Upon reading
many articles on this topic, I have come to the conclusion that the existence
of the Latin language is unclear.
 |
| Is Latin a dead language? |
On one hand,
many people consider it is a dead language because it no longer exists as the
main language for any group of people. It also is a language which has not
developed and therefore it cannot convey modern concepts of this day and age.
On the other
hand, some people believe that it is a very much present language for us, as
many languages emerged from Latin, such as Spanish, French, Romanian,
Portuguese and Italian, not to mention hundreds of scientific words with Latin
roots which are used in other languages in scientific, law, medicine and
religious contexts.
The recently
resigned Pope Benedict XVI attempted to breathe life into this language by
launching a Papal Latin academy in order to promote the language. He also
announced his farewell speech in Latin.
In fact, Latin
is taught as a second language in 1,081 schools in the United Kingdom, and has
experienced a 7.5 percent increase in student numbers. All of this data got me
thinking about how Latin is infiltrated in popular culture. In J.K. Rowling’s
Harry Potter books, the Hogwarts Motto is in fact in Latin, “Draco Dormiens Nunquam Titillandus”
(Never Tickle a Sleeping Dragon). Also, both spells and charms are in
Latin.
There are many
common saying we use in English language which come from Latin: De Facto, Ad infinitum, et cetera, status
quo, carpe diem, per se, vice versa...
After reading up
on many articles which talk on this topic, I remain to have an unclear opinion
on the existence of the Latin language. What do you think?
