To the person who suggested learning Latin is useless: I did three years of Latin in junior high/senior high about a million years ago. It helped me learn French a lot faster, it helped me gain a working knowledge of Spanish and Italian without ever studying either language, and it gave me a clear understanding of grammar that I have been able to apply to every language learning scenario since. It helps me make sense of the Latin names of plants and flowers, understand medical terminology, understand unfamiliar words in English based on recognizing roots and affixes, and the list goes on. Other than English, Latin is the most useful language I ever studied,
Just to add, a lot of things seem useless to learn... until you learn them. Plus, what you learn in the process of learning "useless" things might surprise you. I took two years of Latin in high school and loved it, but it wasn't until much later that I realized that the formalism (?) that goes with it (declensions, tenses, all that nit-picky stuff) probably primed me to learn stuff like formal logic, math, critical analysis, etc. that I use in my job on a regular basis. Couldn't speak a word of Latin today, but I'll give it credit for helping me land me a job I enjoy.
My mother made sure my brother and I studied Latin and Greek root words at least under the age of 10 exactly for the purpose of helping us to learn any Latin based or influenced languages in the future. I did go on to study botany and herbalism. I also love linguistics though I never became professional in that field. People act like I have some special talent for learning new languages, but I just know the root words and it makes things easier.
Im Dutch so I already learned English, German, French and Spanish at school years ago. Now I’m learning Latin. Not like you to speak French faster because I already can but just because I like to want to speak Latin and maybe learn Italian after that.
I was literally thinking about this crossover the other day. It seems all the language youtubers seem to be talking to each other a lot recently and it's awesome!
Great, insightful and fruitful conversation. As a Greek myself, I'd like to congratulate Luke for his take on ancient/modern greek. I did ancient greek for a total of 6 years (in high school) and suffice to say, if linguists like Jackson and Luke knew the kinds of things that were said within the classroom they would roll their eyes in horror. I always had trouble with ancient greek, and I always said that there are drastic differences between it and modern greek, but the entire shitshow that is called "greek highschool" is literally based on the opinion that "anyone who knows ancient greek understands/speaks modern greek". Six years of work and I got nothing to show for it. Everything we did was study simplified grammar rules, zero context, zero history, zero knowledge of the history of our language. Nothing but a completely vacuous, misinformed, dated approach that neglects every piece of scientific paper published in recent years about the proper pronounciation, history or understanding of ancient greek. Needless to say, the subject of ancient greek is treated like our mother tongue, i.e "you guys already speak ancient greek and didn't know it". This overzealous patriotic defense of our language will blow up in our face someday with tremendous consequences, that I'm sure of.
Fellow Greek here. Our highschools are a shitshow indeed. It's mainly the teachers themselves who make the teaching of ancient Greek as it is, and the way it is taught, as if we already know it. Similarly to Latin. If you ever want to learn ancient Greek or Latin in Greece, frontistirio is the solution for it.
@@treliaris888 Καλά για τα λατινικά ουτε λογος, άστο να παει στα κομμάτια. Τι τα θες, και οι καθηγητές πλεουν διδάσκουν ως ενισχυτικο του φροντιστήριο και όχι το αντίστροφο. Δεν βαριέσαι. Πάλι καλά που έχει κανάλια σαν αυτό το Luke που ασχολουνται με αρχαία και λατινικά, το παθος που έχει αυτός ο άνθρωπος δεν το είδα ουτε μια φορα στο γυμνάσιο ή το λυκειο.
@@georgieboy9879 Για να έκαναν οι καθηγητές μας αυτά που κάνει ο Luke έπρεπε να είχαν μεράκι. Ελάχιστοι καθηγητές σαν κι αυτούς υπήρχαν στα σχολεία, και λίγοι περισσότεροι στα φροντηστήρια. Το μόνο που τους νοιάζει τώρα είναι να κάνουν το μάθημα τους και να τελειώνει η υπόθεση.
Δεν φταίνε μόνο οι καθηγητές αλλά και το ίδιο το πρόγραμμα. Ήμουν τυχερός που είχα φοβερή καθηγήτρια αρχαίων στο λύκειο αλλά το πρόγραμμα δεν βοηθούσε ούτε την ίδια να μας διδάξει. Επίσης ήμουν απόλυτα τυχερός και τώρα ευγνώμων για τον καθηγητή αρχαίων στο φροντιστήριο ο οποίος δεν μας μάθαινε σύνταξη τυπικά. Χωρίζαμε προτάσεις και μετά μας έδινε λίγο χρόνο να βρούμε όπως νομίζουμε την σύνταξη. Για ότι έβαζε ο καθένας έπρεπε να του πούμε γιατί το βάλαμε με αυτόν τον τρόπο (ποια ήταν η λογική μας) και αν ήταν λάθος στο τέλος μας εξηγούσε την λογική πίσω από την σωστή σύνταξη. Τότε ξεκίνησα να μην φοβάμαι το συντακτικό!
@@hussaindaud1260 Familia Romana is basically a book only in Latin and reading it you can get competent in Latin reading comprehension. So they're asking when is something like that coming in Old Norse
Watching episodes of The Simpsons dubbed in French is how I went from “textbook fluent” to colloquially fluent. I was lucky growing up in Canada where we had French language tv channels as part of our basic cable, so I watched The Simpsons in French every day to improve. Also a lot of opportunity to speak it growing up in our only officially bilingual province. Right now I only speak conversational German, but I’m improving by watching stuff dubbed in German with English subtitles. I’ve also picked up on a lot of Japanese this way from watching a lot of anime as a teenager. It truly is a great resource.
How I ended up studying Sanskrit had nothing to do with the content but simply wanting to make the sounds. I spent hours walking in circles in my kitchen listening to a few syllables and repeating them over and over and over until I could pronounce an entire phrase accurately. What kept me interested was finding out what the sounds meant and feeling inspired by the content. I also used to label everything. And you’re right, Jackson, you must enjoy the process. For me part of it was the amazing gems found in the meaning packed into a single Sanskrit word or sometimes even a syllable. Would have been much more fun to know someone who also had their mind blown almost every time they sat down to study, but 🤷♀️Oh well. I clean my brains off the ceiling and carry on.
Soldier derives from "solidus (nummus)", an ancient gold coin, old French " solt", old German "solt", new German "Sold" and a "Soldat" is the receiver. A "Söldner" in nowardays German is a mercenairy, means that he or she takes golden coins from different sides. Like your series a lot, thank you for your work!
I feel Jackson on the hesitancy in "outing" yourself as someone who speaks a dead language aloud. I once made a meme in Gothic that referenced Bill & Ted and taped it to my dissertation advisor's office door. He was very perturbed. It was great!
I like your personality so much more knowing you were able to nerd out in an rpg setting (most likely d&d I assume) in languages you and your friends were passionate about!
Me too! I believe he is focussing on the Latin and Ancient Greek at the moment, but I am sure when he has more time he will go back to his Japanese and do some stuff on that channel
I really like that connection between ancient myths and modern franchises. I've thought that before, and it's nice to know other (more knowledgeable) people agree
Such respect for you guys; you seem to have all your priorities right. I have been passionate about language all my life, and still am. But my experiences in two different universities were so negative that it nearly killed off my curiosity. Even the professor who was supportive of my desire to learn languages for the sake of actual use and communication rather than purely for academic purposes, still told me I should be doing academics, otherwise I was selling myself short. It was a bit like ethnomusicology departments telling students not to actually learn to play the music they're studying, because it diverts their efforts away from the purely academic approach. The account of the "mental blocks" around using the languages actively really hit home with me. I actually got scolded for learning actual spoken Uzbek from exchange students visiting from Tashkent. Anyway, I'm glad to see people who are freeing themselves from those attitudes! Had to smile at the "wh" thing, I grew up in eastern Iowa and that's just how I say it. I knew that people in some places pronounced "witch" and "which" the same way, but never thought much about it. Then I moved to Seattle, and people regularly tease me about it with exaggerated impressions. :)
That was a really interesting conversation. I look forward to the next one! For the person who asked about Assyrian (IIRC): the term Akkadian is used to cover Babylonian and Assyrian. I think the best textbook in English is A Grammar of Akkadian by John Huehnergard of the University of Texas (+ additional key to the exercises). The standard reference grammar is in German by Werner von Söden, "Grundriss der akkadischen Grammatik". The dictionary of Akkadian by the University of Chicago in about 20 Volumes was available as a pdf download 10 years ago or so. Hopefully, it still is. The grammar is relatively straightforward but the writing system is very complicated, made particularly difficult by the fact that what is nominally the same cuneiform sign is often written in several different ways. Most textbooks use a font and thus use exactly the same symbol each time. Over 10 years ago I bought everything I could find on Akkadian, Sumerian, Hittite, Elamite and Hurrian, (there isn't much on the last 2). It is fascinating but I'd have been better off just sticking to Akkadian. In the end I bit off more than I could chew and ended up not continuing with any of them.
What a pity. I can't say I'm crazy about cuneiform myself - the great Irving Finkel mentioned suicide with reference to its complexity - but it's a sad day when somebody gives up on their dream. Maybe you could find a way to fool around a bit without aiming for the North Face straight away, just have some fun with your favourite subject.
@@gerardvila4685 Yay, Irving Finkel! He would also make a great crossover session with the two of you. He and Tom Scott have appeared together playing ancient board games.
Dubbed films are a GREAT tool, because the dubbing is usually crisp and correct compared to the rougher or mumblier language you can find on undubbed productions. When I was in France dubbed movies and tv shows were a salvation and a great gateway to vocabulary and turns of phrase.
Oh it's going to be good to watch you two have a conversation, i'm looking forward to this During the lockdowns I've had a lot of time on my hands and I've tried to learn Latin to give myself something to do, and the videos Luke makes are incredibly helpful. The amount of time and effort he puts into making those videos, and answering people's questions in the comments, is impressive. I've a lot of respect for him, he seems like a pretty great bloke
I hate it when I have a comment to make mid-video, but if I do not make it, I will forget it... So, I love to listen just to get the "vibe" of a language, alot like dialects in English. My mind just starts processing in similar rythhms and sounds, then I like to watch videos with subtitles cause it is like using training wheels. Also, my brothers all went on missions in foreign countries and it is nearly miraculous how quickly they learned, so I think, hmm. How can I mimick their experience in learning a new language? I think, well, they were surrounded by speakers and couldn't communicate without at least trying, so I put rules on my life like, if I cannot speak it in that language then, I cannot have it. Also, I like to watch movies that I have already seen and watch until I get what they are saying instead of translating it into English. I find that is faster and easier to learn phrases instead of word to word correlations...that may not be universally true, but That is what I instantly thought of when the two of you spoke of learning/perfecting a non primary language.
"A soldier is just a man [in Old Norse]." There's the same problem in Old English. Also, I really like where you're talking about writing your own idiolect of Norwegian, since you're not from any particular area of Norway, you're a non-native speaker. And I think this is a good lesson for people learning and speaking languages like Old English. Since there's no possibility of writing and speaking exactly as some particular dialect in some particular period of Old English, then if we want to speak and write our own words, we have to develop our own idiolects which will necessarily be a combination of periods and dialects and neologisms that are unique to ourselves yet are grammatically correct and consistent and intelligible.
Regarding the Greek alphabet, I learned recently that more generally than only the Helvets, the Gauls did not really have a written tradition for the Gaul languages, but when they eventually started writing stuff down, they used the Greek alphabet. And somewhere around that time, maybe a little bit after, were the wars with the Roman Empire, and the Roman alphabet started to take over, not just in the writing, but also Latin in the language. I find all of this fascinating. Fantastic talk, thank you both.
I love both these men's channels 😍 I truly appreciate how knowledgeable they are and how willing they are to share their experiences. I'm tempted to learn old norse but am not sure where to find sufficient reading material. Something that's graded and perhaps with audio.
Dr Crawford ..... probably unknown to you BUT.... the explosion of male children named Jackson in recent times could arguably and almost single handedly be attributed to Kurt Sutter's Modern day version of Hamlet and its leading man, Jackson Nathaniel "Jax" Teller , Central character in the show and member of the "Outlaw" Motorcycle Club Sons of Anarchy ... wildly popular for 7 seasons on Fox ....
The Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom is from the late 4th century in Constantinople and the weekly service in most Orthodox Churches. In Greece as well as all churches under the Bishop of Constantinople abroad there will be at least some Koine Greek in the service. Sometimes even in America the entirety of the service is Greek and very similar to the text of the Koine Bible. There is almost always English provided in English speaking countries in addition to the Greek though. The same liturgy is celebrated in church Slavonic in many Russian churches, in Romanian, and most of the Churches of the Orthodox Church within whatever language is common to that country. The original is Greek though.
I am a native speaker of English and spent the first 27 years of my life in the United States. I've never studied Latin, but I speak French quite fluently, Spanish perhaps a bit less so, and Italian "if I have to" (but I can read it without any difficulty), so that assuming the material is within my field of knowledge and expertise, I can translate Latin. I also have taught myself Koine Greek in order to be able to read the New Testament in the original. I would like to learn to speak both of them one day, so I am a great fan of Luke Ranieri :) It's also interesting what you guys mention about using the Bible to learn a language. I learned Polish using the Bible. Now, I already knew how to pronounce Polish correctly because my father's secretary, who was born in Warsaw, taught me my numbers up to 1000 when I was perhaps 10 years old, just for fun, perhaps because I had volunteered the info that my Mom is half Polish. At any rate, the numbers up to 1000 contain, as I recall, all or nearly all of the sounds of the Polish language. And they were all I knew the first time I visited Poland. I could more or less understand what people were saying by the time I left 5 weeks later, but I couldn't speak yet. So after going home, I took my Polish Bible and started memorizing verses. It was the only opportunity I had, and since I already knew the Bible well, it seemed like a good choice. And indeed... after memorizing perhaps 20 verses, I was obliged (for a scholarship application) to carry on a conversation in Polish about how I had learned Polish and what my plans were for the future. I managed to survive this conversation, learning things on the fly from the questions the examiner asked me. I got the scholarship and moved to Poland. You could say that at a certain point, I figured out that I had inadvertently devised a certain method for learning languages which, if undertaken consciously, involves first reading through a textbook for the language in one day - to get a grip on the logic of the language. Thirty years later, I have used this method to teach myself and/or enhance my learning of several other languages (including Koine Greek), and am working as a translator. I now have two target languages, and can translate anything into Polish that I would translate into English - including rhymed poetry. There are those who say I write Polish even better than I write English. Indeed, I remember my teachers at the beginning of my time in Poland noticed certain peculiarities in my speech that were considerably more advanced than one would have expected. Once I told them how I had learned Polish, they said, "Aha, that explains a lot..."
It's so great to see this many language youtube channels make collabo videos. Jackson Crawford, Luke Ranieri, Norbet from Ecolinguist, Simon Roper, Bahador Alast to name a few. It really warms my linguistics-loving(is that even a proper term. Sorry, I'm not a English native) heart!
That is a very good idea, having an internal dialog! My brain never shuts up as much as I try to, so exercising and practising a new language that way would at least be productive! I'm gonna have a go at that!😊 I was always fascinated by Latin and ancient Greek as well as Italian! My aunt is fluent but never spoke to us in Italian! And people keep telling me what's the point of I can't use it! But I finally decided to ignore them, hence why I'm here! Because Old Norse (I'm currently doing your "classes") and the Scandinavian languages where always of interest to me too! So we'll see how I get on! I sing and write songs and I would so love to write one in an old language and I think that can help too learning a language! I have been doing research on languages for years and how they all relate to each other and what we know of how they started etc! Another language that fascinated me is Sanskrit, but I still only know a fraction of what's probably known to linguists. I also find some written language very interesting like Arabic, Greek, Icelandic, Norse etc. It's kind of magical! Thanks for sharing your knowledge!😊 (😜my nephew's middle name is also Amadeus😜)
D&D in medieval languages is literally the coolest thing I've ever heard. I wish I was fluent enough in any of language besides English to do something like that.
The koine Greek vs modern Greek question is interesting. I actually had the same question once about Old Norse and modern Norwegian. This is because both languages are referred by Norse in Dutch (oud Noors en modern Noors). Imagine if Italian was called modern Latin or German called... modern Germanic...? You get my point, haha.
In Norway they have Bokmal and Nyorsk varieties of norsk. They call Old norse Norrønt among other things. Old Norse is interestingly pretty much the same as Icelandic is today, not completely but they can read the old texts, which none of the scandinavian languages can.
To whoever the guy was asking about Assyriology, I may have a book for you! I've been working through A Grammar of Akkadian, Third edition by John Huehnergard. It's complex for sure but a very good grammar of Akkadian that teaches speaking first which I think is a great approach. The book focuses on the Old Babylonian dialect but has some appendices that address Assyrian directly.
@1:29 mins, the beauty of "dead" language like Latin and Classical Hebrew or Old Norse is that the fact that they are no longer evolving means that they are eternal. :-)
I would love to see you do a discussion with Arabic linguist and philologist Ahmed al Jallad. I think there are a lot of interesting topics both of you could cover.
Moms in Targets everywhere yelling at their 3 year old kids named Jackson. Jackson Crawford starting to post lots of videos on UA-cam around 5 years ago. Coincidence? I think not.
@@baronmeduse well, considering you're the only one who cares about the issue, yet you do enough to feel everybody needs to hear about it, I'd say the question is pretty relevant to you being so salty.
@@LoisoPondohva Clearly I'm not the only one because you're here making a meal of it 1 year later. I don't know what 'being salty' is. I don't speak American. I can assure you my salt levels are at normal homeostatic equilibrium.
Akkadian and Ugaritic were taught, at least in introductory form, in my old seminary (Asbury). People who do serious work in archaeology and biblical Hebrew know where the programs are on Assyriology.
Regarding the conversation around 44:50, Greeks react to the pronunciation issue the same way in Rick and Morty the people of Pluto reacted to the statement that "Pluto is a planet". Saying "Ancient Greek sounded like modern Greek" feeds their ego and satisfies their beliefs, even though, deep inside, they know it might not be actually so. How could it possibly be so, when every word is spelled so differently than what is pronounced?. But they just don't want to hear it, because the way Ancient Greek and Medieval Greek is echoing all day in their daily lives with a modern Greek pronunciation, it makes them feel uneasy to imagine that it wasn't actually so. Schools of course are to blame, they teach ancient Greek appallingly bad.
25:54 There's a very similar sense of fraternity/sorority/"contubernalism" in swimming. I've been a swimmer for 42 years and whereever I go in the world, if I get into a pool or swim open water and some other swimmer identifies me as a swimmer from for example technique and form and starts talking to me, we have an instant friendship. Maybe it is like Jackson points out, a case of shared pain and struggle. Also, the self-confidence of knowing oneself to be capable of morning practice, double workouts, pushing oneself to endure lactic acid and muscle fatigue every day, is transferrable. If I know that of myself, I instantly know that of my interloquitor too. What other "secret societies" are there out there whose members have a similar instant bond with strangers? 🤔😊
The sentiment that learning a “dead” language is useless likely precludes the ability to learn a “living” language past the point of minimal proficiency. To get good at any language requires a general interest in language-learning over and above the pragmatic motivation to learn a specific language for utilitarian reasons. The question seems to be most often posed by parents trying to decide what flavor of language instruction to subject their child to.
The discussion of scripts tickles me. I love showing my friends that “Arabic” numerals are just base 10, and are divided into eastern and western Arabic numerals. For example: ١٥ Is 15, not 10.
But do you know why the Swiss chose Confoederatio Helvetica for their official name? They didn’t want to show preference for any one of the four official languages, and especially didn’t want to use the English name.
Luke - a little off topic but can you help me with this. It’s a quote at the beginning of one of my favorite books but all the online translations make no sense. Thx. Quid Quincunce speciosius , qui , in quamcunque partem spectaveris , rectus est ? ( Quintilian )
Jackson and Luke, conlangs require cultural significance, I believe. I speak five languages (English and Spanish, of course, and also Russian (B.A. 1982), German (for my B.S. in chemistry), and French (2 yrs. in the Peace Corps, Togo, West Africa); I dabble in Latin and Greek) and I've created four conlangs. The first was 'for fun', but I created Tasblish essentially out of necessity. How do you communicate something in a culture that has no sense of first or second person singular? There is an idea of 'us' and 'them', which automatically pushes 'he' and 'she' into the realm of stranger, foreigner, or potential adversary, because they are the only singular persons in the language. I don't see Tasblish as a conceptual exercise, but more as a means of connecting with the very ancient, pre-agricultural past. There must have been prehistoric cultures so horizontal in their outlook that any sense of individuality was foreign to the clan or tribe, and that is precisely the type of culture I created for my Tasfit tribe of Neanderthals inhabiting the Great Hungarian Plain in 43,000 BCE. Tasblish began when I went out in the woods with empty gallon and quart paint cans, gathered birch bark, and created my own birch bark oil through dry distillation right there in the state forest. I waited 'til returning home to inhale the stuff. When I finally did take a small whiff, I just about fell out of my chair. It was like a thousand bonfires distilled into the half cup of oil in my quart can. The smell was so strong. I realized immediately Neanderthals were spreading this stuff on their bodies (Russian birch bark oil is a more effective mosquito repellent than DEET), and the odor was overpowering. But the odor would have centered them on the clan fire, even when they were hunting 20-30 km away from the clan. And yet it was different, and the difference depended on proximity. That made me realize the nouns were not declined on the basis of relation to verb, but on relation to proximity - physical, social, or emotional - to the clan fire. So Tasblish is not declined but proxigated, with nouns understood in the context of proximity to clan fire or clan members and to a far lesser extent on the basis of immediate activity. Now I had two culturally-determined elements of grammar not expressed in any other language I've learned (or am even acquainted with), which only enhanced the need to actually go out and create the language, which is what I did. Jackson, based on the inclinations you expressed here, I doubt you would have the stomach for a 414-page novel on Neanderthal culture, but if you do give it a try, you'll be able to speak at least a few sentences in Tasblish by the end of the novel. There is a Tasblish primer, of course, which I won't push here; you know how to find it if you're interested. I've been watching both of you guys for a couple of years and I am finally subscribing today. I am Scandinavian (48 percent Swedish, 42 percent Norwegian), and my current WIP is Trinity, which has strong Norse themes and characters; I may end up quoting some of your translations. And Luke, I enjoy your content immensely. I loved the test of Portuguese, Italian, and Spanish speakers, and finding strangely that I can understand spoken Italian. I've known for some time that I understand written Italian, but had no idea it was close enough to Spanish and French to pretty much understand. Thanks to you, I fearlessly listen to reviews of fountain pens and bushcraft knives (two of my hobbies) in Italian. Vale! PM
Classical language learners don't learn Scandinavian/Norse language?? Well I'm learning both Latin/ancient greek and old norse/ old English!! Greetings from Greece professor and to you too luke!!
they were saying that classical language learners don't learn Modern Scandinavian languages. That people who study Old Norse do not try to learn Norwegian, Danish, etc. They were commenting that this is a mistake.
Other than the obvious reasons, I would think Luke probably enjoys visiting Italy to interact with Italian Priests, w/whom (I assume) he can speak in both Italian and Latin.
The Fine Arts are, by definition, useless. They are not properly ‘used’ because they are ends in themselves (hence ‘fine’ as in ‘final’). Music isn’t FOR anything except itself. But being useless does not mean being unworthwhile.
At 22:10, Luke misunderstands the satirical basis of Starship Troopers; it's a direct allegory for the United States, and that military service is rewarded with "full citizenship" (education through the GI Bill, and healthcare through the VA, etc). It's not utopian, it's not distopian, it's parallel to our own experience, and the fact that he uses that as a contrast to our "voluntary military recruitment" (again, read: coercive by way of state-engineered poverty and military service as an escape from it) is pretty ironic.
*Searches everywhere and finding it hard to find something to immerse myself in Norwegian besides Disney cartoons* -Jackson: The jehovah witnesses website -Me: well…beggars can’t be choosers
Luke collaborating with a literal cowboy does not help with my running theory that he is actually judge Holden from Cormac McCarthys Blood Meridian. Let’s look at the evidence: >fluent in multiple languages, including Latin >has a fascination with and deep knowledge of the earth and natural sciences >extremely intelligent and erudite >charming presence >musician >deep knowledge of philosophical and historical concepts >completely hairless If I find out this guy also plays violin and can dance extremely well, then dear God, we are all of us doomed.
Many thanks again, Dr. Crawford, for the opportunity to chat with you!
Happy to have you, and looking forward to next time!
To the person who suggested learning Latin is useless: I did three years of Latin in junior high/senior high about a million years ago. It helped me learn French a lot faster, it helped me gain a working knowledge of Spanish and Italian without ever studying either language, and it gave me a clear understanding of grammar that I have been able to apply to every language learning scenario since. It helps me make sense of the Latin names of plants and flowers, understand medical terminology, understand unfamiliar words in English based on recognizing roots and affixes, and the list goes on. Other than English, Latin is the most useful language I ever studied,
Just to add, a lot of things seem useless to learn... until you learn them. Plus, what you learn in the process of learning "useless" things might surprise you. I took two years of Latin in high school and loved it, but it wasn't until much later that I realized that the formalism (?) that goes with it (declensions, tenses, all that nit-picky stuff) probably primed me to learn stuff like formal logic, math, critical analysis, etc. that I use in my job on a regular basis. Couldn't speak a word of Latin today, but I'll give it credit for helping me land me a job I enjoy.
My mother made sure my brother and I studied Latin and Greek root words at least under the age of 10 exactly for the purpose of helping us to learn any Latin based or influenced languages in the future. I did go on to study botany and herbalism. I also love linguistics though I never became professional in that field. People act like I have some special talent for learning new languages, but I just know the root words and it makes things easier.
Conversely maybe it is okay to learn something useless and some things can be an end to itself.
Im Dutch so I already learned English, German, French and Spanish at school years ago.
Now I’m learning Latin. Not like you to speak French faster because I already can but just because I like to want to speak Latin and maybe learn Italian after that.
I was literally thinking about this crossover the other day. It seems all the language youtubers seem to be talking to each other a lot recently and it's awesome!
fast forward 5 years, the linguotubers have made their own language and colonized the moon
Yeah, most of them either appeared on Ecolinguist are talked to Luca Lamparello.
The crossover we didn't know we needed. Thank you Jackson Crawford!
Oh I knew, and I needed it, and now that I got it, I want more
Great, insightful and fruitful conversation. As a Greek myself, I'd like to congratulate Luke for his take on ancient/modern greek. I did ancient greek for a total of 6 years (in high school) and suffice to say, if linguists like Jackson and Luke knew the kinds of things that were said within the classroom they would roll their eyes in horror. I always had trouble with ancient greek, and I always said that there are drastic differences between it and modern greek, but the entire shitshow that is called "greek highschool" is literally based on the opinion that "anyone who knows ancient greek understands/speaks modern greek". Six years of work and I got nothing to show for it. Everything we did was study simplified grammar rules, zero context, zero history, zero knowledge of the history of our language. Nothing but a completely vacuous, misinformed, dated approach that neglects every piece of scientific paper published in recent years about the proper pronounciation, history or understanding of ancient greek. Needless to say, the subject of ancient greek is treated like our mother tongue, i.e "you guys already speak ancient greek and didn't know it". This overzealous patriotic defense of our language will blow up in our face someday with tremendous consequences, that I'm sure of.
Fellow Greek here. Our highschools are a shitshow indeed. It's mainly the teachers themselves who make the teaching of ancient Greek as it is, and the way it is taught, as if we already know it. Similarly to Latin. If you ever want to learn ancient Greek or Latin in Greece, frontistirio is the solution for it.
@@treliaris888 Καλά για τα λατινικά ουτε λογος, άστο να παει στα κομμάτια. Τι τα θες, και οι καθηγητές πλεουν διδάσκουν ως ενισχυτικο του φροντιστήριο και όχι το αντίστροφο. Δεν βαριέσαι. Πάλι καλά που έχει κανάλια σαν αυτό το Luke που ασχολουνται με αρχαία και λατινικά, το παθος που έχει αυτός ο άνθρωπος δεν το είδα ουτε μια φορα στο γυμνάσιο ή το λυκειο.
@@georgieboy9879 Για να έκαναν οι καθηγητές μας αυτά που κάνει ο Luke έπρεπε να είχαν μεράκι. Ελάχιστοι καθηγητές σαν κι αυτούς υπήρχαν στα σχολεία, και λίγοι περισσότεροι στα φροντηστήρια. Το μόνο που τους νοιάζει τώρα είναι να κάνουν το μάθημα τους και να τελειώνει η υπόθεση.
Excellent points mate.
Έξι χρόνια "διάβασε το κείμενο και αναγνώρισε τα είδη των μετοχών" με έκανε πραγματικά να μισήσω τη γλώσσα.
Δεν φταίνε μόνο οι καθηγητές αλλά και το ίδιο το πρόγραμμα. Ήμουν τυχερός που είχα φοβερή καθηγήτρια αρχαίων στο λύκειο αλλά το πρόγραμμα δεν βοηθούσε ούτε την ίδια να μας διδάξει. Επίσης ήμουν απόλυτα τυχερός και τώρα ευγνώμων για τον καθηγητή αρχαίων στο φροντιστήριο ο οποίος δεν μας μάθαινε σύνταξη τυπικά. Χωρίζαμε προτάσεις και μετά μας έδινε λίγο χρόνο να βρούμε όπως νομίζουμε την σύνταξη. Για ότι έβαζε ο καθένας έπρεπε να του πούμε γιατί το βάλαμε με αυτόν τον τρόπο (ποια ήταν η λογική μας) και αν ήταν λάθος στο τέλος μας εξηγούσε την λογική πίσω από την σωστή σύνταξη. Τότε ξεκίνησα να μην φοβάμαι το συντακτικό!
Oh yess Jackson Crawford on Ecolinguist, can't wait
!!!
question really is: when do we get a monolingual Old Norse book Familia Romana style?
This
Yes! This... I want this!
What is that? Can someone explain? Sounds interesting
@@hussaindaud1260 Familia Romana is basically a book only in Latin and reading it you can get competent in Latin reading comprehension. So they're asking when is something like that coming in Old Norse
Yes, there really needs to be a Lingua Latina per se Illustrata for Old Norse, and for Old English.
Luke Ranieri... You keep 'knocking it out of the park'... Great conversation with the almighty Jackson Crawford
Many thanks, Craig!
Hey! Two of my fave youtubers together, much appreciated :)
@@InglésconRobert2025 think that was meant to be "fave" not "five"
@@InglésconRobert2025 yep fave whoops fixed
Watching episodes of The Simpsons dubbed in French is how I went from “textbook fluent” to colloquially fluent. I was lucky growing up in Canada where we had French language tv channels as part of our basic cable, so I watched The Simpsons in French every day to improve. Also a lot of opportunity to speak it growing up in our only officially bilingual province.
Right now I only speak conversational German, but I’m improving by watching stuff dubbed in German with English subtitles. I’ve also picked up on a lot of Japanese this way from watching a lot of anime as a teenager. It truly is a great resource.
How I ended up studying Sanskrit had nothing to do with the content but simply wanting to make the sounds. I spent hours walking in circles in my kitchen listening to a few syllables and repeating them over and over and over until I could pronounce an entire phrase accurately. What kept me interested was finding out what the sounds meant and feeling inspired by the content.
I also used to label everything.
And you’re right, Jackson, you must enjoy the process. For me part of it was the amazing gems found in the meaning packed into a single Sanskrit word or sometimes even a syllable. Would have been much more fun to know someone who also had their mind blown almost every time they sat down to study, but 🤷♀️Oh well. I clean my brains off the ceiling and carry on.
Why would you learn sanskrit (just being curious)
Soldier derives from "solidus (nummus)", an ancient gold coin, old French " solt", old German "solt", new German "Sold" and a "Soldat" is the receiver. A "Söldner" in nowardays German is a mercenairy, means that he or she takes golden coins from different sides.
Like your series a lot, thank you for your work!
I don’t agree. Soldier derives from the much older word Salt.atha “salt comrade” from ur- Frisian. A mercenary paid in salt.
Arguably the two best producers of linguistic content on the internet in a single video? How many different ways can I say yes?
Ecolinguist, duh?? Stuart Raj???
@@amjan ecolinguist is a fraud.
@@joshuddin897 how?
So excited to hear you're going to be on Norbert's channel!
I feel Jackson on the hesitancy in "outing" yourself as someone who speaks a dead language aloud. I once made a meme in Gothic that referenced Bill & Ted and taped it to my dissertation advisor's office door. He was very perturbed. It was great!
I studied Latin and Italian formally. I also live in an Air Force base town, so this collabo is mind blowing.
Great Video. Jackson, love the RPG 'confession'. You should take a look at an RPG called Yggdrasil. It is fantastic.
The excellence of this conversation overhwelms me.
I like your personality so much more knowing you were able to nerd out in an rpg setting (most likely d&d I assume) in languages you and your friends were passionate about!
for me it was actually a turn off lol
@@Mac_an_Mheiriceanaighnobody cares.
I've been waiting for this
@@Thelaretus Gāius, hmm? Has a nice ring to it. A transliteration of my name would be "latingeek der lingwist"
My two favourite youTubers in one video? Oh my!
This was a great discussion. I’m an avid language learner and watch both regularly. I love studying ancient languages and create conlangs.
I suscribed to this channel just a few weeks ago and I see Luke here
this is some quality content right here.
hoping Luke will use his japanese channel some day, really needing those tips
Me too! I believe he is focussing on the Latin and Ancient Greek at the moment, but I am sure when he has more time he will go back to his Japanese and do some stuff on that channel
This was a pleasant surprise! Two giants of language learning!
I really like that connection between ancient myths and modern franchises. I've thought that before, and it's nice to know other (more knowledgeable) people agree
YES! The 1st time I told a joke in Russian to a Russian in Russia, and they laughed, was a GRAND experience.
1:07:23
That is the coolest thing ever and I admire you even more now! 😂
Such respect for you guys; you seem to have all your priorities right. I have been passionate about language all my life, and still am. But my experiences in two different universities were so negative that it nearly killed off my curiosity. Even the professor who was supportive of my desire to learn languages for the sake of actual use and communication rather than purely for academic purposes, still told me I should be doing academics, otherwise I was selling myself short. It was a bit like ethnomusicology departments telling students not to actually learn to play the music they're studying, because it diverts their efforts away from the purely academic approach. The account of the "mental blocks" around using the languages actively really hit home with me. I actually got scolded for learning actual spoken Uzbek from exchange students visiting from Tashkent. Anyway, I'm glad to see people who are freeing themselves from those attitudes!
Had to smile at the "wh" thing, I grew up in eastern Iowa and that's just how I say it. I knew that people in some places pronounced "witch" and "which" the same way, but never thought much about it. Then I moved to Seattle, and people regularly tease me about it with exaggerated impressions. :)
Oh this was an absolute treat! Thank you both for this amazing interaction from my two favourite linguists
That was a really interesting conversation. I look forward to the next one!
For the person who asked about Assyrian (IIRC): the term Akkadian is used to cover Babylonian and Assyrian. I think the best textbook in English is A Grammar of Akkadian by John Huehnergard of the University of Texas (+ additional key to the exercises). The standard reference grammar is in German by Werner von Söden, "Grundriss der akkadischen Grammatik". The dictionary of Akkadian by the University of Chicago in about 20 Volumes was available as a pdf download 10 years ago or so. Hopefully, it still is. The grammar is relatively straightforward but the writing system is very complicated, made particularly difficult by the fact that what is nominally the same cuneiform sign is often written in several different ways. Most textbooks use a font and thus use exactly the same symbol each time. Over 10 years ago I bought everything I could find on Akkadian, Sumerian, Hittite, Elamite and Hurrian, (there isn't much on the last 2). It is fascinating but I'd have been better off just sticking to Akkadian. In the end I bit off more than I could chew and ended up not continuing with any of them.
What a pity. I can't say I'm crazy about cuneiform myself - the great Irving Finkel mentioned suicide with reference to its complexity - but it's a sad day when somebody gives up on their dream. Maybe you could find a way to fool around a bit without aiming for the North Face straight away, just have some fun with your favourite subject.
@@gerardvila4685
Yay, Irving Finkel! He would also make a great crossover session with the two of you. He and Tom Scott have appeared together playing ancient board games.
Dubbed films are a GREAT tool, because the dubbing is usually crisp and correct compared to the rougher or mumblier language you can find on undubbed productions. When I was in France dubbed movies and tv shows were a salvation and a great gateway to vocabulary and turns of phrase.
Oh it's going to be good to watch you two have a conversation, i'm looking forward to this
During the lockdowns I've had a lot of time on my hands and I've tried to learn Latin to give myself something to do, and the videos Luke makes are incredibly helpful. The amount of time and effort he puts into making those videos, and answering people's questions in the comments, is impressive. I've a lot of respect for him, he seems like a pretty great bloke
I hate it when I have a comment to make mid-video, but if I do not make it, I will forget it... So,
I love to listen just to get the "vibe" of a language, alot like dialects in English. My mind just starts processing in similar rythhms and sounds, then I like to watch videos with subtitles cause it is like using training wheels. Also, my brothers all went on missions in foreign countries and it is nearly miraculous how quickly they learned, so I think, hmm. How can I mimick their experience in learning a new language? I think, well, they were surrounded by speakers and couldn't communicate without at least trying, so I put rules on my life like, if I cannot speak it in that language then, I cannot have it. Also, I like to watch movies that I have already seen and watch until I get what they are saying instead of translating it into English. I find that is faster and easier to learn phrases instead of word to word correlations...that may not be universally true, but That is what I instantly thought of when the two of you spoke of learning/perfecting a non primary language.
"A soldier is just a man [in Old Norse]." There's the same problem in Old English. Also, I really like where you're talking about writing your own idiolect of Norwegian, since you're not from any particular area of Norway, you're a non-native speaker. And I think this is a good lesson for people learning and speaking languages like Old English. Since there's no possibility of writing and speaking exactly as some particular dialect in some particular period of Old English, then if we want to speak and write our own words, we have to develop our own idiolects which will necessarily be a combination of periods and dialects and neologisms that are unique to ourselves yet are grammatically correct and consistent and intelligible.
Oh my God, this was a universe crossover for my heroes I didn't know I needed!
Regarding the Greek alphabet, I learned recently that more generally than only the Helvets, the Gauls did not really have a written tradition for the Gaul languages, but when they eventually started writing stuff down, they used the Greek alphabet. And somewhere around that time, maybe a little bit after, were the wars with the Roman Empire, and the Roman alphabet started to take over, not just in the writing, but also Latin in the language. I find all of this fascinating.
Fantastic talk, thank you both.
Lucius deus linguae latinae et magnus magister eius est!
I picked up Lingva Latina Per Se Illvstrata after seeing this, and In the US it is also published by Dr. Crawford’s publisher, Hackett.
I love both these men's channels 😍
I truly appreciate how knowledgeable they are and how willing they are to share their experiences.
I'm tempted to learn old norse but am not sure where to find sufficient reading material. Something that's graded and perhaps with audio.
Yes! Suggestions anyone?
Dr Crawford ..... probably unknown to you BUT.... the explosion of male children named Jackson in recent times could arguably and almost single handedly be attributed to Kurt Sutter's Modern day version of Hamlet and its leading man, Jackson Nathaniel "Jax" Teller , Central character in the show and member of the "Outlaw" Motorcycle Club Sons of Anarchy ... wildly popular for 7 seasons on Fox ....
What a crossover!
The Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom is from the late 4th century in Constantinople and the weekly service in most Orthodox Churches. In Greece as well as all churches under the Bishop of Constantinople abroad there will be at least some Koine Greek in the service. Sometimes even in America the entirety of the service is Greek and very similar to the text of the Koine Bible. There is almost always English provided in English speaking countries in addition to the Greek though. The same liturgy is celebrated in church Slavonic in many Russian churches, in Romanian, and most of the Churches of the Orthodox Church within whatever language is common to that country. The original is Greek though.
I am a native speaker of English and spent the first 27 years of my life in the United States. I've never studied Latin, but I speak French quite fluently, Spanish perhaps a bit less so, and Italian "if I have to" (but I can read it without any difficulty), so that assuming the material is within my field of knowledge and expertise, I can translate Latin. I also have taught myself Koine Greek in order to be able to read the New Testament in the original. I would like to learn to speak both of them one day, so I am a great fan of Luke Ranieri :)
It's also interesting what you guys mention about using the Bible to learn a language. I learned Polish using the Bible. Now, I already knew how to pronounce Polish correctly because my father's secretary, who was born in Warsaw, taught me my numbers up to 1000 when I was perhaps 10 years old, just for fun, perhaps because I had volunteered the info that my Mom is half Polish.
At any rate, the numbers up to 1000 contain, as I recall, all or nearly all of the sounds of the Polish language. And they were all I knew the first time I visited Poland. I could more or less understand what people were saying by the time I left 5 weeks later, but I couldn't speak yet. So after going home, I took my Polish Bible and started memorizing verses. It was the only opportunity I had, and since I already knew the Bible well, it seemed like a good choice.
And indeed... after memorizing perhaps 20 verses, I was obliged (for a scholarship application) to carry on a conversation in Polish about how I had learned Polish and what my plans were for the future. I managed to survive this conversation, learning things on the fly from the questions the examiner asked me. I got the scholarship and moved to Poland.
You could say that at a certain point, I figured out that I had inadvertently devised a certain method for learning languages which, if undertaken consciously, involves first reading through a textbook for the language in one day - to get a grip on the logic of the language.
Thirty years later, I have used this method to teach myself and/or enhance my learning of several other languages (including Koine Greek), and am working as a translator. I now have two target languages, and can translate anything into Polish that I would translate into English - including rhymed poetry.
There are those who say I write Polish even better than I write English. Indeed, I remember my teachers at the beginning of my time in Poland noticed certain peculiarities in my speech that were considerably more advanced than one would have expected. Once I told them how I had learned Polish, they said, "Aha, that explains a lot..."
It's so great to see this many language youtube channels make collabo videos. Jackson Crawford, Luke Ranieri, Norbet from Ecolinguist, Simon Roper, Bahador Alast to name a few. It really warms my linguistics-loving(is that even a proper term. Sorry, I'm not a English native) heart!
Seriously OMG Old-Norse is coming I’m sooooooooo excited!!!!!!!!!!’ This is the best news ever! I love life!!!
That is a very good idea, having an internal dialog! My brain never shuts up as much as I try to, so exercising and practising a new language that way would at least be productive! I'm gonna have a go at that!😊 I was always fascinated by Latin and ancient Greek as well as Italian! My aunt is fluent but never spoke to us in Italian! And people keep telling me what's the point of I can't use it! But I finally decided to ignore them, hence why I'm here! Because Old Norse (I'm currently doing your "classes") and the Scandinavian languages where always of interest to me too! So we'll see how I get on! I sing and write songs and I would so love to write one in an old language and I think that can help too learning a language! I have been doing research on languages for years and how they all relate to each other and what we know of how they started etc! Another language that fascinated me is Sanskrit, but I still only know a fraction of what's probably known to linguists. I also find some written language very interesting like Arabic, Greek, Icelandic, Norse etc. It's kind of magical! Thanks for sharing your knowledge!😊 (😜my nephew's middle name is also Amadeus😜)
We all do that with names! Say what you’re thinking with complete confidence! You’ll get corrected!
I never thought I'd see the day...
D&D in medieval languages is literally the coolest thing I've ever heard. I wish I was fluent enough in any of language besides English to do something like that.
The koine Greek vs modern Greek question is interesting.
I actually had the same question once about Old Norse and modern Norwegian. This is because both languages are referred by Norse in Dutch (oud Noors en modern Noors).
Imagine if Italian was called modern Latin or German called... modern Germanic...? You get my point, haha.
In Norway they have Bokmal and Nyorsk varieties of norsk. They call Old norse Norrønt among other things. Old Norse is interestingly pretty much the same as Icelandic is today, not completely but they can read the old texts, which none of the scandinavian languages can.
Most Excellent! Carry on, Gentlemen!
Not going to see me skip over a Collab with 2 language UA-camrs I like watching
really good talk you guys, thanks
To whoever the guy was asking about Assyriology, I may have a book for you! I've been working through A Grammar of Akkadian, Third edition by John Huehnergard. It's complex for sure but a very good grammar of Akkadian that teaches speaking first which I think is a great approach. The book focuses on the Old Babylonian dialect but has some appendices that address Assyrian directly.
@1:29 mins, the beauty of "dead" language like Latin and Classical Hebrew or Old Norse is that the fact that they are no longer evolving means that they are eternal. :-)
Starship Troopers is one of my favorite books
I'd love to see a discussion between Jackson Crawford and Let's Talk Religion.
Always love crossovers between channels I follow.
1:14:19
This is common for musicians. Start practising the last part, then keep appending the preceding sections until you reach the beginning.
Wow, never heard about it! I should try one day.
Wait so the Jackson Crawford watches Vikings video was not you watching Vikings?
godlike crossover
I would love to see you do a discussion with Arabic linguist and philologist Ahmed al Jallad. I think there are a lot of interesting topics both of you could cover.
Thank you! So much here to try for language learning. 💜
The implication would be that fronting of maxim was a result of leveling, but /i/ is unrounded, not just fronted.
Him saying Tom Hiddleston about the show vikings cracked me up
Moms in Targets everywhere yelling at their 3 year old kids named Jackson. Jackson Crawford starting to post lots of videos on UA-cam around 5 years ago. Coincidence? I think not.
No-one likes people who give their kids surnames as christian names. It's tiresome and old-hat.
@@baronmedusewho hurt you my guy.
@@LoisoPondohva Nobody. Not recently anyway. And not in a way that relates to this. What an odd question.
@@baronmeduse well, considering you're the only one who cares about the issue, yet you do enough to feel everybody needs to hear about it, I'd say the question is pretty relevant to you being so salty.
@@LoisoPondohva Clearly I'm not the only one because you're here making a meal of it 1 year later. I don't know what 'being salty' is. I don't speak American. I can assure you my salt levels are at normal homeostatic equilibrium.
Akkadian and Ugaritic were taught, at least in introductory form, in my old seminary (Asbury). People who do serious work in archaeology and biblical Hebrew know where the programs are on Assyriology.
What a crossover
Regarding the conversation around 44:50, Greeks react to the pronunciation issue the same way in Rick and Morty the people of Pluto reacted to the statement that "Pluto is a planet". Saying "Ancient Greek sounded like modern Greek" feeds their ego and satisfies their beliefs, even though, deep inside, they know it might not be actually so. How could it possibly be so, when every word is spelled so differently than what is pronounced?. But they just don't want to hear it, because the way Ancient Greek and Medieval Greek is echoing all day in their daily lives with a modern Greek pronunciation, it makes them feel uneasy to imagine that it wasn't actually so. Schools of course are to blame, they teach ancient Greek appallingly bad.
I actually have a video about Pluto on my channel if you're interested in the subject.
@@polyMATHY_Luke I'll check it out. I enjoy all things Pluto 😊
Herein we observe the attempts of the flamboyant, expressive and wily Roman to outwit the stoic, gruff Norseman with silly puns and jokes
Haha!!
25:54 There's a very similar sense of fraternity/sorority/"contubernalism" in swimming. I've been a swimmer for 42 years and whereever I go in the world, if I get into a pool or swim open water and some other swimmer identifies me as a swimmer from for example technique and form and starts talking to me, we have an instant friendship.
Maybe it is like Jackson points out, a case of shared pain and struggle. Also, the self-confidence of knowing oneself to be capable of morning practice, double workouts, pushing oneself to endure lactic acid and muscle fatigue every day, is transferrable. If I know that of myself, I instantly know that of my interloquitor too.
What other "secret societies" are there out there whose members have a similar instant bond with strangers? 🤔😊
Musicians :) Especially if it entails performing experience.
The sentiment that learning a “dead” language is useless likely precludes the ability to learn a “living” language past the point of minimal proficiency. To get good at any language requires a general interest in language-learning over and above the pragmatic motivation to learn a specific language for utilitarian reasons. The question seems to be most often posed by parents trying to decide what flavor of language instruction to subject their child to.
My two idols together
So great!
The discussion of scripts tickles me.
I love showing my friends that “Arabic” numerals are just base 10, and are divided into eastern and western Arabic numerals.
For example:
١٥
Is 15, not 10.
Cuneiform wasn't originally Semitic though but Sumerian (probably). It was adapted to Akkadian, Hittite, Mirani, Elamite etc. very roughly.
But do you know why the Swiss chose Confoederatio Helvetica for their official name? They didn’t want to show preference for any one of the four official languages, and especially didn’t want to use the English name.
Luke, is there any way we can bribe you for a list of those Japanese resources!?
It sounded like they're outdated now
great stuff!!!
Dude amazing.
Speaking of people named for western geography, you meet tons of women named "Madison" but very few named " Big Hole".
Virgin Virginia vs chad Grand Canyon
Luke - a little off topic but can you help me with this. It’s a quote at the beginning of one of my favorite books but all the online translations make no sense. Thx.
Quid Quincunce speciosius , qui , in quamcunque partem spectaveris , rectus est ? ( Quintilian )
Jackson and Luke, conlangs require cultural significance, I believe. I speak five languages (English and Spanish, of course, and also Russian (B.A. 1982), German (for my B.S. in chemistry), and French (2 yrs. in the Peace Corps, Togo, West Africa); I dabble in Latin and Greek) and I've created four conlangs. The first was 'for fun', but I created Tasblish essentially out of necessity. How do you communicate something in a culture that has no sense of first or second person singular? There is an idea of 'us' and 'them', which automatically pushes 'he' and 'she' into the realm of stranger, foreigner, or potential adversary, because they are the only singular persons in the language. I don't see Tasblish as a conceptual exercise, but more as a means of connecting with the very ancient, pre-agricultural past. There must have been prehistoric cultures so horizontal in their outlook that any sense of individuality was foreign to the clan or tribe, and that is precisely the type of culture I created for my Tasfit tribe of Neanderthals inhabiting the Great Hungarian Plain in 43,000 BCE. Tasblish began when I went out in the woods with empty gallon and quart paint cans, gathered birch bark, and created my own birch bark oil through dry distillation right there in the state forest. I waited 'til returning home to inhale the stuff. When I finally did take a small whiff, I just about fell out of my chair. It was like a thousand bonfires distilled into the half cup of oil in my quart can. The smell was so strong. I realized immediately Neanderthals were spreading this stuff on their bodies (Russian birch bark oil is a more effective mosquito repellent than DEET), and the odor was overpowering. But the odor would have centered them on the clan fire, even when they were hunting 20-30 km away from the clan. And yet it was different, and the difference depended on proximity. That made me realize the nouns were not declined on the basis of relation to verb, but on relation to proximity - physical, social, or emotional - to the clan fire. So Tasblish is not declined but proxigated, with nouns understood in the context of proximity to clan fire or clan members and to a far lesser extent on the basis of immediate activity. Now I had two culturally-determined elements of grammar not expressed in any other language I've learned (or am even acquainted with), which only enhanced the need to actually go out and create the language, which is what I did. Jackson, based on the inclinations you expressed here, I doubt you would have the stomach for a 414-page novel on Neanderthal culture, but if you do give it a try, you'll be able to speak at least a few sentences in Tasblish by the end of the novel. There is a Tasblish primer, of course, which I won't push here; you know how to find it if you're interested. I've been watching both of you guys for a couple of years and I am finally subscribing today. I am Scandinavian (48 percent Swedish, 42 percent Norwegian), and my current WIP is Trinity, which has strong Norse themes and characters; I may end up quoting some of your translations. And Luke, I enjoy your content immensely. I loved the test of Portuguese, Italian, and Spanish speakers, and finding strangely that I can understand spoken Italian. I've known for some time that I understand written Italian, but had no idea it was close enough to Spanish and French to pretty much understand. Thanks to you, I fearlessly listen to reviews of fountain pens and bushcraft knives (two of my hobbies) in Italian. Vale! PM
Classical language learners don't learn Scandinavian/Norse language??
Well I'm learning both Latin/ancient greek and old norse/ old English!!
Greetings from Greece professor and to you too luke!!
they were saying that classical language learners don't learn Modern Scandinavian languages. That people who study Old Norse do not try to learn Norwegian, Danish, etc. They were commenting that this is a mistake.
Other than the obvious reasons, I would think Luke probably enjoys visiting Italy to interact with Italian Priests, w/whom (I assume) he can speak in both Italian and Latin.
Hello from Daniel, WY.
My favs !!!!!!
The Fine Arts are, by definition, useless. They are not properly ‘used’ because they are ends in themselves (hence ‘fine’ as in ‘final’). Music isn’t FOR anything except itself. But being useless does not mean being unworthwhile.
I think Interlingua would be an interesting topic too.
Oh I've always wanted to learn latin - cool - thank you
Try learning Coptic. Or Old Greek. You will feel the real challenge.
At 22:10, Luke misunderstands the satirical basis of Starship Troopers; it's a direct allegory for the United States, and that military service is rewarded with "full citizenship" (education through the GI Bill, and healthcare through the VA, etc). It's not utopian, it's not distopian, it's parallel to our own experience, and the fact that he uses that as a contrast to our "voluntary military recruitment" (again, read: coercive by way of state-engineered poverty and military service as an escape from it) is pretty ironic.
Tom Hiddleston studied Latin in school.
*Searches everywhere and finding it hard to find something to immerse myself in Norwegian besides Disney cartoons*
-Jackson: The jehovah witnesses website
-Me: well…beggars can’t be choosers
O my Latin!
Luke collaborating with a literal cowboy does not help with my running theory that he is actually judge Holden from Cormac McCarthys Blood Meridian.
Let’s look at the evidence:
>fluent in multiple languages, including Latin
>has a fascination with and deep knowledge of the earth and natural sciences
>extremely intelligent and erudite
>charming presence
>musician
>deep knowledge of philosophical and historical concepts
>completely hairless
If I find out this guy also plays violin and can dance extremely well, then dear God, we are all of us doomed.
I just have to tell you… nothing has ever motivated me to be a better driver more than the thought of being judged in Latin by another motorist. 😂
"But apart from that .... what did the Romans ever do for us?" 😂
Lingua Roma urbis antiquae, lingua Latina quotidiana,
Lingua Latina ecclesia viva