How cool you live an hour's train ride from Rome! The photos and background on the Palazzo were so interesting. What a gorgeous marvel. I never considered Latin in h.s. -- now I'm sorry I took French instead.
So nice to hear my piece inspired you! I think Palazzo Doria Pamphilj is really underrated. And by the way, I studied Latin in high school too. I don't remember much of it now, but I think it helped me learn French and Italian.
And Latin might have kindled your love for Italy... One of the things that made the palazzo so pleasant was its lack of crowds; there was a normal amount of visitors, so in a way, its underratedness was part of the appeal.
Five years of high school Latin failed to make an impression on me at the time, unlike maths or Bach, but it certainly came in handy when I decided to learn Spanish!
I don't know exactly why I love this line so much, but I do. "I realized it was Latin. Not Italian, which is fun to practice with the baristas, but classical Latin, the language I only share with men long dead." Somewhere in there (the language I only share with men long dead) is a gripping title for a book. 😁
I created a special Voicemap audio guide for Viterbo and one for Civitavecchia as well as about a dozen books , travel essays about our area., my Substack The Painted Palazzo is my latest project.. Hope you are enjoying life in our fantastic area. On Dec. 6 I’ll be giving a talk at our local library here in Vetralla. We have a large Dutch community here and lots of visitors . On Saturday there will be a concert , check the website or FB page for OperaExtravaganza. Com
Oh! Thank you! This all sounds very interesting to me. On Dec 6, I will have moved on from here—I’m a nomad after all—but there’s still time to explore this region more.
You are just down the train line from my home, in Vetralla, the city before Viterbo and the end of the line . I rarely go in to Roma …because there are so many strikes, or the weather is bad… and now because we have the olive harvest. Grazie for your piece ,,,
I feel as though it's helping me even in learning Japanese. Not because of similarities in the languages, but because of how Latin has shaped my brain, making it more adept to other linguistic systems.
That's really interesting! I'm learning Czech at the moment and it's helping me with Czech. I'm surprised how much Latin vocabulary and grammar worked its way into a Slavic language. You would recognize the person and number of Czech verbs just based on your familiarity with Latin.
People say Lithuanian is hard to learn, because of all the declensions (7 cases) and conjugations. But if you come to it via Latin, German and Russian, it’s just different words, but a similar mental model. Even some words and exceptions are similar since Lithuanian came from Sanskrit too.
Okay, I’ll give you simulacrum, moribund, and flux. And I would have given you another picture taken in the Palazzo Doria Pamphilj, but it won't allow me to upload one in a reply.
How cool you live an hour's train ride from Rome! The photos and background on the Palazzo were so interesting. What a gorgeous marvel. I never considered Latin in h.s. -- now I'm sorry I took French instead.
So nice to hear my piece inspired you! I think Palazzo Doria Pamphilj is really underrated. And by the way, I studied Latin in high school too. I don't remember much of it now, but I think it helped me learn French and Italian.
And Latin might have kindled your love for Italy... One of the things that made the palazzo so pleasant was its lack of crowds; there was a normal amount of visitors, so in a way, its underratedness was part of the appeal.
Latin and Greek are not dead - they’re immortal. (You read Tacitus in high school? As Cicero never said, holy shit! He’s hard! )
I love that: immortal!
Five years of high school Latin failed to make an impression on me at the time, unlike maths or Bach, but it certainly came in handy when I decided to learn Spanish!
I’m still waiting for my cosine calculations to come into handy in daily life.
Not too often, that’s for sure. I have used matrix math to solve linear equations. I did that to formulate my wife’s triathlon nutrition!
I don't know exactly why I love this line so much, but I do. "I realized it was Latin. Not Italian, which is fun to practice with the baristas, but classical Latin, the language I only share with men long dead." Somewhere in there (the language I only share with men long dead) is a gripping title for a book. 😁
Thank you! I feel inspired to write, “Things I Share with Men Long Dead.” Perhaps it’s not an entire book, but an essay at least.
Love it!
I created a special Voicemap audio guide for Viterbo and one for Civitavecchia as well as about a dozen books , travel essays about our area., my Substack The Painted Palazzo is my latest project.. Hope you are enjoying life in our fantastic area. On Dec. 6 I’ll be giving a talk at our local library here in Vetralla. We have a large Dutch community here and lots of visitors . On Saturday there will be a concert , check the website or FB page for OperaExtravaganza. Com
Oh! Thank you! This all sounds very interesting to me. On Dec 6, I will have moved on from here—I’m a nomad after all—but there’s still time to explore this region more.
You are just down the train line from my home, in Vetralla, the city before Viterbo and the end of the line . I rarely go in to Roma …because there are so many strikes, or the weather is bad… and now because we have the olive harvest. Grazie for your piece ,,,
Oh, yes, the olive harvest! Has it been a good year for olives?
I went to Viterbo, too, one afternoon. What a beautiful place to stroll around.
I took Latin in school and loved it as well, although I have forgotten most of it. It is a good basis for learning other languages, that's for sure!
I feel as though it's helping me even in learning Japanese. Not because of similarities in the languages, but because of how Latin has shaped my brain, making it more adept to other linguistic systems.
That's really interesting! I'm learning Czech at the moment and it's helping me with Czech. I'm surprised how much Latin vocabulary and grammar worked its way into a Slavic language. You would recognize the person and number of Czech verbs just based on your familiarity with Latin.
Learning a Slavic language is not something I've attempted yet. Interesting how far-reaching Latin was and is.
What languages do you know?
Just for fun, here is the conjugation of the Czech verb dělat, to do or to make:
dělám děláme
děláš děláte
dělá děláji
Look familiar? Except for the third person plural, all are instantly recognizable for a Latin student.
Indeed! That’s amazing. And those accents—beautiful.
People say Lithuanian is hard to learn, because of all the declensions (7 cases) and conjugations. But if you come to it via Latin, German and Russian, it’s just different words, but a similar mental model. Even some words and exceptions are similar since Lithuanian came from Sanskrit too.
Interesting! I should learn more about how Sanskrit and Latin are connected, how all the languages branched out in history.
Mas por favor!
Okay, I’ll give you simulacrum, moribund, and flux. And I would have given you another picture taken in the Palazzo Doria Pamphilj, but it won't allow me to upload one in a reply.
I have 3 words painted above the book cases in a room in my home that I call the library:
Liber delectatio animae
I would agree with that—beautiful.