Why Learn the Latin Language?
Many people believe that Latin is considered a “dead language.”
Is it really?
Threads of Latin still exist today in our modern day romance languages – French, Italian, Spanish, and Romanian. So in a sense, are we not still speaking a form of it? Yes, it may be a stretch but look at words like FORTEM (strong); in French you would say ‘fort,’ Italian is ‘forte,’ and Spanish has ‘fuerte.’ The French and Italian shouldn’t be much of a surprise here for us fellow Latin enthusiasts, as it is known that the final ‘m’ always was dropped in Late Latin and carried over into Early Romance (as was the initial ‘h’ ). Of course it should also not be much of a surprise that Spanish is the odd man out here. When it came to Late Latin-Early Romance, apparently the Spanish created diphthongs.
But there are cases where French is the one left out in the cold. When it comes to words like CAMPUS (countryside) French gives us “champ” [sã], while Italian and Spanish make it easy and leave us with ‘campo.’ There are other cases where French did the same thing. With a word like CAMI:SIA (shirt), the French came out with ‘chemise’ whereas Italian and Spanish use ‘camisa’ — only dropping the final [i].
Although it may seem obscure, each language stuck to its own conventions when breaking from Late Latin. For the most part, consonant vowel clusters stayed the same (dental consonant+e>ie for Spanish, etc.) But of course like everything else, language goes through evolution and perhaps someday it will come further than it is now from Latin.
Have you learned Latin? How has it helped you?
8 Responses to Why Learn the Latin Language?
August 17th, 2011 at 2:15pm
The language of Latin is the offical form of speech for the Holy Roman Catholic Church. Why doesn’t Mango languages offer the option of learning Latin?
August 18th, 2011 at 10:11am
Hi -
We are working on a Latin course. It is almost ready. However, our Latin course is very different from our other courses. We actually used ancient texts as the content. Keep checking out our blog and Facebook page for updates!
Thanks for writing!
November 25th, 2011 at 1:40pm
Oh I am SO excited to learn Latin! I love the Mango style and can’t wait to learn, is it going to be ready soon?
THANKS!
December 1st, 2011 at 11:57am
Ashley -
You are not alone! The course is in development and under quality review. We cannot release it until it is perfect.
Hopefully soon!
March 6th, 2012 at 4:05pm
It’s been 3 months since you mentioned the Latin program being under quality review. Any idea how much closer to release?
Thank you!
May 30th, 2012 at 4:43pm
I’m very interested in a Latin course. Any idea on when it will be completed?
June 12th, 2012 at 8:24am
Hi Joanne! Great news! We actually just released our Latin course yesterday! You can access it through your public library if they subscribe to Mango Languages. Here is some more information on our Religious and Scholarly Course Collection which includes Latin: http://www.mangolanguages.com/blog/religious-scholarly-language-collection/
November 8th, 2010 at 6:11pm
Thank you very much for you great comment! We appreciate your support!