How many here actually know Latin?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Amateur_Soul
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Amateur_Soul said:
Just curious, because I don’t know anyone who does.
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Learning is decaying. I was the last person to learn Latin at St Bede’s. By then it was down to voluntary lessons before school. The other five dropped out, leaving me the one boy to take the exam. Then the priest left and it was dropped altogether.
 
Aramis said:
While I have studied it, I have not succeeded in learning it.
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As with any language, study, and other disciplines, the lack of use leads to forgetfulness. Stoppage of playing the piano, studying anatomy, and even riding a bike, are some examples of this. Muscles atrophy unless you use them all the time.

Just don’t stop eating food. 🙂
 
I’ve been teaching myself. I started learning intitally when I was 14, but stopped to learn Japanese. Now, about 10 later I’m relearning it. I don’t find it to be that difficult, but I seem to have a knack for language. 😃
 
Throwing off the shackles of humility, tee_eff_em chooses… “fluently, or close to it” – Definitely on the “close to it” end. I don’t really think of myself as fluent, but I can do more than “paraphrase”.

I would more likely describe myself as “competent”.

🤓
tee
 
Does anyone remember when the Mass was in Latin? When I was a little girl our Mass books had Latin on one side and English on the other. Of course, that was many, many years ago.
 
pigtown said:
Does anyone remember when the Mass was in Latin? When I was a little girl our Mass books had Latin on one side and English on the other. Of course, that was many, many years ago.
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Those many years ago are today. Where in Illinois do you live and we’ll find a Latin Mass for you?
 
I had Latin the last two terms, but can’t throw off the shackles of humility like Tee and say I know it 😉 No, not my case 🙂 It’s quite difficult. All those cases and conjugations…
 
tee_eff_em said:
I would more likely describe myself as “competent”.
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Well, that should throw you in the E MULTIS UNUM camp, shouldn’t it? Would have been E PLURIBUS UNUM camp 40 years ago. 🙂

I know, it should be UNUS, but who’d know the difference?
 
pigtown said:
I’m near Bloomingdale, Illinois.
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You’re in luck. Closest to you then would be St. John Vianney in Northlake. North Ave. at Wolf Rd. 10am every Sunday in the downstairs chapel. I may see you there. 🙂
 
“Et tu, Brute?” is the beginning and end of my knowledge of Latin.
 
mommyof4 said:
“Et tu, Brute?” is the beginning and end of my knowledge of Latin.
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How about:

etc - et cetera
A.D. - anno Domino
P.M. - post meridiem
ps - post scriptum
pax
per se
de facto
gratias
ad hoc
ad lib
ad nauseam
re
alma mater
alter
alumni
caveat emptor
vice versa
Dominus vobiscum
…

Point is, you may know more Latin that you think.🙂
 
It’s extremely difficult to be fluent in Latin. Mostly those who study Latin (and I do, to a reasonably high level- ie able to read *Aeneid) *have little to no idea how to hold a conversation or buy some bread in the language. In addition, many scholars would argue that fluency requires immersion, which is virtually impossible today (unless you worked in the Curia, and even then I am not sure how conversational they get). But, God, I love Latin (and Greek). Gloria dei est in linguam Latinae (sorry if that’s off, but I don’t write it a lot…).
 
I wish I had time to learn.

However, the occasions in my life really almost dictate that I should learn German 1st (my mom’s side of the family are all from Germany and I can speak it with them and I would like to teach my kids), French (as I travel a bit to France for work and much of my company is French), and then of course being from So-Cal I really should get out there and learn at least some Spanish.

Now I know Latin would help all of those but I barely have enough time to work on the first two and I have already had a bit of German and French in school and really need to narrow things to just a manageable few. Did I also mention I’d like to learn Italian 'cause I would like to travel there some more and I am interested in the culture… 🙂

That’s my big problem – focus and time.

Now if I could just win the lottery so I wouldn’t have to work, then I could have time to take classes in all these…
 
My grandchildren took the national exam this year for the first time. They were so proud that they did well. So I can say there are at least three new Latin speakers and readers.

I started Latin in 7th grade.
 
I’m of the generation in the 80s and 90s that had no Latin training at all. My first experience with Latin was through my music training in voice. That was where I learned how to pronounce it correctly in both the Italian way and the German way. Some conductors of sacred works in Latin by German composers prefer the pronunciation to be pronounced how the composer would have originally heard it in, such as Bach’s B-minor mass. I had to study and learn how to speak French, German and Italian in college for my vocal studies. I had my first experience with the French pronunciation of Latin a couple of years ago while attending Latin masses over in Paris. Interesting. Italian is very close to Latin, so I can paraphrase some Latin just based on what I know of the Italian. I’m not fluent in any of these languages, since I never have real opportunities of speaking them unless I’m traveling, but it tends to come back the longer I stay. We do Latin NO at our Cathedral and I can understand almost everything that is spoken there since I have the booklet to translate myself or can use the English translations if needed. But I’ve been doing it for about 6 years, so I don’t need the translations anymore.

My best girlfriend did her masters in theology and had to study Latin and Greek, so there is a small group of people in my generation who is learning it. She can pretty much translate well and she also did her undergrad in music so had to study the other romance languages, which helped.
 
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