Originally posted by Geoff: An aside: Aren't Catalan and Romanian both very close to Latin?
They're descended from Latin, along with French, Italian, Portuguese, Sardinian, Ladin, Friulian, Romansh, etc.
Because English has so many Latin-derived words, you could argue that it would give English students an edge - but I think you could argue the same thing with Greek, Old English, or French. And really, I'm not sure how learning Latin would improve your English. If you want to learn about Latin-derived roots and affixes in English and how to use them, you'd be better to learn about how they are used in English, not how they are used in Latin.This message has been edited. Last edited by: goofy,
Interesting, Bob. I studied Latin in school, and I am not sure if it helped or not. I know others swear by it.
While this is off-subject, I noted in that article that they used the word "maths," when talking about kids learning English and mathematics. Is "math" made plural in the England's English because mathematics is plural? As you know, in the U.S. we say "math."
I assume that it's being suggested for the same kind of reasons that the Queen's English Society are suggesting their acadamy - a nostalgic longing for a non-existant Golden Age when the educated elite ruled over the great unwashed. A classical education in England consisted of Latin and Ancient Greek and little else. Mathematics, where it was taught at all, was strictly according to Euclid.
I did a little Latin at school but at the first opportunity switched to German, rather more useful in the modern world. While I find, as someone with more than a passing interest in languages, Latin very interesting, I can hardly say that my life has been blighted by not speaking it.
"No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money." Samuel Johnson.
I learnt Latin at school and I think I took away some useful things. Others - perhaps not so useful.
Take the spelling of English words, for instance. Many people seem to have difficulty spelling "necessary", but I have no trouble since I know that it comes from the Latin roots nec and esse. Not that Latin is always a good guide to (especially British) English spelling. Take the word "odour"; In Latin it's odor and came to us via Old French; in modern French it's changed again to odeur. Ironically, in US English the spelling has reverted to odor.This message has been edited. Last edited by: arnie,
Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
Learning any second language probably helps you to understand your first language better. I tried learning Latin in the third grade on my own. I didn't get very far, only the present indicative and the first two declensions, but i did acquire an appreciation for how Latin does grammar quite differently from English. Later, when I studied Latin with one of my English teachers, one on one during his free period, I got farther and fell in love with the language. I believe Latin and the OED led me to study linguistics at university.
>>>They are urging ministers to end Labour's 'discrimination' against the language of the Romans and give it the same status as French, German and Spanish.<<<<
Which status isn't much these days, as I gather (from membership in uk's Primary Languages forum) that the present gov't is pulling funding from the early languages programs just getting underway in the last few yrs. Combine that w/2nd lang not required after age 14 (current rule in UK) & well, hm. Latin, sure, why not?
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