The great thing about now being able to conduct basic research queries in German is that I'm finding all sorts of important books and articles that I completely missed before!
The downside is that they are all in fucking German.
Boo! I'm unhappy for you. This is why I just stick to English. There's already so much written about Shakespeare in English that I'll never get a chance to read it all in this lifetime. So why kill myself trying to read in French (the only other language I can make claims on)?
I would think as a linguist, or at least a classicist like yourself German would have been on the top of your priority list. I only say so because those crazy Germans have a thesis on every damn grammatical point in Greek or Latin. Our professor in DC showed us a 117 page thesis solely on the alpha-privitive and its uses in Attic Greek.
Good luck, as I'm trying to keep my Greek up, brush up on my German (for philosophy and theology's sake), and redo Latin as mine is shit now.
You're a better classicist than me, so I know you can do it. Keep working hard! If you're ever feeling down, just walk around outside and look at all the people you wouldn't want to be in our neighborhood again.
Is this even possible? Won't any reasonably modern text you cited in your dissertation have at least one slightly-less-modern German text in its bibliography? ...wait. Your bibliography isn't entirely comprised of texts written (as opposed to translated) in English...isn't it?
Fie! - Alas, I cannot just stick to English. Can't do it. Would be crucified if I tried. If only...
Matt - As a classicist, mastering Greek and Latin were at the top of the priority list, funny enough. Then my focus was on my qualifying exams. And then on my dissertation prospectus. But yes, once all of that was out of the way, German was at the top of the list. :)
Anon - When this friggin' chapter is done, I'll definitely give it a read!
PB - Of course there's German cited in many of the books/articles I've come across, but since I couldn't read German, it might as well have been Hebrew at the time.
And no. There are Italian and French sources in my bibliography as well. Come now.
My condolences! I took 4 years of high school German, 3 years of Spanish and 8 years of French immersion. German is the one I struggled with the most. I mean what's up with that THIRD neuter pronoun? Sheesh. All the Romance languages make do with masculine and feminine. (Granted most of my experience with Latin, Portuguese and Italian was singing it in choir).
6 comments:
Boo! I'm unhappy for you. This is why I just stick to English. There's already so much written about Shakespeare in English that I'll never get a chance to read it all in this lifetime. So why kill myself trying to read in French (the only other language I can make claims on)?
I would think as a linguist, or at least a classicist like yourself German would have been on the top of your priority list. I only say so because those crazy Germans have a thesis on every damn grammatical point in Greek or Latin. Our professor in DC showed us a 117 page thesis solely on the alpha-privitive and its uses in Attic Greek.
Good luck, as I'm trying to keep my Greek up, brush up on my German (for philosophy and theology's sake), and redo Latin as mine is shit now.
You're a better classicist than me, so I know you can do it. Keep working hard! If you're ever feeling down, just walk around outside and look at all the people you wouldn't want to be in our neighborhood again.
You really must read Twain's "The Awful German Language," if you haven't, already.
http://www.crossmyt.com/hc/linghebr/awfgrmlg.html
It's a bit lengthy, but definitely worth the read. I haven't even attempted to learn German, and I still find it hilarious.
Is this even possible? Won't any reasonably modern text you cited in your dissertation have at least one slightly-less-modern German text in its bibliography?
...wait. Your bibliography isn't entirely comprised of texts written (as opposed to translated) in English...isn't it?
Fie! - Alas, I cannot just stick to English. Can't do it. Would be crucified if I tried. If only...
Matt - As a classicist, mastering Greek and Latin were at the top of the priority list, funny enough. Then my focus was on my qualifying exams. And then on my dissertation prospectus. But yes, once all of that was out of the way, German was at the top of the list. :)
Anon - When this friggin' chapter is done, I'll definitely give it a read!
PB - Of course there's German cited in many of the books/articles I've come across, but since I couldn't read German, it might as well have been Hebrew at the time.
And no. There are Italian and French sources in my bibliography as well. Come now.
My condolences! I took 4 years of high school German, 3 years of Spanish and 8 years of French immersion. German is the one I struggled with the most. I mean what's up with that THIRD neuter pronoun? Sheesh. All the Romance languages make do with masculine and feminine. (Granted most of my experience with Latin, Portuguese and Italian was singing it in choir).
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