Because schools are underfunded and so many of them have been forced to cut 'electives' that we took for granted in my day -- like music, art and languages. It's appalling. I feel sorry for the kids in school now.
because there are lots of living languages that are far more valuable than the fetishization of all things Greco-Roman? Then again, his lack of Latin did make Dan Quayle uncomfortable during a trip to Venezuela, if I remember right.
@tshalla if you know latin all those "valauable languages" suddenly become a lot more clear and easier. Obviously not asian languages. I think it is more valuable to know latin and origins of words and languages. Than whoever was some military figurehead several centuries ago.
Knowing one romance language is already great preparation for learning another. If learning Latin has an edge for aspiring polyglots -- and I'm not sure it does -- it's only slight, but even still that's far outweighed by the practicality of knowing a language millions of people actually speak today. I wouldn't call learning Latin a waste of time, but there are certainly better ways to spend it.
Of course it's a dead language. Just to clarify, a "living language" is one that is regularly spoken by some group of people and evolves as a result. Dead languages are ones that have no primary speakers, and it will no longer evolve.
@divantalya it is officialy a dead language... what is ridiculous about stating it is...
There are no people/ethnic group that uses it as their everyday language.
That doesnt mean it is forgotten and is never used. It lives on in science (and it used to be the language mainly used in churches) and it is extremely usefull in learning other (romance) languages.
Dead officialy, but alive in our hearts... ow latin... we haven't forgotten about you! You still mean a lot to us...
I never understood the argument that we should learn Latin because it helps us learn other Romance languages. Instead of spending 100 hours learning Latin so you can then learn Spanish, just spend the first 100 hours learning Spanish, which people actually speak in many places. Then, once you know Spanish, you can more easily learn French, Portuguese, or Italian. There is absolutely no need to bring Latin into this equation. I know that it's the forerunner of the others, but that also means that the others follow similar rules, so if you just start with Spanish grammar, you'll have a good sense of French grammar. Why bring Latin into it at all?
i can speak french and i can tell you that there are very few cognates between french and spanish, but there are loads and loads of cognates from latin to french, italian and spanish. eg : in latin the word for you (sing) is tu, in french, spanish and italian it is the same (with an accent in spanish). trust me, latin is incredibly useful for learning romance languages
Sanskrit is dead in that it is not an evolving language, as it is not anyone's first language. As a result, tremendous effort is put towards meticulously preserving pronunciations, words, or grammatical rules of the ancient language. A language is considered living if it is continuing to evolve as people use it.
I studied Latin in my American high school and my Dutch husband studied Ancient Greek in middle school. Considering that over 60% of English vocabulary has Latin or Greek roots, Latin and Greek words are used extensively in science and academia, about a seventh of the world's population speak a language derived from Latin, and a third of the world's population adhere to a religion whose sacred texts were originally written in Greek… it totally makes sense to learn, at least to a summary extent, these "dead" languages.
We learned Latin and Greek etymologies and roots in school. It wasn't the same as learning the full language but it was very helpful to understanding English better.
They still have 'special' schools in The Netherlands that teach ancient Greek and Latin but it's the highest level so not everybody can learn it. Having had Latin and ancient Greek does indeed help a lot with decoding Latin languages like Spanish and Italian.
They do, and i wish i had chosen it. Did atheneum but could ve done gymnasium (and to clarify to others, it is not a special school, just a different route/set of classes.). I still cant remember why not. I really should ask...
(I think i was talked out of it. And at age 12 you probably think others know what they are talking about)
They haven't. My school still teaches it, but they were considering just teaching us French, since only one teacher knew latin, and they didn't want to pay extra. There are a few schools in my area who still teach latin
I did Latin 'O' level more than 40 years ago - I deeply resented having to take Latin for 5 years and couldn't see the point. With the benefit of hindsight, it makes many other languages (those with shared roots) a tad easier to learn, helps with maths and other sciences, and often makes new or unfamiliar words easier to decode.
19/24. I'm mad I didn't get avis (duh), contra and sanguis. I was trying every preposition I could think of for contra and I thought sanguis might have something to do with bodily fluids but I didn't think of the most obvious one.
Keep the Latin quizzes comin' :) These would be especially great for high school students prepping for SATs and such. These quizzes provide so much valuable information for American English speakers in particular.
Obviously if you know them it's an easy quiz; if you don't then guesswork will probably only get you part of the way. Suggest reducing the time - like others I had more than 3 minutes left.
As a Brazilian (Portuguese language), I feel embarassed of forgetting Lupus (the constelattion, dammit), Mater and Bellum. Emptor I had no ideia what it was, never heard before...
All were just as simple as english for me ( never had any latin at school btw) but never heard of emptor/buyer. Maybe that word is used in only english phrases? All the others I know from scientific stuff or commonly used words.
Never had Latin, scored 88%. I knew i learned some words in culture and a vague few through studying history (though not focussing on the Roman eara). I am seriously surprised by my score.
I got most of these right because I am familiar with Italian and Spanish (simply from learning songs in these languages), and then I worked backwards from there. Plus, I feel as though some of these should be general knowledge (i.e. sol is the basis for solar).
21 out of 24, not bad. Being a native speaker of Portuguese myself helped a lot and in College I had to take three semesters of Latin...Paid off only now. lol
Over 50 years ago, a pass in Latin at "O" level was pretty much a requirement to get into a British university. Somehow, I did it, despite receiving "Disastrous" on a couple of report cards from dear Molly Barnes. Some of it stuck - missed only Emptor & Ursus.
I am learning Spanish at the moment which is the only reason I managed to get any of the 16 I got. Finally I have learnt the real benefit of learning Spanish...
How can it be a dead language when the Romance and Germanic languages (yes, including English) have Latin roots. I passed my
English Regent exam by concentrating on those words with Latin roots.
appropinquabamusne? ("were we not approaching?"
When I was in high school, I took Latin for three years and classical Greek for one year. Greek was a lot more fun, actually.
While Latin is obscure it helps obliquely with history, vocabulary, etymology, and has some things in common with Romance languages.
That said, was the one year of Spanish I took in college way more practically useful? You better believe it.
There are no people/ethnic group that uses it as their everyday language.
That doesnt mean it is forgotten and is never used. It lives on in science (and it used to be the language mainly used in churches) and it is extremely usefull in learning other (romance) languages.
Dead officialy, but alive in our hearts... ow latin... we haven't forgotten about you! You still mean a lot to us...
Gave up right after that, cause was pretty sure I wasnt gonna get it, and I was right, after seeing the answer it still didn't ring any bells
(I think i was talked out of it. And at age 12 you probably think others know what they are talking about)
Oh, and it got me 100% on this quiz!! :-)
http://www.jetpunk.com/quizzes/latin-words-2
http://www.jetpunk.com/quizzes/latin-words-3
Don't let the bed bugs bite
good will to all men
Nice quiz, thanks!
B.t.w., I just can't get ovet the fact thst you still use "per capita" in English as if it was actual Latin