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Mar 25th, 2025
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Joined: Feb 2003
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We should just restore tradition and nothing else. Latin in the Latin Rite, Church Slavonic and the vernacular in the rest.
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 641
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I like Sharon's post (the second one in the thread).
Unity of belief is more imporant that unity of langauge.
But we may have finally found a use for Esperanto!
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 788
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Here is my wild prediction. WIth the internet, globalization, etc, English will become the world language and people wanting to preserve local culture will (successfully) insist the retention of local languages long after English becomes universal. We will have the reverse of the Latin of the Roman -- multiple dead languages instead of the one universal living language.
Just a hunch.
Axios
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Joined: Apr 2003
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I am not an expert but it is my understanding that:
1. Jesus spoke Aramaic (or a dialect of it) instead of Latin;
2. there are different forms of Latin (old Latin, Vulgate latin) etc.
Does Latin have enough words/vocabulary to express our life today?
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Joined: Nov 2001
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Sorta, kinda. There is an "officium" at the Vatican whose responsiblity it is to 'generate' Latin terms to express contemporary reality - like internet, stock-market, light-bulb and bus. These folks are called on to generate the "official" Latin texts of Papal Documents. (fork is 'furca', knife is 'culter', car is 'autovehiculum', and barge is 'barca-gravis'. Much of it is actually bastardized Italian vocabulary, but then again - why not?)
In terms of reality, English has superceded French as the "universal commercial" language, since about 1950. With the advent of the Internet, the trend is accelerating. With the fall of the Soviet Onion, the mandatory Russian as second language in the satellite states has been replaced by English. Among Oriental Asians, English is taught from the earliest school years.
I suspect that 100 years from now, American English will be the 'lingua franca' around the world.
Blessings!
PS: For cocktail party banter, it is an absolute truth that after WWII, the Italian government, confronted with a panoply of regional dialects that are marginally comprehensible to each other, established the RDI (Radio-Diffusione-Italiana) and sent televisions to all the towns so that the populace could hear 'standard Italian' on the news every evening when people gathered at the local plaza. It was expected that this would standardize the language. While most Italians now understand 'standard Italian', when speaking in one's own village or region, the local dialects still reign supreme. So much for social engineering!!
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Joined: Nov 2001
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CIX! Dear Dr John There is an "officium" at the Vatican whose responsiblity it is to 'generate' Latin terms to express contemporary reality - like internet, stock-market, light-bulb and bus. These folks are called on to generate the "official" Latin texts of Papal Documents. (fork is 'furca', knife is 'culter', car is 'autovehiculum', and barge is 'barca-gravis'. Much of it is actually bastardized Italian vocabulary, but then again - why not?) One reason why not - vatican latin is extremely bad latin. "culter" should not exist, as there is a good classical word for it - "cultrum". Examples of this abound in mediaeval latin. The french deride church latin with a saying that basically translates to "the latin of priests is kitchen latin". In terms of reality, English has superceded French as the "universal commercial" language, since about 1950. With the advent of the Internet, the trend is accelerating. With the fall of the Soviet Onion, the mandatory Russian as second language in the satellite states has been replaced by English. Among Oriental Asians, English is taught from the earliest school years. Quite right, in Singapore where I grew up, all instruction in schools happens in English. I grew up speaking English as a first language at home, with 3 forms of Chinese coming far behind. I suspect that 100 years from now, American English will be the 'lingua franca' around the world. Oh Gods, I hope not. At any rate, the path of human history has a funny way of surprising us all. I would not be surprised if 100 years from now, some form of Chinese would be the lingua franca of the world. PS: For cocktail party banter, it is an absolute truth that after WWII, the Italian government, confronted with a panoply of regional dialects that are marginally comprehensible to each other, established the RDI (Radio-Diffusione-Italiana) and sent televisions to all the towns so that the populace could hear 'standard Italian' on the news every evening when people gathered at the local plaza. It was expected that this would standardize the language. While most Italians now understand 'standard Italian', when speaking in one's own village or region, the local dialects still reign supreme. So much for social engineering!! Ah... Italian Dialects... I love Venetian and Sicilian myself... Just my two cents! Yours in Domino, Edward (who is currently working in the Cathedral of Florence for a month as a tour guide... it's 40�C in the day and 37�C in the night... far too hot, but the food and wine make up for it!)
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