Ancient Greek and Latin are difficult languages, which may require more time and effort than a modern language will. However, they are not impossible, but complex sequences of code which collect to produce beautiful works.
Keep the following tips in mind for a smoother journey into the Ancient World:
1. Learning to Read, not to Speak
Imagine if you were only learning English to read Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, and Stephen King. The three are masters of the language, but their vocabulary choice, sentence structure, genre, time-period, and complexity of speech are all completely different: a Shakespearean word could mean something completely different in Stephen King! Therefore, rather than beginning with simple greetings, then expanding into different vocabulary areas, you study the complexities of English grammar and slowly familiarize yourself with the vocabulary. This is how one learns Latin and Ancient Greek: not to speak, but to read. As you are studying writers who are the masters of their language, and not colloquialisms nor everyday speech, the texts will be much denser, requiring more effort to break the writing down. A useful tip is to annotate your printed texts, circling nouns, and adjectives which pair together, closing the sentence off into smaller, easier, clauses, and writing the translation above the words.
2. Endings are Everything
For native English speakers, word endings take some getting used to. English is a word-order based language: we understand how a sentence fits together by which words follow which words. However, Latin and Ancient Greek can play around with sentence structure, throwing the adjective and noun to opposite ends of the clause, planting the verb in the centre, delaying the subject until the end; to make all this intelligible, the ancient languages make much use of word endings. When beginning your journey, you should focus on learning every table found in your grammar book – the nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, pronouns, participles, everything. These are the basic building blocks through which these languages are constructed. Once you can recite the tables without a second thought, the languages will slide into place.
3. Parse, Parse, Parse
Knowing your tables well is one thing, it is another to be able to parse a verb or noun. Parsing is breaking down a word into its syntactical routes. For a verb, you identify six things: the person, number, tense, mood, voice, and translation. For example, the Latin word ‘audio’ is parsed as a first person, singular, present, indicative, active, meaning ‘I listen.’ For nouns and adjectives, you identify four things: the number, gender, case, and translation. For examples, the Latin word ‘puella’ is parsed as a singular, feminine, nominative, meaning ‘girl.’ If you are a beginner and are unfamiliar with these terms, you will learn them the more you continue your journey into these languages. At an intermediate level, it is good practice to pick a random word in the sentence and parse it out; the roots of the sentences’ structure become visible.
4. Verb, Subject, Object, Patience
Even after parsing the word-endings, you might still struggle to understand how extremely complex sentences pair together. Cicero is an old object of fear amidst intermediate students: his sentences are closer to paragraphs, with the main verb slung at the end after endless participles and subordinate clauses. However, the trick is to practice Verb, Subject, Object, Patience. This will help you break down the sentence into more manageable chunks. Firstly, identify the main verb of the sentence: this is the verb governing the main clause, not any subordinate clauses, and is often the word needed to make the sentence make sense. If the verb is in the third person, find the Subject of the verb: this will be the nominative, and either singular or plural, depending on whether the main verb is singular or plural. Then, if the verb is transitive, identify the Object, which will be in the accusative. Once you have worked out the basic structure of the main clause, the subordinate clauses will slide into place. The key here is Patience – you may identify a subordinate verb as the main verb, or be unable to find a verb at all; you might even find the subsequent translation makes no sense! It is important to understand that this takes time to understand, as you are training your brain to get used to a new linguistic structure.
5. Slow and Steady Wins the Race
Often, the key to the translation lies in small words, subtle word endings, the tiny subordinate clauses. While being fast at translation is an admirable talent, it is better to be slow and analytical. When translating ancient languages, try not to feel pressured to write out a translation as fast as possible. It is much better to take your time with the sentences, understanding how it is structured by breaking it down carefully. While this takes more time than simply gliding your eyes across the page, you will find that you make fewer mistakes.
6. Translationese
As has been detailed in the above steps, Latin and Ancient Greek are structured and designed in a very different way to English; Latin often lends itself to more analytical thought, whereas Greek has an ability to convey abstract writings. Therefore, you will often encounter ‘Translationese.’ Yhis is where an accurate English translation makes some sense, but is very awkward. Take this line from the Aeneid, translated literally: ‘Tantaene animis caelestibus irae? (1.18) – ‘Are there such great angers in heavenly souls?’ Whilst the English makes some sense, a less awkward translation could be: ‘Do heavenly souls have such a great anger?’ Once you have written an accurate translation of the language, it is worth rewriting the translation to make better sense in English.
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