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Alrunner
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30 May 2024, 1:30 pm

Im new and learning to speaking a foreign language. Im planning on speaking Spanish, Italian, and German. Do I need to learn latin first since both Italian and Spanish has the latin base to the language?

Thanks



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30 May 2024, 1:32 pm

Not unless you want to.

Learn whichever language you’re most interested in. Once you know Spanish to a decent level, Italian will come without too much trouble (and vice versa).


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30 May 2024, 1:35 pm

Alrunner wrote:
Im new and learning to speaking a foreign language. Im planning on speaking Spanish, Italian, and German. Do I need to learn latin first since both Italian and Spanish has the latin base to the language?

Thanks


No, both have diverged significantly compared to Classical Latin.


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Alrunner
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30 May 2024, 1:41 pm

Isn’t Italian supposed to be a bit difficult to learn first before spanish?



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30 May 2024, 1:42 pm

Alrunner wrote:
Isn’t Italian supposed to be a bit difficult to learn first before spanish?

It’s considered a little more difficult, but it’s still pretty easy for native English speakers. In my experience, the easiest language is the one you are most interested in.


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30 May 2024, 3:20 pm

I'd love to learn a new language me


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naturalplastic
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30 May 2024, 5:19 pm

Just jump in with both feet into whichever language. None will "bite" you.

Never took Latin. But did fine in high school Spanish. Written Spanish is...well... I would make more spelling mistakes in my native English in the rest of my courses than I ever did in Spanish class! Thats because Spanish spelling is quite logical and phonetic. Unlike English.

French spelling looks rather insane to me too, but I never had a course in which I had to write it so I am not really expert on it.

Fun fact: There is a certain American car with an ancient Latin name that...bombs in Latin America because of its name. The Chevy "Nova". Though it means "new" and is practically the same word as the modern Spanish "nueva" meaning the same thing...the car's name is read as "no va" ("no go"). Laughingstock.



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30 May 2024, 5:47 pm

Alrunner wrote:
Im new and learning to speaking a foreign language. Im planning on speaking Spanish, Italian, and German. Do I need to learn latin first since both Italian and Spanish has the latin base to the language?

Thanks


They are based on Vulgar Latin and while it's not needed, it's fascinating to know how some things changed, and how some (vulgar) Latin traits, that were not used in classical writers, but were spoken by uneducated people who didn't know how they're supposed to speak, would emerge later in Romance languages. Appendix Probi is one of the later texts telling people how they're supposed to speak, since the deterioration of Classical Latin was already happening. But I digress :roll:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appendix_Probi

There are Latin terms in German, too.



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30 May 2024, 5:53 pm

Alrunner wrote:
Im new and learning to speaking a foreign language. Im planning on speaking Spanish, Italian, and German. Do I need to learn latin first since both Italian and Spanish has the latin base to the language?

Thanks

Latin is a wonderful language, but it probably won't help much. You'd be better off some time on Esperanto just so that you don't fight with the concept of speaking a new language.



Alrunner
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31 May 2024, 12:23 pm

Whats the difference between latin American and Castilian Spanish?



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31 May 2024, 12:36 pm

naturalplastic wrote:
Fun fact: There is a certain American car with an ancient Latin name that...bombs in Latin America because of its name. The Chevy "Nova". Though it means "new" and is practically the same word as the modern Spanish "nueva" meaning the same thing...the car's name is read as "no va" ("no go"). Laughingstock.


Like many 'fun facts' this is merely a factoid and not based in reality.

Among issues with this tall-tale are that the Nova sold well in many Latin American countries, that Nova and no va are pronounced differently, that no va makes no sense contextually ("no marcha" or "no funciona" or "no camina" would be more likely to be used) and that plenty of Spanish speakers would have had input before the local GM subsidiary began building or importing the model.

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/chevr ... e-spanish/
https://www.motorbiscuit.com/fact-myth- ... n-america/
https://www.hemmings.com/stories/2017/0 ... o-its-name


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31 May 2024, 12:37 pm

Alrunner wrote:
Whats the difference between latin American and Castilian Spanish?


More than the difference between Quebecois French and French French, which is more than the difference between American English and British English.


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31 May 2024, 12:46 pm

There’s a lot of linguistic diversity among Latin American countries as well. Some of it is related to when they were colonized in addition to the influence of other languages and cultures.

Argentina, for example, often uses “vos” with its own conjugations when other countries, including Spain, use “tú.”

I think the biggest difference with Spain Spanish is the use of “vosotros.” Latin American countries mostly use “ustedes.” Of course, there’s a lot of diversity with vocabulary, slang, swear words, etc. depending on the country within Latin America and without.

I’ve read books in Spanish by authors from Spain, Mexico, Colombia, Cuba, and Argentina without too much trouble. Comprehending diverse accents/pronunciation is a bigger problem for me.


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31 May 2024, 7:13 pm

TwilightPrincess wrote:
There’s a lot of linguistic diversity among Latin American countries as well. Some of it is related to when they were colonized in addition to the influence of other languages and cultures.

Argentina, for example, often uses “vos” with its own conjugations when other countries, including Spain, use “tú.”

I think the biggest difference with Spain Spanish is the use of “vosotros.” Latin American countries mostly use “ustedes.” Of course, there’s a lot of diversity with vocabulary, slang, swear words, etc. depending on the country within Latin America and without.

I’ve read books in Spanish by authors from Spain, Mexico, Colombia, Cuba, and Argentina without too much trouble. Comprehending diverse accents/pronunciation is a bigger problem for me.

On top of that, the actual articulation and clarity of speech can vary from country to country. Some variants emphasize clear enunciation more than others.



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31 May 2024, 7:31 pm

Even within countries, there are regional dialects as well as individual variation. Normally, people in any language try to enunciate clearly/talk slowly if they know you aren’t a native speaker though. I’ve talked to people from Mexico, Peru, and Chile and was able to understand them without too much trouble. I have a harder time understanding TV and movies although I use subtitles (in Spanish) which helps. It also helps to be aware of/get used to common tendencies in spoken Spanish too - like leaving off the sound of the final consonant in words.


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01 Jun 2024, 8:30 am

A South Korean guy I ran across on the Web said that the "easiest language for me to learn was, oddly enough, Latin".

Not another East Asian language (like you might expect), but Latin.

Latin has no kinship to Korean, no common vocabulary, but..

It was easy because Latin and modern Korean "work" much the same way in their grammar. Both have the same 'case' system.

So studying Latin might help pave the way for you to later study Korean...so companies can hire you to do business in Seoul, and so that the CIA can hire you to eves drop on Kim.