You Can Now Learn to Speak Latin Using Duolingo

Duolingo has launched its latest language learning course, and this one will help you learn to speak Latin. Latin isn’t the most obvious choice of languages to learn, but it’s a good choice for those either seeking to become polyglots or looking to challenge themselves.

For the uninitiated, Duolingo is a free language-learning app which uses gamification to help you learn languages. Duolingo offers courses in dozens of languages, including French, German, Spanish, and Italian. And it has now launched a Latin course.

How to Learn to Speak Latin Using Duolingo

Duolingo’s Latin-learning course will teach you to speak Classical Latin. This is the form that was spoken by writers, lawyers, and scientists. If you work in the legal profession, the medical field, or science labs, you’ll likely to be aware of Classical Latin.

To create its Latin course, Duolingo partnered with The Paideia Institute, which is a non-profit organization dedicated to teaching the classical humanities. The result is a course which teaches you Latin in bite-sized chunks, allowing you to learn at your own pace.

Fun Fact I: The Latin term for "tweet" is breviloquium.

Fun Fact II: Our Latin course is now available. Salvete!

Fun Fact III: You can start learning today on iOS, Android, and Web: https://t.co/2q12Cnut0v pic.twitter.com/3TesxDNOED

— Duolingo (@duolingo) August 28, 2019

Latin is considered a dead language, as there are no native speakers alive today. So, why would you want to learn Latin in this day and age? It turns out that there are a number of reasons to learn Latin, which Duolingo explores in this post on Making Duolingo.

The biggest reason is that Latin is the root of all Romance languages, such as Spanish, French, and Italian. Latin has also influenced other languages, so you’ll get a better understanding of your mother tongue. So it isn’t as dead as you may think.

Other Languages to Learn Using Duolingo

Even with the reasons to speak Latin Duolingo has listed, we still wouldn’t recommend learning Latin above other languages still very much in use today. But once you have mastered a second language, Latin would certainly provide a challenge.

For the more serious-minded, you can learn Arabic using Duolingo, learn Hindi using Duolingo, and learn Chinese using Duolingo. And if you’re craving a geeky second language with no use in the real world, you can even learn to speak High Valyrian.

Image Credit: Carole Raddato/Flickr

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