learning ancient languages in the modern times
2024-10-09: In this post, I will not talk about why you might want to learn an ancient language nor try to convince you but
rather provide a personal method, a conclusion which I reached after going through dozens of methods and courses designed to teach
Latin and Sanskrit.
But, before that I want to address some of the common problems with learning ancient languages today:
- The academic community and the intellectual aristocrats have abandoned Latin and Sanskrit.
There is a lot to be said here, just until last century, in the western world,
almost every major scholar was also a student of Latin, even Greek! and those
interesed took it even further by learning Sanskrit. But this is no longer the
case. In the Indian sphere of influence, Sanskrit was the language of poetry,
debate, metaphysics, official documents, stage play, ritual chanting and even served as the tongue for the aristocrats and nobles. Every scholar of the time,
also known as "Brahmin", was taught Sanskrit from a very young age. The general understanding of language at
this time was, "we have our local language, but this language, which has been preserved since ancient times,
is superior due to all the refining done over the centuries and all the important documents composed in it".
But, fast-foreward to present day, present time, Sanskrit only remains as the language of the Dharmic traditions,
which most Dharma followers do not even understand.
So now these languages are not seen as something refined and worth learning but seen as something of the past that we left behind,
reserved for only those interested in literature, history and ancient wisdom.
- Most learning material out there is bad, the ancients followed a different method to learn.
Translation workouts are fine but using it as a primary method is a disaster. The basics of any language should be aquired in the most
comprehensible natural way possible, then you must study the grammar rigourously in the language itself and not through translation. The way
Romans learned Greek was by singing Homeric verses as a fun past time, without even knowing the basics of Greek, and since the Homeric mythology
was a big part of the culture, they also more or less knew what they were singing about, and only later did they study grammar. This method works
well because the learner is able to perfect the phonetics of the language, as every aspect of pronunciation is preserved through the poetic meter.
This is also what the Brahmins in the classical period did, they would start off by learning the vedic hymns, when they reach a stage in learning,
they study the grammar and refine their understanding of the language. The thing to be noted here is that these students learned the grammar in the
target language, not through a translated medium, so their understanding of the language would be near-native.
- You are asked if it is even worth it
A few months ago, while talking to some of my dearest friends, I mentioned that I was studying Sanskrit and the first reaction one of them had
was "Why? What will you do with it?", while this did lead to an hour long discussion about the history of our tongue, being asked "Why"
still left a bad taste on me, and it is not necessarily their fault, it seems as if we have, culturally speaking, decided that anything that
isnt being studied by the general, must be questioned.
While I was able to completely answer on "why" to learn, I believe no learner should be put in
a place where they are asked "why", for I believe, learning can be done for the sake of learning.
The method
- Understand the basic framework of the language
Go through a popular grammar textbook for your target language, understand how the sentences are formed and how the nouns and verbs work
together, are they conjugated and inflected case by case? how many cases are there? and so on. In Sanskrit, this would be learning about the
noun declension for many different inflection types for noun-stems and genders, learning about what a root verb is,
learning about the 10 verb modifier classes and so on. You dont have to be able to decline a noun yet, just get a good idea on how the target
language compares to your current language. This step can be skipped if you already have a good idea about the language.
- Master pronunciation with poetry
Look up songs and poetry recitation on youtube and follow along, of course also make sure you are able to pronounce the target script fluently as well.
- Start off by reading simple beginner level text
Now this might be difficult if your target language is not related to your native language or a language that you already know.
Lingua Latina per se illustrata is an excellent series for reading Latin if you can read English or any Romance sisters and for Sanskrit there are dozens, but none of them come close to the
LLPSI series, so its up to you to chose one, for me it was व्यावहारिकं संस्कृतं .
- BECOME OBSESSED
This is a must.
- Find a good dictionary, prepare your declension tables, load up your flashcard software and start writing
After reading the beginner level texts you will have gained a good understanding of how the sentences work, your best bet for learning
the language quickly is by forcing yourself to compose something. Here are the steps, its easy:
- write whatever comes to your mind, regardless of how incorrect you think it is
- verify and correct the sentences with the help of your declension table and dictionary
- create flashcards for everything you got wrong, and review them with spaced repetition, heres how I do it with obsidian(may the lord forgive me for using nonfree software):
- after a while try to recompose a similar sentence and see how much you have improved
- do grammar workouts by converting active setences into passive, present into past tense and so on, without a translated medium, it would be nice if you can find a partner for preparing and correcting workouts.
- Read real texts as soon as you can
Just remember, do not look up a word or a grammatical context everytime you feel lost, finish the paragraph or the verse, try to piece things
together, ONLY then refer to a translation or a gloss. And no, this method is not "cheating", faking it until you make it works, actually. For Latin
this would be reading Caesar's writings of the LOEB series and for Sanskrit this would be an interlinear translation of a classical text, for me
it was अध्यात्मरामायण with Nepali interlinear translation of Gita press.
- Do not quit
Its that easy.