ROME, Italy — Duolingo, the popular free language learning website and app, has launched a Latin course to help its users say “salve” to Latin fluency.
“Latin has long been regarded as a ‘dead, read’ language that only exists on the pages of dusty books. Instead, we strive to consider Latin as a language of communication – a language which people can speak and, most importantly, one that people can learn by speaking,” Dr Marco Romani told CNA via email.
Romani is the outreach manager for the Paideia Institute, an educational organisation promoting study of Latin and Ancient Greek, which partnered with Duolingo in creating the web-based Latin programme.
He said the course was made for beginners and “doesn’t assume any previous familiarity with Latin. Anyone can complete it successfully and get to an above-average level of fluency in Latin conversation.”
Learning Latin conversation is what makes the Duolingo course different from more traditional means of studying the ancient language, he said, explaining that they chose to focus the course on conversation over grammar with a goal of helping learners “acquire a basic vehicular fluency.”
Most traditional Latin teachers, instead, focus on the translation of Latin texts, according to Romani. Duolingo teaches “simple conversational phrases which gradually help learners internalise the most important linguistic structures they need to improve their Latin.”
Romani pointed to the audio features of the course as one way this is accomplished. Audio is embedded throughout, allowing learners to listen to any Latin sentence they are working on, he said.
The course uses classical Latin pronunciation, however, which differs from the ecclesiastical pronunciation that most Catholics will be used to hearing at Mass or in other Church contexts.
But spoken Latin provides “a good foundation” for further study of the language, Romani said. The course teaches “simple conversational phrases which gradually help learners internalise the most important linguistic structures they need to improve their Latin.”
Benefits to learning Latin? There are many, he said, but one is that about 65% of English vocabulary comes from Latin, “and that figure rises if you look at polysyllabic words or at the vocabulary of technical and scientific disciplines.”
“Studying Latin boosts your mastery of your own language,” he stressed.
Latin can also “transcend national boundaries,” he said and gives you access “to the immense body of literature written in Latin from antiquity up to the modern age.”
“You can gain a better appreciation of authors like Augustine, Bonaventure, and Thomas Aquinas – which I think is important to Catholics and non-Catholics alike,” he said.
Adapted from CNA
