{"id":1500,"date":"2016-03-01T09:00:40","date_gmt":"2016-03-01T13:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woocommerce-632430-2060185.cloudwaysapps.com\/?p=1500"},"modified":"2016-03-25T11:55:53","modified_gmt":"2016-03-25T15:55:53","slug":"learning-latin-to-grasp-grammar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/classicallatin.org\/exordium\/learning-latin-to-grasp-grammar\/","title":{"rendered":"Learning Latin to Grasp Grammar"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Brett Vaden<\/strong><\/p>\n

In a recent blog post<\/a>, Simon Horobin (Magdalen College, Oxford) asserts that learning Latin in order to grasp English is a misguided idea.
\nHorobin gives an example from Wells Egelsham\u2019s A Short Sketch of English Grammar<\/em> (1780), where Egelsham attempts to decline the noun \u201clord\u201d according to the Latin case system:\"Latin_table-744x289\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The problem with doing so, says Horobin, is that, \u201cWhere Latin nouns have different endings for these various cases, English makes no distinction between the nominative, accusative, dative, vocative, and ablative cases.” To apply the Latin case system to English without\u00a0any distinction between the two languages is, at best, a flat-footed approach.<\/p>\n

Horobin goes on to critique the claim of grammarians like H. W. Fowler, whose \u201clinguistic prescriptions are soaked through with edicts from Latin grammar.\u201d For example, whereas the construction \u201cIt is me\u201d easily rolls off many an English speaker\u2019s tongue, Fowler prescribes the Latinate form, \u201cIt is I.\u201d Horobin jibes, \u201cFowler\u2019s prescription continues to find loyal adherents today (if you are one \u2014try saying it out loud).”<\/p>\n

The virtue in Horobin\u2019s treatment is his defense of English qua<\/em> English: the beauties and features of English are not simply hand-me-downs from Latin. Horobin\u2019s contention is that we do injustice to English by attempting to abstract it from its unique linguistic, or philological, attributes. There are spells woven in the words of English that, by their rhythm and sound, work an enchantment all their own.<\/p>\n

J.R.R. Tolkien experienced this enchantment, being drawn away from his study of Classics to languages closer to home: Old Norse, Finnish, Gothic, and Old and Middle English. He confessed that, as a boy, he had studied Anglo-Saxon when he was \u201csupposed to be learning Greek and Latin\u201d (Letters<\/em>, 381).<\/p>\n

With Horobin (and Tolkien), we can affirm the value of studying English in its own right. Yet there remains a glaring flaw in Horobin\u2019s logic that demands correction. His mistake is to infer that because English and Latin are different languages, understanding Latin would have no bearing on understanding English. On the contrary, one of the best ways\u00a0for children to learn English grammar\u00a0is to learn Latin\u00a0grammar. Let me give\u00a0three\u00a0reasons (for a fuller treatment of each reason, go here<\/a>).<\/p>\n

First, studying grammar in a foreign language forces students to analyze words and discern how they fit together. In my own case, I didn’t really grasp grammar until high school, when I took my first foreign language class (which happened to be Latin).<\/p>\n

Second, studying grammar in a foreign language that uses noun and verb endings (e.g., Latin, German, Greek) is particularly helpful, because, unlike English, the grammar of such inflected languages stares you in the face. In English, discerning a word\u2019s function in a sentence is difficult, because there\u2019s nothing about the word\u2019s spelling that tells you whether it\u2019s the subject, verb, direct object, or something else. In inflected languages, however, the function of the word is readily apparent\u00a0because of its ending.<\/p>\n

Third, studying grammar in Latin is especially convenient, because its rules are highly regular. While the principle stated in the first reason above holds for any language, not all languages are equal when it comes to their regularity and order. Latin is, in this way, similar to Geometry and Algebra: complex, yet systematic and logical.<\/p>\n

Finally, let\u2019s be clear that what we\u2019re really talking about is something deeper and more important than either Latin or English. Learning grammar is about learning how to interpret what others say, or how to discern meaning in words, as well as how to successfully form and express one\u2019s own mind to others. These are the most important reasons to know grammar and to follow its rules.\u00a0No matter how we approach English, we can find grammar in any language. The question is, then, What\u2019s the best way to learn grammar? Learn it in a way that will force you to grapple with it (in a foreign language), learn it in the most concrete language you can (an inflected language), and learn it in the most regular language you can (Latin).<\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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