Latin: Kulturen, historien, språket

by Tore Janson, Hilde Sejersted (Translator)

Et velskrevet og entusiastisk portrett av det latinske språket og en fascinerende inngang til hele den europeiske kulturhistorien. Latinprofessor Tore Janson gir oss en populærhistorisk fremstilling av det latinske språket – av forfatterne, lovene, den fantastiske poesien og talekunsten. Janson starter med Romerriket, og følger deretter latinens skjebne i Europas historie frem til i dag. Til denne utgaven har Vibeke Roggen og Hilde Sejersted skrevet et eget kapittel om det latinske språkets historie i Norge.

Genres: History, Language, Linguistics, Nonfiction, Ancient History, European History, Swedish Literature

246 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Tore Janson is a Swedish linguist and professor. Janson was professor of Latin at the University of Gothenburg, and later became professor of African languages at the same alma mater. He retired in 2001, but has since been affiliated with the University of Stockholm.

He devoted much of his time and publishing activities to the way how languages change as well as to the relationship between language and society.

Reviews

[Christopher · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read Latin and Greek as an undergraduate (mainly with a view to Indo-European linguistics) and have long sought a book I could recommend to friends and family who want to know something about classical languages. I thought A Natural History of Latin would be just the thing, but I found the book rather problematic.

A Natural History of Latin is a translation and adaptation by Merethe Damsgaard Sorensen and Nigel Vincent of Tore Janson's original Latin; Kulturn, historien, spraaket published in Stockholm in 2002. The book is written at a high school level, avoiding jargon and explaining matters as clearly and simply as possibly. Janson starts at the very beginning, with Latin as a single descent of the Indo-European proto-language, a small language confined to Rome overshadowed by its strong neighbour Etruscan. He introduces the major writers of Latin literature, and even quotes passages from the major poets, giving the original Latin and a translation.

Since Latin is a remarkably tenacious language, holding on long after the disappearance of Roman society, and Janson discusses the use of Latin by the Roman Catholic Church, philosophers, and natural scientists. While Janson talks of the rise of new languages after the fall of the Roman Empire that were descended from Latin yet no longer Latin, I was baffled by his omission of the Strasbourg Oaths, which many readers find an entertaining example of language change.

Though Janson avoids discussion of morphology (the changes the endings of Latin words can go through) in the main of the book, the end of the book contains a 35-page appendix on Latin grammar so that the curious reader can learn more. There is also a basic vocabulary of the most common and influential Latin words, and a collection of common phrases and expressions.

In spite of covering many of the basics of the use of Latin, I found the author injected his own personal biases into the text far too often. Some of my other reviewers have complained about his comparison of Cato with Fascist party members, Epicurius with Karl Marx, his assertion that Julius Caesar commited genocide. Now, these are intriguing matters, but Janson makes the comparisons so flippantly that it just drags the level of the text down. Beyond these, there are other problematic passages. For example, after discussing Catullus' poems to the boy Juventius, Janson writes, "That a man might be in love with both women and men did not cause any great surprise in antiquity... It was not regarded as deviant behavior." Such a blanket statement is dishonest, for while the elites of Roman society condoned pederasty, grown men who took the passive role in homosexual acts were despised in the strongest sense. Just look at the character of the cinaedus in Petronius' Satyricon, for example.

The author loves to get his digs in at Christianity as well, with a revisionist goal that goes against the long traditions of Oxford University Press' classicist publishing. Of Tertullian, whom classicists have long admired for his eloquent defence of his faith in front of Roman persecution, Janson writes, "[His books'] most striking characteristic is their spiteful attitude to everyone who thought differently from Tertullian himself." Later he writes, "It was not easy to know at the time who actually was a heretic. It depended on who was successful in having their view of original sin or the Trinity finally accepted as the true teaching of the Church." And of St Augustine, Janson writes, "His ideas are strange or even repugnant. This is especially true of the idea of original sin." The doctrine of original sin hardly began with Augustine, nor is it a concept limited to Christianity among the world religions (Buddhism, for instance, has us stuck in cycles of samsara because of lusts and desires).

With his peculiar biases, Janson betrays the fine tradition of Oxford University Press' books on the classical world, and I find the book too enervating to recommend to others. Maybe I should look at Joseph Farrell's Latin Language and Latin Culture: From Ancient to Modern Times instead.

[Janina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Precis vad jag förväntade mig och ville ha av en sån här bok. Kul!

[Valentina · Rating 4 out of 5]

a pretty informative introduction to Latin; its general history and characteristics. i also find the final section with all the grammar and general vocabulary pretty useful.

[Oyvind Halvorsen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Norskspråklig utgave

[Diana Sandberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite engaging. Although this is a kind of history of the Latin language, it becomes, de facto, a history of Western civilization from before the founding of Rome forward. Janson has a real talent for giving a very clear condensation of this enormous subject. I am relatively familiar with just about everything he tells us, but really enjoyed and appreciated the overview.

I don't mean to suggest the author neglects the actual linguistic journey, but this is not a book for linguistic scholars, but rather for the interested amateur. One does not even have to be familiar with Latin. The development, spread, dominance and eventual eclipse of the language becomes a remarkable way of viewing the social history of our culture.

The book is in three sections - the first covers the development of the language up to the fall of Rome, the next the role of Latin in subsequent eras. The third is more technical and instructs the reader in the structure of the language itself. Again, in this third section, Janson is quite good at presenting a great deal in a concise manner, but I doubt many readers will be prepared to slog through it all. If one is inclined to actually study the language itself, I believe there are more useful means.

Still, a very good book, very enjoyable.

[withdrawn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I cannot decide who this book was written for. The first few chapters are filled with basic facts about Roman and European history, very basic facts. It was like a review of my grade 8 social studies class. If the target audience is people wanting to learn that, then the first few chapters are fine. But then the book ends with a review of basic Latin grammar, going into some detail but not enough to be a text. I should think that anyone wanting to learn lLatin would need to go to a Latin grammar text. The book is both too detailed, giving examples of the subjunctive mode for example, but not detailed enough, giving only a one sentence explanation of what the subjunctive is. Anyone hoping to learn Latin with this would be quickly frustrated. Similarly the Latin glossary and list of certain terms and sayings would be of little use to a Latin student. The juxtaposition of history and grammar doesn't really work. So two stars.

[bridget Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

i love latin. in fact i am thinking of auditing on latin 1 class at S.U in the fall. i think it will be a good review after taking latin 1 and 2 at oneonta.
it was interesting to learn about the history part of the language. i always found that interesting. so much of our language today is based up latin.
i think everyone should take latin--if you are having grammar problems latin will help.

[Pal · Rating 4 out of 5]

It had great links to the history of the English language and some for the Swedish language, but I wish that it had more about Latin's influence on non-indo european languages.

[Mircah Foxwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall, I quite enjoyed this book, which is a very readable overview of the Latin language, and how it evolved through history. Janson overviews the history of Rome as he discusses the language and writers of that empire. After the fall of Rome, he explains how Latin evolves into a series of region dialects, which eventually become so different from the original Latin that they become their own languages (the Romance languages). And of course discusses how, by starting as the language of the Church of Rome, Latin permeates European society for centuries, and impacts European languages up to the present day.

The last third of the book includes a discussion of how Latin grammar works (which I ended up skimming it) as well as an appendix of Latin phrases and another of Latin vocabulary.

I think the grammar section really just shows that it will take some concentrated effort to learn all the cases and declensions. It was too complicated for easy reading, and yet not detailed enough to be useful for learning Latin.

My one issue with Tore Janson was a tendency to include sweeping judgements. It wasn’t all the time, to be sure, but once in a while he’d say something that threw me. For example, at one point he says, “People react in different ways to this picture of the Romans. Personally, it makes me feel sick, and I imagine many other people feel the same way.” A few pages later he says, “The fact that Rome was a society where people had slaves is very offensive to us…” Later he describes some of the Christian ideologies proposed by St Augustine as being repugnant to us now. Now, I’m not in favour of patriarchy or slavery, nor am I a Christian - but I felt such damning, personal opinions don’t belong in a work like this. However, there are not too many of these observations, so they didn’t spoil the whole book for me.

[Anson Cassel Mills · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tore Janson (b. 1936) is a noted Swedish linguist who intended this book as an “overview and an appetizer” for general educated readers. The book is divided into five unequal sections, the first two—the story of Latin in the Roman Empire and then in post-Roman Europe—being the longest. These are followed by sections on Latin grammar, basic vocabulary, and “Common Phrases and Expressions.”

Although Janson originally published this book in Swedish, the English version “is not just a translation, since the text has been revised and adapted in many places, and a couple of sections are entirely new.”(x) Janson assumes no prior knowledge of Latin and writes in an engaging, non-academic style. Many readers will be able to pardon (or perhaps even smile at) his pretentious insertion of strong personal biases against certain aspects of Roman culture and medieval Christianity.

[Carlos · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting and engaging history of the Latin language. Janson puts all the grammatical details in an appendix so that the reader who is mainly interested in the history of the language can read about it without drowning in declension tables. In this way Janson chronicles the rise of the Roman people, the apogee of its literature and the long arc of its influence in European languages. While not ignoring the history of the Roman empire he also does see it necessary to recount the list of emperors or the ebb and flow of its frontiers. Definitely worth the read for anyone curious of the lasting influence of Latin in European history, literature and language.

[Amanda Witt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting read of how Latin was once the language of the educated people and also how it slowly became less used. Sometimes called a 'dead' language, it still lives on in legal, medical and botanical terminology.

[Audrey · Rating 2 out of 5]

Speed read since a lot of this book was vocab toward the end. Disappointing - for maybe a high school level latin book, I found this organization confusing. Lots of good information but I found not organized in a way that would be conducive to learning.

[Tyra · Rating 2 out of 5]

En bra början för mina studier. Boken läggen en bra grund för latin som språk, både för rom och resten av världen. Den är uppbyggd på ett bra sätt som gör den enkel att följa genom hela narrativet.

[Rhea Kassiopea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great overview of how history is impacted by language. Eventhough the book is somewhat too simplistic for an antiquity enthusiast.

[Mrs J M Sandford · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book tries hard to explain Latin to the uninitiated.

[Jimmy]

not very good

[C. Quabela · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this was a really good cursory look at the history of latin. When I say cursory though, I mean it (only the first half of the book is actually devoted to its history). It does not go into great detail, it just rather charts its course through western history. Easy to read though and it gives a decent sense of the language and how it stands today. I will say though, for those who have actually studied the language, the second part could come in handy when trying to brush up. It gives a good concise overview of all the verb conjugations and noun declensions et cetera, so if you were going to try and read something again in Latin, it would be a great reference if you no longer possess your old text books.

In the authors defence, I have seen some people write criticisms as to how he presents Christianity. I have to disagree, it is not a bias on his part. What I enjoyed most was how much he balanced the ancient and sometimes pagan traditions along side the assimilation of the language within the Church. Obviously, the church won out, and the history of that battle is far from pretty on the side of the Catholic Church. Nevertheless he does give credit where credit is deserved, and that is in how the church was in fact able to preserve the language and ancient texts through the several houndred years of the middle ages during which a great amount of writings were lost.

I only give this a three because of how sketched out the history is told (and for the fact that it surprisingly has a good deal of spelling and grammer errors of its own, much like this post). I would still recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the subject but who does not wish to devote years of their life reading the actual scholarly work.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book offers a broad introduction to the Latin language and its use from its beginnings to today. The breadth of the book is its strength. Few books by Classicists cover Latin's use in Late Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and after, but this book covers literally every period and genre of writng in Latin. The book's depth, however, is rather shallow. It often covers major topics in only a few pages. Of course, if you know the source of the book's title, this is not surprising. "Natural History" sounds a bit like it should cover some intersection of scientific and historical inquiry, but it actually comes from the title of an encylopedia by the ancient author Pliny the Elder. Pliny's Naturalis Historia is the model for this book, and like Pliny, this book rarely probes deeply into its topics. Still, the lack of any authoritative end notes and the disappointingly brief "Further Reading" section in this book make it even less helpful than it could be.

For the most part, I enjoyed reading this book. I would reccomend it to current and former students of Latin, as well as high school Latin instructors. There is a lot here to enjoy, but the dry, academic tone makes an odd combination with the more general nature of the content. There are probably better, more exciting books for beginners, but they may lack the breadth of this volume. This seems like a good reference book to provide short readings for early Latin students, so I plan on keeping it on my shelf. But you may want to look elsewhere if you were hoping for somethig stronger on historical linguistics or more focused on the specifics of textual transmission or paleography (all of which are actually covered, although only for a few pages.)

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable and easy read despite the title. Like a festival lecture from an entertaining emeritus professor.

The book is divided into 3 sections, the first about the contemporary Latin of Rome's Empire, the second about the two millennia since then, and the third an overview of Latin grammar.

Section 1 deserves 4.5 stars, section 2 gets 2 stars, and I can't comment on section 3. I'd call it as 3 stars overall.

The first part is the most colourful, bringing to life some of the characters and their motivations as well as providing a mine of interesting trivia. Recommended! It's unfair that some of the reviews I've seen take the book to task citing comments in this section because it's not intended to be a canonical history.

The second part is far less structured and drifts, the main strand being only that Latin is everywhere. Hardly a surprise, but something of a letdown after the first part. The third section on grammar was not beside reading, for me.

[Dave Maddock · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice overview of the history of the use of Latin in under 200 pages. Perhaps a bit too short for my tastes, but enjoyable. The first section deals with Latin in Ancient Rome. The second section is about Latin through the Middle Ages and Renaissance and focused primarily on Christianity, which is reasonable given history but I would've preferred more information about secular literature and less on how Latin is used for scientific terminology. The third section is a short grammar sketch with accompanying word and phrase lists which I found largely pointless.

[Joan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A concise, enjoyable history of the Latin language written for the layman. Covers the first known appearance of the language, its usage and evolution throughout the Roman Republic and early/late empires, then on to the middle ages via Church Latin, and modern scientific usage. The latter half of the book consists of tables delineating declension, tense, gender, and case for the most commonly used Latin words and phrases, which will come in very handy when I'm struggling (as who doesn't) with ablative vs. accusative.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Janson's book is a nice companion for Nicholas Ostler's Ad Infinitum: A Biography of Latin. Janson includes a useful appendix on the structure of the Latin language. My only criticism of the book is the English style, which is infelicitous. This well could be the fault of the translator. The information is clearly presented in a form that would be of interest both to those familiar with Latin at some level and to those with no previous knowledge of the language.

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had to read this for class, so at first I was un-excited to read it. But I never realized how extensive the history of Latin truly is, or how it connects the history of most of the modern world. As a world history major, this really connected a lot of points together about how nations worked together throughout a millennium of constant warfare. On a side note, the grammar boring, and if you're not a Latin student, don't bother with that section, you won't get it. (It's at the end.)

[Gloria · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gift from my sister, who perhaps is tired of hearing about my complaints about not being allowed to take Latin in high school.

Not a text from which to learn Latin, but a nice text about the story of Latin, with the last half directed toward those with some Latin knowledge. Helpful little cheat-sheet glossary of commonly used Latin phrases can be found in the back.

[Dustin Simmons · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was disappointed, not because the book isn't good or useful, but because I was expecting so much more. This is a mere primer and introduction to the history of Rome and her language. While great for an early student of Latin or Roman history, or anyone with a passing interest in Roman history, I was looking for in-depth discussions of the language and linguistic history and development.

[Cyd · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this book in short spurts separated by many months...which tells me that it didn't keep my attention very well. Parts of it were quite interesting, but probably only to nerds like me who took Latin in high school or college.

[Dan Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a wonderful beginning for people who are wanting to know more about the roots of Romance languages or simply to become acquainted with the core medium of classical and medieval interchange.

[Miles · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is not a "thick" book. In fact, it was a very enjoyable read and one that would make a fine addition to anyone's list of books to read, or a college reading list.

[Marcos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Um livro de introdução ao Latim. Compreende regras linguísticas com um contexto histórico rico. Muito bom e recomendável para qualquer pessoa que nutre a ambição de aprender essa língua clásica.