Latin as the liturgical language

[GIR]

I am minoring in Linguistics, so questions like this interest me, but I just realized that Latin, strictly speaking, is no more “dead” then greek. The only difference is that linguists conveniently treat all the greek dialects as a single language, and seperate the romance languages.

It’s not as though western Europe woke up to suddenly find that the language used in the church was incomprehensible. Note also that the liturgy was changed from greek to latin because at the time Latin was the vernacular. I think what happened was that, given the solemn nature of the liturgy, a higher register of the language was naturally preferred, while lower registers of vulgar latin slowly drifted farther and farther away from the ecclesiastical register and from each other.

 

[WetCatechumen]

I totally think that’s what happened.

Same with the Greek. People still use the KJV in America, after all.

 

[tee_eff_em]

In defense against the death so-called of Latin, I am fond of a quote from Fr Walter Ong SJ:

Latin became first a chirographic language and later, to some extent, a typographic language. That is to say, it became a language in which all oral expression was (at least theoretically) controlled by written expression, and later, to some extent, by typographic expression. … What was distinctive of Latin was not that it was “dead” but that there was no one who could speak it who could not also write it.

tee

 

[ProVobis]

In defense against the death so-called of Latin, I am fond of a quote from Fr Walter Ong SJ:

tee

Speaking of speaking Latin, tee, can you recall if there any homonyms in Latin? (like it’s, its, there, their, they’re, etc)

 

[MarkThompson]

Speaking of speaking Latin, tee, can you recall if there any homonyms in Latin? (like it’s, its, there, their, they’re, etc)

The English examples you’ve mentioned are homophones (sound-the-same), not homonym (name’s-the-same). Latin has plenty of homonyms which are also homophones, such as mala, bad; mala, jawbone.

 

[tee_eff_em]

Without distinguishing homonyms from homophones (and without macrons, which would indicate some of the differences), there is a famous Latin brain twister:
Malo malo malo malo.
“I’d rather be in an apple tree than a bad man in adversity.”


tee

 

[ProVobis]

The English examples you’ve mentioned are homophones (sound-the-same), not homonym (name’s-the-same). Latin has plenty of homonyms which are also homophones, such as mala, bad; mala, jawbone.

I stand corrected. Thanks.

 

[ProVobis]

Without distinguishing homonyms from homophones (and without macrons, which would indicate some of the differences), there is a famous Latin brain twister:
Malo malo malo malo.
“I’d rather be in an apple tree than a bad man in adversity.”


tee

tee, would a Roman have figured that one out?

PS I check my dictionary and malus is also “the mast of a ship.” Can we work that in somehow?