Dialects of languages to study?

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DictatorCzar

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I want to learn the ancient languages but I’m stuck on choosing. There’s Koine Greek but I also was thinking about reading church fathers and documents too. Latin is just a mess, there’s multiple types of Latin and I hate Choosing. There’s ecclesiastical for church documents. There’s also classical, late and vulgar which I don’t know which to choose. Hebrew, don’t know and have no clue. Any more?
 
The first question to consider is WHY you want to learn one of these languages. Do you want to make a hobby out of it? Do you want to be able to read ancient works in the original languages? What’s the plan?

And the first thing to remember is that reaching a recognizable level of competence in any foreign language is going to be a very time-consuming project.

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Well, modern is Hebrew is a bit different than ancient Hebrew. The Jews of Moses’s time did not need to have words for smartphones and laptops.
 
I LOVE learning other languages, but man, it is hard. Grammar always trips me up.
 
Well, modern is Hebrew is a bit different than ancient Hebrew. The Jews of Moses’s time did not need to have words for smartphones and laptops.
What I was told in Israel is this: If you learn modern Hebrew, it’s not too difficult to read the Bible, maybe something like reading Shakespeare compared with modern English. But it doesn’t work the other way around. If you learn Biblical Hebrew, you’ll be totally lost in modern Hebrew. As you point out, there are just so many more words these days.
 
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I’ve heard something similar from Greek people about koine Greek
 
Try with Slav languages. To foreigners it’s probably like breaking tongue. 😬
Or maybe Hungarian.
 
Out of Indo-European languages, Slavic languages are what I have the hardest time with, Hungarian is not even Indo-European, so that’s almost guaranteed to be harder
 
I don’t think it would be too terribly hard to learn Coptic, well actually I think it would be very hard to learn Coptic, but you could probably find some resources for it
 
Grammar is killer in Slav. I myself am Croatian so it’s not the problem for me. Once I learned Russian and maybe I would survive as tourist with it.
Hungarian is pretty interesting but no. Words too long with all these signs and to remember it seems hard. Some say they learn it in few years and moved to Hungary.
 
Any more?
You’re already unable to choose between the ones you have, so I shall refrain from suggesting more and instead help you pick from the ones you’ve already listed.

One way to choose is to check which language you’d have the easiest time learning given the languages you already know. For example, if you speak French or another Romance language, go for Latin. If you speak Arabic, go for Hebrew. That way there’ll be cognates and similar grammatical structures that will greatly enhance your learning process, especially if you’re new to language learning. I myself was very pleased to discover that Hebrew grammar, which I am studying, mostly follows Arabic grammar, which I already know, making Hebrew much easier for me.

Another consideration is culture or interest. Study the language that appeals to you culturally or which interests you most. Try to research your heritage, or the heritage of your spouse or close friend. Pick a corresponding language.

A final thing to consider is utility. What do you want to use the language for? Why do you want to study it? Language learning is easier when you have a clear goal and a clear idea of what you intend to use the language for.

Hope this helps.

Good luck!
 
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Nope, I just know a lot about languages. Except how to speak most of them.
 
Nope, I just know a lot about languages. Except how to speak most of them.
I’m passing time in “lockdown” by watching lectures from two of his linguistics courses on Great Courses Plus. He says that of all the Germanic languages, West Frisian is closest to English in structure. But then, you probably already knew that 😃

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