is to teach Latin—the foundation of the Latin half of English language.

2.) Half of our English vocabulary is made up of Latin words and roots.

Here'due south the problem. The child has learned the English discussion for father, just then as he progresses through schoolhouse he meets a whole new set of words: 3-v syllable, difficult, abstruse words that come up from the Latin word forfather, pater , patris(Effigy 1). How do we prepare students for these words? We don't. Exercise you know the meaning of paternalism, expatriate, and patronize?

Here's another example (Figure ii): The immature educatee has learned the English give-and-take for death, only how does that prepare him for these abstruse words that come from the Latin word forexpiry, mors, mortis ? How do we teach these Latin words masquerading as English? We don't.

Here are some Latin words that illustrate the Latin style of spelling and pronunciation:

DEM o crat dem oCRAT ic deMOC ra cy

Look at the shifting accent on these iii Latin words and the vowelo that changes its sound. In the get-go two words, theo has the schwauhsound, simply in the last wordo is in the absolute syllable, and you can now hear the short o sound. There is nothing like this in the English language side of English.

By the way, one way to help students spell these Latin words where the interior vowel is muffled is to attempt some other form of the word. If you lot can't think what the deadened vowel is indem uh crat, you lot tin hear that the vowel iso inde moc ra cy.

Wait at these substantive and verb combinations of Latin words (Effigy 3).

Whenpresent,progress,record, andrebel are verbs, the stress is on the root and the vowel in the first syllable is long. But when these same words part every bit nouns, the stress shifts to the prefix, and the vowel in the kickoff syllable is curt. In the English fashion of spelling, the vowel in an open syllable is ever long, but in a Latin word it can be long or short. More than half of English words are Latin and observe spelling and pronunciation rules unlike from the English words students learn in primary schoolhouse. Is this not one of the reasons for the failure of many of our students to advance beyond a 4th or 5th grade reading level? They are no longer reading English; they are reading Latin!

But there is more. At that place are many Latin words that come straight into English without whatever alter, retaining their Latin endings and all.

Why is the plural of memorandum, memoranda ; datum, data ; appendix, appendices ; matrix, matrices ; synopsis, synopses ? Why is a male person graduate an alumnusand female person graduate an alumna? The student who has learned Latin will never accept to wonder at these strange endings. They are mutual plural endings in Latin (Figure 4).

You see, Latin is the next footstep after phonics. It continues the systematic study of English language throughout uncomplicated school, right when children need it, right when they are encountering thousands of new words and edifice their vocabulary and reading skills.

Students who study Latin develop an interest in words. They learn something they had never thought of earlier. Words don't only drop out of the sky—they come from some place; words have a history, sometimes a very long and interesting history. Many words are globe travelers, traveling from Greece to Rome to France to England. Words are fascinating.

So, Latin is the next step after phonics because it continues the written report of the Latin one-half of English vocabulary in a systematic, orderly way. Skip the vocabulary courses. Acquire Latin. It will teach your children the history of words, and happy is the man who knows the causes of things.

three.) Latin provides the root words for all of the modern sciences.

We live in an age dominated past science, then parents oftentimes ask, "Why study something useless and impractical like Latin? What we need is more scientific discipline and math education."

We think science is important also—so important that nosotros strongly recommend Latin to these folks. And hither's why: All of the modern sciences began their development at the time of the Renaissance (about 500 years ago) when all educated people knew Latin and Greek.

A new science means a whole new set of words, a whole new vocabulary. Call up of all the new words that came with informatics. Retrieve of all of the large words in biological science, chemistry, astronomy, psychology, sociology, and economic science. The first task in learning a new discipline is to larn the vocabulary. Learning the vocabulary is half the battle.

How will your child learn all of those large words in his science educational activity? What preparation do nosotros give our students to assist them master the tremendous demands of learning the specialized vocabularies of the sciences he will study in high schoolhouse and college? We don't! But we tin and should. Latin provides the root words for the specialized vocabularies of not one, not half, merely all of the modern sciences.

You meet, new scientific discipline terms have to come up from somewhere. People don't just make up new sounds and words out of nothing. They all came from the ancient classical languages, Latin and Greek. Think of Latin and Greek as a big quarry where scientists get to dig out new words. Even the word figurer comes from the Latin wordcomputo, to count, to sum upwardly.

Now what is the difficult part of learning a new scientific discipline? What is the grammer of a science? The vocabulary. Learning the specialized vocabulary of each new science is half the battle.

benefits to studying latin

Allow me illustrate …

Here are a few science terms that come up even in elementary school (Figure 5). The vernal equinox is the i 24-hour interval of bound when mean solar day and nighttime are equal.Vernalcomes from the Latin word forbound, ver , veris . You know, like pasta primavera ,spring pasta. Or the summer solstice, June 21, the ane day of summertime that has the longest day and the shortest night, when the sun is highest in the sky. Solis Latin forsun.

Or the iii kinds of rocks that students acquire in geology: igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic. The Latin word forfireis ignis , from which nosotros getignition andigneous stone, molten rock, fabricated from burn down. And sedimentary rock that is laid down in sediment comes from the Latin word sedeo sedere , to sit, to settle. And lastly, metamorphic stone, like marble and granite, is rock that has inverse class nether great pressure. Metamorphic comes from the Greek meta , to modify, and morphe , form, through Latin, to change course.

Exercise y'all watch your sodium intake? Ever wonder why the symbol of sodium is Na or the symbol of Iron is Fe? (Effigy vi) Your child will see many of these symbols for common elements on package labeling today. There are about six elements which were known to the ancients, and their chemic symbols come from their Latin names. By the mode, did yous know that Argentina comes from Argentumbecause it was a land where great silverish deposits were constitute?

Happy is the man who knows the causes of things. We naturally desire to know the reasons why. Most reasons are hidden in history and come up to light through the written report of Latin.

The Latin student does not have to wonder why the plural offungus is fungi or the plural ofbacterium is bacteria . These are just the masculine and neuter endings of Latin nouns. He won't accept to struggle with biology terms. Trees that keep their leaves all winter are evergreen, an easy enough English language word; but trees that lose their leaves aredeciduous, a not and so piece of cake word—unless you know Latin.

The whole classification system of all living things, plants and animals, is based on Latin and Greek. Here are two examples:Acer saccharum and Quercus alba. Saccharum , from which we getsaccharin andsaccharine, is carbohydrate in Latin; alba , from which we derivealbino, is white in Latin. AndQuercus was the Roman proper noun for oak (Figure 7).

Even mathematical terms come from Latin.Integermeans fresh, uninjured, whole in Latin, and thus, integers are whole numbers.Axiosmeansworthy in Greek, and thus an axiom is a principle that all reasonable people have even though it cannot be proven. Why? Because it is worthy of belief.

An exponent is a number placed outside of the writing line, and a radical is the root of a number. The square root of 9 is 3. Radicals, remember those? (Come across Figure viii) At that place is something most actually knowing the root word that not only helps you lot remember a new term but also deepens your understanding of its pregnant.

4.) Latin is the language of law, authorities, logic, and theology.

Not only does Latin provide the root words for all of the modern sciences (Reason 3), just Latin is the language of law, politics, logic, and theology. While a large number of words in science come from Greek, law is the exclusive domain of the Latin language. All legal terms are Latin. The Romans excelled in the practical arts of law and authorities, and information technology is from them that we derive our legal and political linguistic communication. How many of these words exercise you know the meanings of? (Effigy 1) Latin is invaluable for the business organization and law student. And although logic was first explained by Aristotle in Greek, it was really developed and systematized past the schoolmen in the Middle Ages—in Latin, of course.

And in the West, even Christian theology was worked out in Latin. (Figure two) Many of the original words were Greek, just they were all filtered through the Latin language. In fact, everything that has come up down to us from the ancient world was filtered through Latin. Jesus said, "Behold I do a new thing," and thus Christians needed new words to describe these new things. Sometimes they grabbed existing Latin words and gave them new meanings, like grace which meant favor or thank you. Christians gave grace a new spiritual meaning—the undeserved favor of God, Christian grace. And sometimes they created new words, like the Latin give-and-take Trinity, a discussion non found in Scripture just one needed to express the doctrine of the three-in-one God.Tres, tria is three andunus isi,Tri unity.Trinity. Both three and ane at the same time.

10 reasons to study latin

Many well know theological concepts are in Latin. We are createdImago Dei, in the image of God, andex nihilo, from zero.Sola fide was the battle cry of the Reformation.

5.) Latin is the almost efficient way to larn English grammar.

How many new grammar programs have failed to produce results? Offset information technology wasEasy Grammar and now information technology isShirley Grammar. The problem is not with these programs; the trouble is with English grammar. Why is English grammer so difficult to teach? There are several reasons, the first of which is summed upwards by these observations:

English grammer doesn't connect with students. It is difficult for students to clarify something they utilize instinctively because
Students do non demand grammer to use their ain language, then
English language grammar, for most students, is useless and deadening.

The second reason is that English grammar is too abstract for the grammar stage. In my opinion it is most the same level of abstraction and difficulty as algebra. When Dorothy Sayers, inThe Lost Tools of Learning, recommended grammer in the grammar stage, she wasn't talking about English grammer, analyzing and diagramming sentences; she was talking about memorizing the Latin grammar. I recollect we have all made a serious mistake by emphasizing analytical English language grammar in the grammar stage. Memorizing, remember, is consistent with the grammar stage, non analysis, which belongs in the logic stage.

English grammar is abstract and invisible considering of its lack of structure and inflection. But Latin grammar is concrete and visiblebecause of its structure and inflection. What is inflection? Inflected languages have noun endings that tell you what the noun is doing in the sentence. Is the noun a bailiwick, a directly object, or an indirect object?

Look at the first 2 sentences to see inflection (Figure 3). In the starting time judgement, 'queen' is the direct object because its endingam tells you then. In the 2nd sentence, Mary is the direct object; its catastrophe,am, tells you and then. When Mary is the subject field information technology ends ina, and when Mary is the straight object, information technology ends inam—similar tohe and him in English. Do you run across how the Latin grammer is visible and physical? You canrun into andhear the difference between a subject and a direct object in Latin.

why study latin

Inflected languages also accept verb endings that tell you who is doing the action of the verb, and when. The personal pronouns,we andthey, exercise not have to be expressed in Latin because they are contained in the verb endings-mus and -nt. Inflection makes grammar visible and concrete.

English grammar is abstruse and subconscious because it is uninflected. It is unsystematic, unstructured, unreliable, and inconsistent. We are a loose and freedom loving people. We break the rules. The Romans were the most disciplined, structured, organized people in history so was their language; their conjugations and declensions march in disciplined rows only like their legions.

There is a third trouble with English grammar: English grammer! Learning a foreign language is the well-nigh effective way to learn grammar. I accept never given a talk when someone did not come upwards afterwards and say, "I never actually understood English grammar until I took French (or Spanish, or German, or whatever)." It is hard to clarify something you lot utilise instinctively. And what is more natural and difficult to think about than your own native linguistic communication? Information technology is second nature. The child of three or four speaks in consummate sentences with subjects and predicates, verbs, direct objects, indirect objects, prepositional phrases, possessives, participles, gerunds, and infinitives—all without pedagogy. You do not have to tell the child to put a predicate in his sentence, do you? Accept you ever had to say, "At present don't forget your indirect object," or "Hey, what happened to that participle"? Of class non. And then when the educatee tries to analyze something he uses naturally and has learned by imitation, he finds it rather useless and dull. Eyes coat over.

But a foreign language is strange. The student has to break information technology down to acquire information technology. Learning a strange language makes use of a technique that is guaranteed to open eyes and develop deeper understanding—contrast and comparison. Nosotros don't really run into something until we encounter it in comparison to something else. Contrast and comparison deepens understanding. It makes the field of study come into perspective, come alive. Depth perception requires two eyes. Until we run across with 2 eyes we are like the Cyclops, i big eye that sees a lot but with petty understanding. Learning a foreign language is seeing with 2 eyes; it is an centre-opener.

And lest we revert back to the "why not Spanish grammar" statement, when it comes to grammar, at that place is no grammar like the Latin grammar. Latin is the virtually orderly, logical, disciplined, structured, systematic, consequent grammar in being. Every lesson in Latin is a lesson in logic. Latin is a grammar system that is unparalleled among all the languages. It has no equal. Castilian is a very admirable linguistic communication, only when it comes to grammar information technology doesn't come close.

I won't say "skip English grammer" like I did the vocabulary courses, only I will say cut manner back on your belittling English grammar and put that time into Latin. Latin grammer teaches English better than English teaches English.

6.) Latin is the best grooming for learning any linguistic communication.

Which brings me to the sixth reason to learn Latin. Latin is the all-time preparation for learning a Romance language, or any language. Once you actually understand how linguistic communication works, the job of learning a new language will be more than cut in half. Why settle for but i language? Larn a dozen, just learn Latin starting time.

7.) Latin effectively develops and trains the mind.

I consider this to be the most important reason of all: mental grooming. Latin is the most effective tool we have to develop and railroad train the minds of the young. Not merely does it cut in half the job of learning another language, it makes learning any bailiwick easier. How tin can that exist?

The student who has learned how to learn with Latin will exist a better student at all of his other subjects. Latin is an unexcelled organization. Once you learn one system, you larn how to remember systematically and approach any new subject area with profoundly enhanced learning skills.

You come across, subjects do more than provide information. Subjects are formative. The discipline forms the minds of students by impressing its own qualities on their minds. Yous have heard the expressionyou are what y'all consume. Likewise your mind becomes similar what you study. Your mind takes on the qualities of the subjects that it dwells on. The determinative attribute of subjects is every bit of import, if non more important, than the information they provide. For instance, the subject of literature teaches insight, perception, and compassion for the human status. The subject of history develops judgment, discernment, acumen, and wisdom; The field of study of math teaches accuracy and logic. Those qualities of mind are priceless and what differentiates the educated person from the uneducated. Likewise, the listen of the student that has been educated in Latin takes on the qualities of Latin: logic, order, bailiwick, structure. Latin requires and teaches attention to detail, accurateness, patience, precision, and thorough, honest piece of work. Latin will form the minds of your students. Think of the listen like the body. Latin is a mental workout, and Latin is your mental trainer.

8.) Latin aids the mind in other means …

Latin is a unit study where the piece of work is done for you lot. The appeal of a unit of measurement study is that everything is connected and integrated. Things stick together and make more than sense. So much of learning is fragmented into subjects that seem isolated from each other. But creating a unit study is a lot of work, and unit studies are express to a pocket-size section of cognition.

Latin is a unit of measurement study where the work is done for you, where everything integrates naturally, where the connections are there for you to discover. There is no subject field yous can report that connects with every other subject field more than Latin. Recall all of the connections with science and math, logic, theology, law? Everything from the ancient world has come down to us filtered through the Latin linguistic communication. For 1000 years, the only linguistic communication we had was Latin. When y'all learn Latin yous are learning the history of just almost everything. Learning is mostly words. Words, words, words. And almost of them are Latin words.

Learning is making connections. The more you know, the more you can learn and the easier it is to acquire new knowledge because it volition stick to something you already know. Latin gives yous more stickies than any other subject. It is similar academic velcro. It connects with everything.

ix.) Latin is transformative.

Latin will change your curriculum and homeschool from practiced to cracking. Latin provides the missing chemical element in modernistic educational activity—the glue, the integrating cistron. Latin does for the language side of the curriculum what math does for scientific discipline. Information technology provides the mental discipline and structure that the humanities side of the curriculum desperately needs.

The ii most difficult and challenging subjects in the curriculum are mathematics and languages. Both subjects are necessarily cumulative. Everything must exist remembered; nothing can be forgotten.

A cumulative subject area builds twelvemonth after year, requiring skills each twelvemonth that are more and more advanced, higher and higher, deeper and deeper. By contrast, well-nigh subjects are topical, not cumulative. For instance, if you are studying history and zone out during the Revolutionary State of war the start term and make a D, you can wake up and redeem yourself the second term for the Civil War and make an A. You tin can't practise that with math and Latin. And that is why they are hard. And so much of learning is superficial, shallow, on the surface. The only style to get out of the shallow waters is to dive deep into i bailiwick. Students need that experience. We talk a lot near higher gild thinking, only at that place is only 1 manner to reach a loftier order of thinking, and that is to dive deep into one discipline. The only subject that gives that experience now is math. We need that kind of experience on the language side of the curriculum. Latin is the answer.

10.) Latin is the language of Western Civilization.

If nosotros programme to save Western civilization, we must study it. No ane would retrieve that we could report and preserve American civilization without studying and preserving English. The same is truthful of Western civilization. Latin is the mother natural language of Western civilization. The original thinkers in the ancient globe were the Greeks and the Hebrews, but information technology was the Romans that summarized, synthesized, codified, and handed it down to u.s.—in Latin. It could accept been Greek or Hebrew, but information technology wasn't. In the providence of God, it was Latin. And now Latin has spread over the world in all of the sciences, law, five Romance languages and i hybrid: English language. Latin is the most influential language in human being history. Learn Latin! Yous will be doing your part to salvage Western civilizationand transform your education from good to great. Latin is not dead; information technology's immortal.

Originally published in The Classical TeacherWinter 2011 edition.