Latin Revival: Some Approaches and Language Learning Tools

Dei Sub Numine Viget
Detail from the façade of East Pyne, Princeton’s shield and motto. “Dei Sub Numine Viget” (Under God’s Power She Flourishes.) Photo Credit: John Jameson.

From philosophy, theology, history, and politics to taxonomy and medicine, Latin is doubtless one of the most important academic languages in history. Unfortunately, its status as a ‘dead language’ tends to repel many, and myths of its arcane and difficult nature often discourage learners. Another problem is that this mystique is perpetuated in many Latin language classrooms: the ‘dead language’ is truly treated as such, with little to no emphasis placed on speaking or pronunciation and all stress (in both senses of the word) lying on the rote memorization of grammar tables.

However, learning Latin need not be cumbersome, nor strike fear into our hearts. Rather, noli timere (be not afraid). The Classics Department offers excellent instruction and tutoring. Moreover, since course prerequisites can and often do interfere with language study during the semester, there are also great alternatives for self-study. Online and print resources abound for this timeless language and are tailored to a variety of learning styles.

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Learning a Language Off-Campus

According to its website, Princeton offers courses in about twenty modern languages. Sounds pretty comprehensive – until you consider that the world has literally thousands of distinct living languages.

World languages by proportion of native speakers

As I start preparing for my independent work next year, I’m thinking a lot about language ability, especially as it relates to primary source access. For non-Anglophone historical research, facility in the region’s language/s is essential to original scholarship. Personally, I’m interested in Eastern European Jewish history. The good news: I only really need one language to study primary sources from this period. The bad news: it’s not one of the twenty offered on campus.

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Confused in Two Languages: Getting Thrown into the Deep End of Research

During tenth grade, I began working as a research assistant at a Chemical and Biological Engineering lab at Princeton—a project I continued until we published a paper early this year. This lab performed computational research using extremely complicated algorithms. As a tenth grader, I had none of the basic knowledge I needed: no chemistry, biology, or coding.

The 3D folding structures I generated for HIV-1 receptor proteins and their ligands–one of the projects I worked on.

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