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I'd like to learn Latin and Greek by way of dead languages, as well as Hebrew and Aramaic (not sure if the last one is dead or not). Unfortunately, outside of English and the odd word of other languages, I have about the skill level of Moses (who, for those who don't know, had a severe speech impediment).

I'm already learning a dead language - Latin. I love Latin - that's why I have a Latin username.

I would love to learn Latin, even though it may not be considered a fully dead language (according to Jersey's post). In fact, I'd actually be more interested in learning a dead language than a language still used today.

Yes, but to my understanding a dead language is one that is no longer developing or expanding. That's why LAtin is used for scientific purposes, because the meanings of all the words are by now pretty much set in stone.

This is turning into a flame war, and quickly.

To settle this, yes, these languages may still be used, but, as Dragon Tamer said correctly, they are not used widely by any actual culture, nor are they growing, changing, or expanding. These languages have not changed for hundreds of years and are not learned by children growing up in households (or at least not any normal, average household of any culture thus known to man.) YES, they are still very useful, however, they are DEAD.

I've taken four years of Latin class, I know about the culture that used to surround it. But no culture surrounds it now, or even uses it as a primary means of communication. Yes, it is used in some Catholic church services, especially those in the Vatican City, yes, derivatives of Latin words are widely used in languages like English, Spanish, French, etc. as well as in the medical field. But the actual language is not a primary language for any culture. I love it to pieces, but it is a dead language.

As is Greek. It is also not used for primary communication by any widely recognized culture. It is useful, and you will find derivatives of its words floating around in many modern languages, but that doesn't change the fact that it is no longer widely spoken. I can't say much about Aramaic, because I've never researched it, however, one doesn't exactly hear it very often, and many cultures classify it as a dead language.

Now, please, let's drop the contest of who's right and who's wrong and get back on the focus of this discussion, which is whether or not you would like to learn a dead language.

My answer: I love to learn dead languages. I've always liked learning Latin, even though we can't always get the pronounciations correct. I'd also like to learn Greek. But Egyptian has always intrigued me as well.