Which to learn: Latin or Old English?

Having heard an interesting radio programme that mentioned the historians Orosius and Eusebius I spent a few minutes (not enough minutes) on Amazon, waved the magic plastic, and have just received two books:
The History of the Church by Eusebius, and King Alfred's Orosius published by Bibliobazaar.

So far so good, but the clue is in the name. It's King Alfred's translation of Orosius, as in King Alfred of Wessex, as in the cake-burning royal who spoke Old English and Latin. It has the first on one page, the other facing it.

I don't speak either. Oops.

What the heck, I've spent the money, so I'm damn well going to read it ... probably ... erm.

I've got some language tapes for Swedish, maybe I should start with that and work back :-)

Välkommen att lära dig svenska!

I'd give my eye-teeth to learn Latin. It has a so many applications in the sciences and even in law. Old English, while kind of cool to know, wouldn't be nearly as useful. (For me, at least.)

I had the same thought, clamairy! Latin would be more practical.

*Does the happy dance*

As a Latin teacher, I get excited when people say they like the idea of learning Latin - keeps me in a job!

#4 Practical? I'm an engineer, I come home to get a break from being practical :-)

#2 Tack!

Clam, remember that in Rome and in much of Renaissance Europe, even the dogs spoke Latin. So it can't be impossible.

Scaifea, may I join you in the happy dance/ *bows expansively*

I know a little Latin and, though there are a lot of forms to learn, many of the words are closely related to english - or rather the other way around :-).

I would definately recommend Latin, especially if you are interested in the history of the church.

hfglen: But of course you may. *curtsies*

This may be a strange idea and it very well may be the case that no one will be interested, but I'd be willing to do sort of a group read/crash course in Latin...
Anyone interested?

What do you mean 'or'? Learn them both! ;)

On a more practical note, I can't count how many times I've been thankful for my Latin knowledge, so I guess that my vote goes there. It really is a fun language, and because it's "dead" you don't have to try and keep up with shifting vernacular. Very, very practical.

Latin is vastly more useful if you have any interest in history. It's also rooted in many modern languages, including English, and would help if you were interested in learning French, Italian, or Spanish. I also really like it! It's very exciting to be able to read the words of so many people from the past without needing a translation.

I tried to learn Old English. It's harder than you'd think and not nearly as much is available in OE. Pretty cool, but I gave it up when I realized I wasn't going to be using it.

One of my students told me this little diddy:

Latin's as dead,
as dead as can be.
First it killed the Romans,
and now it's killing me!

LOL!

#9 Some time ago I had (and hope I still have, or that it's now available on the Web) 2 or 3 pages of The Story of Flora and her Gardeners, as told by Giovanni Battista Ferrari in a gardening book dated 1623. We translated it in the Kew Latin class c. 1982, and found it hilarious(ly overblown) once we'd been told the trick of understanding it. ("You'll never get it by sitting there sweating. Stand on a soap box, wave your arms and shout!") May I suggest this little piece, if I can find it again?

That sounds good, hfglen, but I was also thinking of a quick crash course through a grammar book first.

#9 scaifea, that's a generous offer

When I'm not lurking here, I'm meant to be doing an open university maths course, so I don't have the spare time to do a crash Latin* course justice at the moment, but any book recommendations would be welcome.

* hmm, sounds like something they do in the Naples rush-hour.

#12 My mother told me almost the same thing:

Latin is a dead language
Lying in the dust.
First it killed the Romans,
Now it's killing us!

I've read part of Orosius in Old English. It's quite accessible, once you know the basics of Old English. Latin's easier because of the sheer amount of material out there. Old English is fun to pronounce. There are some recordings out there you can listen to of Beowulf, The Battle of Brunanburh and the like.

For usefulness, Latin's better. For fun, I say Old English

(I'm biased. I love old English. Se Englisclæden betre wæs wið alle oðre lædene!)

The only Latin I've learned was via Danish.....sooo kinda not a lot as I was learning Danish at the same time ;)

Hurray for Old English

oh wow! i took Latin 9th-12th grade in High School..in the bad old 60s...and still find it useful...can still actually read/comprehend it whenever i come across phrases/passages in my Reading now...weird, that it has been embedded in the old brain for all these years..Olde English was always a puzzler...but i don't run across it very often. when i do i snicker and run...;-p

#17 Thankyou, that's what I was hoping to hear. How did you learn the basics?

How did you learn the basics?

I'm mostly self taught. I'm also part of our Anglo-Saxon reading group. We work our way through a text (at the moment the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle) assigning a part each for each week according to our current abilities. Beginners get a sentence or two, more advanced (me, now) get a paragraph or two. We read our part aloud, for pronunciation practice, and then translate it. Cindy, our fearless leader, expands on any interesting bits of grammar.

For Old English resources online, Georgetown University has a bunch of good ones. If you're already a bit linguistically cluey, UTexas' Early Indo-European Languages OnLine has resources for a bunch of old European languages.
Here and here are some more link pages, but this one is one of my favourites.

My Latin's terrible, but not from terrible teachers. More it's from lack of time devoted to it and the money for classes. I reckon Scaifea would know some good online resources.

EDIT: I forgot to add a link to the New Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

I don't know much Latin for sure, but I was introduced to Gregorian Chant by a Latin teacher in my high school back in the early '70's.

Will, you are a man of many accomplishments!

I would love to learn about both -- Latin has such a presence in our language and literature anyhow. Old English just sounds intriguing!

I attended a Catholic High school and it was required that you take two years of Latin. At the time, I hated having to take it. However, now I am glad I have the background knowledge.It has served me as I have gotten older.

This may help you make up your mind (or not): Uncleftish Beholding by Poul Anderson:

http://groups.google.com/group/alt.language.artificial/msg/69250bac6c7cbaff

I think not learning ANY Latin is an accomplishment, if you're and adult westerner. English pepper it through-out, as if lacking in self-esteem and needing a bit of added veneer to feel good. We don't use it much in Sweden, not in that redundant way any English language academic do, but we do have close proximity to the Spanish, French and Italian languages, all of which includes snippets of Latin.

This sounds great. I did Latin at school but had to drop it because it clashed with courses that I needed to get into Uni. I then changed courses at Uni and went back to my true home of English Lit but, again, Latin clashed with the courses I needed to take. I'd love to revive my knowledge though.

Latin is the more useful, but for that God-awful, superdork obscurantism, nothing beats Old English.

A friend of mine, while doing his PhD. in New Testament at Duke was struggling with French and German, after having learned Greek (of course), Hebrew (maybe) and Chaldee/Aramaic, suggested that ALL academic work should be done in Latin, so scholars from various countries would only have to learn one language, and since they would use it all the time, it would be easier to master. I like that.

Thanks for the links on Old English Willsteed.

I learned what little Latin I know on the fly, mostly through theological and liturgical texts.

#26 The English are inter alia linguistic kleptomaniacs, so not actually lacking in self-esteem per se ...

#21 Great links. I've already spent a few minutes on the Old English Aerobics pages. Latin can wait :-)

29 - Indeed Latin was (and curiously in some places still is) used for that purpose until quite recently. English, of course, now suffices. Occasionally I've come across a 20th century book in the uni library on an obscure language that's written in Latin. Mostly they're from Scandanavia.

I can read and understand a surprising amount of a Latin Mass, but I think that's because I know a Catholic mass well enough to know what I'm looking at. I was going to say I know it backwards, but that's possibly the wrong implication.

You're welcome, for the links.

I too have picked up a very little Latin "on the fly." Where it serves me best is figuring out complex words. I find that if I know the meaning of the Latin root, or prefix, or whatever, it often will help me figure out a meaning - or at least somewhere in the neighborhood of a meaning. Has come in handy more than once.

I've studied both Latin and Anglo-Saxon. I think it depends on what you are looking for. If your interest is in reading Anglo-Saxon works then that's the way to go if you have interest in other texts that might be in Latin then Latin is helpful.

There are some side by side translations if that is helpful and I recommend The Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary as a quick resource. Once you understand some of the Futhark letters that make their way into Anglo-Saxon then I think it starts making a lot of sense and you can see the relationship to English and the alliteration is fun.

Latin is nifty because word order doesn't matter with all those declensions and of course it is brilliant for understanding the roots of many words.

Latin! Definately Latin. There are many resources for learning it, and you will never regret taking it. As a baby Classics Major, I get so excited when I hear that someone might want to learn it. I think Olde English would be cool too, but learn Latin first.

A summary so far:

Having unwittingly (in all senses) bought a book in two languages I can't read, I was interested to know what other people would do.

Lots of people have done a happy dance at the prospect of another reader of Latin. A few have said that Old English isn't actually as bad as it looks, and can be fun.

Conclusion:

At some point I will get around to Latin. It's quite likely to be the next Open University course I do once I finish with the maths, and catch up on the DIY that's not getting done at the moment.

As being the most fun, I have decided to concentrate on the Old English first. It's something I can nibble away at, over as many years as it takes, without feeling any obligation or guilt at my ignorance and I've been pleasantly surprised at the resources available on the web.

36 - Oh, how very diplomatic! I'm impressed.