(no subject)

[camwyn]

Started the Latin course on Duolingo after I got frustrated with only being able to make out a small percentage of the words on Latin inscriptions during my family's trip to Italy. Turns out Latin has the most incredibly unappetizing word for 'cookie' I have ever seen: crustulum. It sounds like something a dermatologist should be writing a prescription to clear up.

Side note, a LOT of Latin inscriptions in Italy mention Popes. Thing is, there's only so much room on even a triumphal arch, so pretty much every single inscription I saw that mentioned a Pope's name referred to him as PONT MAX. (Short for Pontifex Maximus.) I couldn't get over the impression that it was the official Papal Slack handle...

Comments

[genarti]

Ha, I've only been to Italy the once, on a high school trip for Latin students (one of those budget whirlwind educational tours), and I had the opposite experience -- I had never studied a modern language at any length and I could just about fumble my way through asking for formaggio in a market, but I could read the heavily abbreviated Latin inscriptions on the buildings much better than I could read any modern signage.

[camwyn]

I had Latin in seventh and eighth grade (Catholic school). My high school offered Latin, but only if you had already taken at least two, possibly three, years of a modern foreign language. By the time I had taken enough Italian to be allowed to enroll in the Latin class, my schedule had too many other things in it for Latin to be really feasible. Most of my attempts to read the Latin inscriptions were based pretty heavily on etymology of English and Italian words, which did me absolutely sod all good in the way of grammar.