Learning to speak Latin?
I know that Latin is a dead language and that it is not often used anymore, but I just signed up for an Italian language course and wanted to know if learning to speak Latin ( the derivative of all romantic languages) will make learning and understanding Italian easier. Would love if someone from Tuscany or Rome could help me with this one because I have plans to travel there in June of 2011 with friends.
Thanks in advance
Latin is a basis of most Romance languages – both grammatically and more in terms of derivation and language.
Thus, ‘studying’ Latin would help with something like learning French or Spanish (which most say is basically Arabic and Latin), and Italian.
However, there is really no point in learning to speak Latin, unless you’re planning to live in Vatican City! Besides, most of the Latin learnt in schools and in university is based mainly upon Classical texts (such as Virgil, Cicero etc) or on liturgical Latin.
However, generally speaking, Latin structure would help in understanding the structure of Romance Languages…