Even well into the Early Modern period, some of the greatest Latin authors of all time were composing Latin-language masterpieces, authors like Erasmus, Melanchthon, Thomas More, and Rafael Landivar.
Far from being dead, Latin was the most important language in the world — not unlike English today in terms of status and reach. According to the Linguistic Society of America :. Many other languages are no longer being learned by new generations of children or by new adult speakers; these languages will become extinct when their last speaker dies. This is a real phenomenon.
It happened with Laua, a Papuan language whose last native speaker died in Laua is now extinct. The last native speaker of Tepecano, an indigenous language in Mexico, died in Tepecano is now extinct. Arguably, the last member of a community of native Latin speakers died in the 7th century — yet Latin clearly lived on. While linguists acknowledge this, they seem confused about its implications. Because Latin , they claim, is no longer spoken in the form we find in ancient writings.
In this case, linguists and laypersons alike are wrong, and wrong for the same reason: People still speak Latin, and they do so in a way that Cicero or Augustine would have understood.
Languages can go extinct, though; sometimes native speakers of a language all die, or over time their first language switches until eventually there are no fluent speakers left.
This happened with the Etruscan language, originally spoken in what is modern day Tuscany in Italy. Dying languages aren't just an ancient phenomenon, either. The Middle East is something of a hotspot for dying languages , which can happen when there is societal stigma attached to speaking a non-mainstream language, the language not being taught in schools and more brutal measures are taken, such as ethnic cleansing and violence perpetrated against minorities.
UNESCO estimates that at least half of the world's 7, languages spoken today will be extinct before the end of this century. Editor's Note: This story was updated at p. EDT on June 2 to correct the photo caption. The statue depicts Antoninus Pius, not Emperor Augustus as was previously stated. In fact, Pope Francis often tweets in Latin to his nearly , followers.
The legal field is another where Latin is extremely prevalent. Habeas corpus , amicus curiae , ex post facto. You probably recognize these phrases from reading about court cases or watching them on TV, or from working in a legal profession.
And learning Latin can actually have quite a few benefits. For one thing, it will help you if you work or even dabble in any of the fields mentioned above.
Already knowing the terminology going in will save you time and give you a leg up at work. Studying Latin can also help you learn other languages, especially Romance languages. A ton of prefixes, suffixes and even full vocabulary words in English, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese and Romanian derive from Latin, so learning Latin can make studying these languages easier.
A case can also be made for the mental stamina and systematic thinking that learning Latin can garner. Studying the language teaches students discipline, logical thinking and attention to detail.
0コメント