Mediaeval Latin first?

[sahabat]

Hello, I was reading an article by Dorothy Sayer in which she suggested that perhaps it would be beneficial if students are first exposed to Mediaeval Latin for several reasons that she highlights in her article (see memoriapress.com for more on this).

What should we make of this?
(Sorry if this point already been discussed on the forum)
Thank you.
Best regards
sahabat

[benissimus]

Wouldn't that depend entirely on what you want to read? I'm really not a fan of some of the articles on that site (that was an understatement), but if you want to read the Vulgate then you don't really need to be able to read Cicero. But should you wish to learn Mediaeval Latin as a precursor to Classical Latin, it would likely prove more difficult than the reverse.

The article in question is here:
http://memoriapress.com/articles/sayers-intropage.html

[sahabat]

Hello, certainly. But what made her article interesting was that she suggested that mediaeval Latin-due to its affinity to present languages-- is perhaps a better introduction to learning Latin for new learners. I was wondering whether anyone has actually taken up this advice and whether her premise is correct.

I don't think she was connected to anyone on that website by the way. A google search showed the following: " Dorothy Leigh Sayers (1893-1967) briefly entered on a teaching career after graduating from Oxford. She published a long and popular series of detective novels, translated the "Divine Comedy," wrote a series of radio plays, and a defense of Christian belief.

During World War II, she lived in Oxford, and was a member of the group that included C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, J.R.R. Tolkein, and Owen Barfield. By nature and preference, she was a scholar and an expert on the Middle Ages."

Best regards
Sahabat

[Turpissimus]

Hello, certainly. But what made her article interesting was that she suggested that mediaeval Latin-due to its affinity to present languages-- is perhaps a better introduction to learning Latin for new learners. I was wondering whether anyone has actually taken up this advice and whether her premise is correct.

I wouldn't inflict traditional Latin pronounciation on a child - if they're going to read poetry they'll lose the rhythm and sound of it all. Much better to use our attempt at the pronunciation Lucretius of Vergil would have used.

Medieval latin can be rather odd - instead of acc.+inf. being used for indirect speech they often used quod + subj. (although I think I remember one of my syntaxes telling me that this usage appeared in Plautus as well). I think part of the fun of learning Latin is the exposure to vastly different ways of expressing oneself. If we want an easy introduction to this then Book IV of the Gallic Wars is an interesting and fairly simple read - far more so than any medieval text which is likely to be easily available. I'm not sure young(-ish) children ought to be frightened with De Civitate Dei or Newton's Principia or whatever.

Who are you teaching? How many? For what purpose? How smart are they? How motivated? It would be useful to know the answers to these questions before we could tell you what we thought about your lesson plans.

I don't think she was connected to anyone on that website by the way. A google search showed the following: " Dorothy Leigh Sayers (1893-1967) briefly entered on a teaching career after graduating from Oxford. She published a long and popular series of detective novels, translated the "Divine Comedy," wrote a series of radio plays, and a defense of Christian belief.

During World War II, she lived in Oxford, and was a member of the group that included C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, J.R.R. Tolkein, and Owen Barfield. By nature and preference, she was a scholar and an expert on the Middle Ages."

Dorothy L. Sayers was the one who wrote the Lord Peter Wimsey series of detective novels. She also produced a fine translation of the Divine Comedy, which I will heartily recommend to those inclined to read medieval Italian literature.

[Deses]

Here is what I would recommend. If you are learning Classical Latin and at some point realize that after all this intense toil you just don't understand actual texts as much as you had hoped to - then open some 14th century vita and receive instant gratification and verification of your efforts. Then go back to Classical Latin. Later Latin is nice, but nobody wrote like Virgil, Ovid and Horace.

[sahabat]

Thank you very much for both informative responses. I suppose that I will leave mediaeval Latin then for later!
Best regards
Sahabat