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The Death Of Latin – CBS News — I’m now convinced there is something in the water over there.
A couple of thousand years ago we British were invaded by some extremely civilized conquerors – the Romans. They built our roads, our cities – like Londinium, and left us – after several hundred years – with a rich sense of culture and a great deal of their own language. In fact using Latin phrases is still the, er, ‘status quo’. There are hundreds of, er, ‘bona fide’ English sayings which owe everything to Julius Caesar and his legions.
But now the use of Latin is to be banned – on the orders of England’s most interfering busybodies, our local town councils. And that’s an irony because the very word council was first coined by the Romans.
I have, er, ‘prima facie’ evidence. Bournemouth, a sleepy place on the English south coast, has just issued orders to stop all staff using any popular Latin. So now they are forced to say ‘impromptu’, when they actually mean ‘ad lib’, and it’s a permanent ban – not just ‘pro tem’. Now, the, er, ‘quid pro quo’ for this draconian new rule is supposed to be that everyone will be able to understand everbody else without any risk of confusion in future.
But lovers of Latin regard the ruling as the linguistic equivalent of ethnic cleansing. It is they say, stark staring bonkers, etcetera, etcetera — except they mustn’t ever say ‘etcetera’ because that particular phrase actually started life in ancient Rome.
Found by Mad Dog Mike.
Actually English is a Germanic language, though like all modern forms highly bastardized. Read some Middle English and German and it’s obvious. The Romance languages are derivatives of Vulgar Latin. I know this is too much information, but I’m just sitting here board and waiting for someone.
Here’s a brief & accurate treatment: http://merriam-webster.com/help/faq/history.htm
Latin is a significant part of modern English.
Watch this happen all over Europe as Muslims gain more and more influence. As usual, Europe is bending over and spreading their checks just like they did for the Nazis.
Without Latin, what will become of Esperanto?
My dream of one race, one people and no culture cannot be realized without my beloved Esperanto!
We must kill all mad dog Englishmen!
Methinks they confused Latin with Latino as in Latinamerican.
#22 As well as part of the Germanic languagues, which I guess #21 knows, right?
This could make speaking English very difficult. For example, here are just some of the words in the part of the article quoted here that come from Latin, French or Greek (_not_ counting the Latin phrases used by the author):
British, invaded, extremely, civilized, Romans, cities, culture, language, fact, Latin, legions, orders, councils, coast, popular, impromptu, permanent, draconian, confusion, future, ruling, linguistic, equivalent, ethnic, particular.
They may have to switch entirely to German or Dutch…
– - – - -
# 24 Rance Bleester said, in part:
“Without Latin, what will become of Esperanto?
My dream of one race, one people and no culture cannot be realized without my beloved Esperanto!”
Of the invented languages, almost no one uses Esperanto. The invented language currently spoken by the greatest number of people, far outstripping Esperanto, is Klingon!
Ka’Pla !
#27
Ahhh, very good.
No Latin needed.
However, Esperanto will unite world in peace and oneness and does not require funny hats and suits or hand-cramping signing.
Salutoj vi, eta earththings! Ni ven de la plej teruraj malpleno kaj parol Esperanto. Rigard nia plano: Servi Viron!
#27 German has a lot more latin than English: gratis, direkt, uhr, tinte, aktiv, kaese, kamera, disziplin, examen, grad, grammatik, publikum, thema, apotheka, platz…
Ceccidi, et non sugere possum.
Then again, I don’t live in the UK.
If Latin use is banned, what about scientific names and legal terms?
I think we better speak papiamento. Ami pensando e inglatera ta wòrdu mehor di papia e.
#31: If Latin use is banned, what about scientific names and legal terms?
Yeah, seems like they didn’t really think this through. Pretty typical of nanny-state bureaucrats (and safety busybodies, and legislators in general). Myopic focus on first-order effects, blindness or ostrich-like denial of second-order effects.
One of my kids is learning Latin at school right now!
Come on JCD… These cheap “invented” stories about Britain are getting beyond a joke!
Ooooh, the sweet smell of denial
semper ubi sub ubi!