Am I to understand that archaic Latin before 240 BC was not a literary language, great like Mycenaean Greek? Are we certain noβ authors existed before that period?
Due to the fact that most classical Latin literature only survives through medieval manuscripts, and thus had to be specifically chosen to be preserved, a lot of the Latin we have today is βthe best of the best.β Nonetheless, what are some examples of classical Latin literature that you think just isnβt very good?
Were educated people back in the day just running around throwing these phrases around? Realistically how many people read them and know what they mean right off the bat (past and present)?
I've ran into a lot of these in particular through Nietzsche and Dostoyevsky and find myself having to translate each and every one of them because a lot of copies don't even have footnotes.
My preferred method method for learning languages is to simply read real-world interesting texts. So I want to learn Latin by reading great literature from all the eras of the history of the language, but I personally use the classical pronunciation. Can anybody point me in the direction of some great Latin literature that have classical vowel qualities marked? My absolute dream would be a version of the Vulgate like that, but I doubt such a thing exists.
Alternatively, give me the name of every classicist or Latinist you trust so I can ask them if they know of any such treasures. I don't just mean people who work in academia. Anybody you know of and know to be reliable.
Edit 1: I am not doing this for the money. Ideally we can brainstorm a solution on this subreddit and hand it over to r/volunteer to get the construction work started. With a bit of work, we can give open access to a Latin library, in Latin, English and audio, for everyone around the world who owns a smartphone and loves to learn more about wisdom written in Latin.
Greetings. My name is Han, and ever since high school years I have been interested in the culture of the Latin and Romance speaking world. Fyi, I passed AP Exams in Spanish, Latin, French and Italian with scores of 5,4,4 and 4, so you can see I did have a serious commitment to language learning in the Latinate/Romance branch.
I have browsed around Reddit, searching for a good idea on a hobbyist app project I can do in my spare time. The idea of building an app presenting a portable library of Latin texts seems to appeal to me quite a bit, for the following reasons:
First, there seems to be an audience for a project like that, from people interested in classical culture to the Latin students all around the world. Such an app will probably have tens of thousands of users if it is developed well.
Second, most of the important texts in Classical Latin has public domain translations from Loebulus that I can use. Same cannot be said for literature for modern languages.
And finally, there are existing apps out there that has really polished the concept of dual language literature reading well. I feel just by taking existing app design models and adapting it to the Latin language, an app of good benefits to this community and people interested in Classical cultures can be built with around a thousand man hours, which is certainly a high leverage activity for the public good.
I would love some feedback on the viability of such an endeavor. Would any of you be interested in either using or contributing text digitalization and voice recordings to such a project? If you wish to do some work on developing a working mockup/prototype on the app's features and UI, either releasing it to the public or as a collaborative project on this community, I'd love to hear back from you.
Best,
Han
Any suggestions of great, classic books to read that come from Latin America or Spain? My family is from Peru and the most I have heard of this topic is like Jorge Luis Borges. Any suggestions?
Can someone recommend some books about latin literature from the middle ages?
Hello all! Iβm currently working on reading the Lingua LatΔ«na Per SΔ IllΕ«strΔta series, and am looking for more novels and poetry to read after I finish the two books. Would love, and greatly appreciate, any recommendations.
Do we really know with certainty that "nice" originated from "nescire" -- I would like to see some concrete examples and I'll look into it later (perhaps via Perseus Tufts in a bit) when I get back home to my desk (not at home rn, typing this on my phone)...
What if the word "nice" can be argued to have different origins other than "nescire"?
(And yes I can see the Jane Austen and Fowler examples, not asking about English literature examples per se here...)
Hi everyone,
Please could you all recommend some βnon-mainstreamβ/obscure Spanish and Latin American literature?
Iβm looking for anything: poetry, prose, plays, short stories etc. that was either written in the 20th century or earlier.
I know my request is very specific, but if you all could help me out, that would be amazing.
Cheers
I've only found Internet sources on a few Russian webpages but not a single piece of academic literature. Are Latin inscriptions in Russia so poorly researched topic or am I missing something? I need this for an assignment, please help if you know more than me about this.
I would prefer academic literature in English (because I'm not a Russian speaker) but also literature in Russian would help. I need this for an assignment on that topic. Greeting to my Slavic brothers from Croatia and thanks in advance!
Salve! I am currently a week and a half into learning Latin and was wondering if there is any recommended literature for beginners. While I thoroughly enjoy learning the grammatical rules and vocabulary, I am looking to interact with the language alongside it. Any help is greatly appreciated!
While I'm aware Greek thought, literature, and sciences were important influences on Arab society even before the expansion, much work seems to have been done in translation, and while Persian texts were of course translated into Arabic, Persian language also became the literary language of elites all over mainland Asia for several centuries. While emirs from Algiers to Bukhara were reading the Shahnameh in Persian, it seems only a few were reading the Iliad in Greek. Why?
Hey guys, Iβm looking for those amazing latin-American (spanish-speaking central and south-America) works of fiction. Iβve had contact with fantastical-realism (realismo fantΓ‘stico) in the best and it is one of my favorite genres but Iβm open to fiction in general. Some of the reading Iβve enjoyed are:
One Hundred Years of Solitude, Love in Times of Cholera and Of Love and Other Demons by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The house of the spirits, Eva Luna and Paula by Isabel Allende
The Bad Girl and Feast of the Goat by Mario Vargas Llosa
Looking for book suggestions that are written by authors from developing countries. I'm not necessarily looking for diaspora stories or those set in the Third World by authors living in the developed West, but for stories by authors who really live in those regions, about those regions. I'm really interested in Third World literature ever since I took a class for it. We never read the stereotypical ones like Pablo Neruda, Junot Diaz, Gabriel GarcΓa MΓ‘rquez, etc. The stories and authors were really niche and I really appreciated them.
I don't know of any Greek references to Virgil or any other major Latin author, not until after antiquity, although I'm not fully acquainted with the literature myself. What explains the paucity (or even nonexistence) of references to Latin authors? Were they ever discussed or even emulated by Greek authors? Or were they generally held in contempt?
The region appears to put out way more written works per capita than other regions. Whether that's poems, novels or whatever it is.
I struggle to think of any authors from the United States, and not many people read books if they have to.
What led to such a large culture of literature in Latin America compared to other world regions?
Just a little background : Iβm a 15 year old Mexican, been into politics and history and all that shit since like 6th grade but with this quarantine thereβs really no better time to start cracking open some more books or binging a few documentaries ya feel me. Ive read malcom X Cesar Chavez Che Guevara type shit radical leftist shit you know but was wondering if any of you more experienced, and more educated folks would wanna point me to some Chicano / Mexican shit about anything concerning our culture. Basically anything Chicano related thats significant like our mexico and California history, racial discrimination, cholo beginnings, our music, Chicano and Mexican politics all that. Ive dipped my toes into Chicano and Aztec stuff but Iβm really tryna step up my game and educate myself more on all that. Mostly looking for books but documentaries are fosho welcome too
Hello! I have recently started learning Latin, I have gotten a fair bit into the familia romana, but I feel I am slowly starting to crave a taste for some real literature In Latin. I am simply wondering what is out there I suppose, I do not have much of a background in this topic so I don't know what to look for. I know that the writings in this language literally span 2000 years, but could somebody point me somewhere? Maybe somewhere that can give me an overview of the writers and what is available, or simply a book I can start with, I for one don't know where to start.
Hi all,
Looking to start up a (for-now virtual, hopefully later in-person) book club to not only explore some of the literature of the region but also - a bit selfishly - get myself reading again as a good habit and to get a couple of recommendations and perspectives from other countries.
I would like to look at older works - I guess anything published pre-90s would be best, just to look at some of the classics first before jumping into more contemporary works at some point in the future. I currently have a copy of El laberinto de la soledad gathering dust so I think that could be a good starting point and a copy of Ficciones has caught my eye for a future read. I think a healthy mix of essays, short stories, and novels would work well.
Although I don't want to be exclusionary, my plan is to have the discussions in Spanish and also to read the books in Spanish whenever possible.
Any interest and/or ideas - do let me know, thanks!
Hey guys, Iβm looking for those amazing latin-American (spanish-speaking central and south-America) works of fiction. Iβve had contact with fantastical-realism (realismo fantΓ‘stico) in the best and it is one of my favorite genres but Iβm open to fiction in general. Some of the reading Iβve enjoyed are:
One Hundred Years of Solitude, Love in Times of Cholera and Of Love and Other Demons by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The house of the spirits, Eva Luna and Paula by Isabel Allende
The Bad Girl and Feast of the Goat by Mario Vargas Llosa
Am I to understand that archaic Latin before 240 BC was not a literary language, much like Mycenaean Greek? Are we certain no authors existed before that period?
