Should italian be learnt by catholics?

[ThomasBecker]

Since Italy is the capital of Catholicism , where the Vatican is , and the Pope’s main language , aside from his native tongue , is almost always italian . Since Italy is the one holding the catholic world , I think the italian language should be learnt by catholics.

I also think spanish should be learnt aswell , for the spanish speaking peoples , both spainiards and south americans , are a big part of the world’s catholic population , having countries with a clear catholic majority (over 90%) .

 

[Gorgias]

I guess it depends on the reason. If you’re looking to read Church documents, Latin is the official language, so there’s good reason to learn Latin. Since the pope is the bishop of Rome, many of his public appearances on a day-to-day basis are given in Italian, so if you want access to those, a reading knowledge of Italian is useful.

Spanish is useful for those who wish to do ministry in many places in the U.S., since there is a growing Spanish-speaking segment of the Church here. (It also has the added bonus of making Italian easier to learn, too … or so I’ve been told!)

Other than that, though, to learn Italian just for ‘political’ purposes, since the Vatican is ensconced in Italy…? Nah…!

 

[Sarabande]

As much as I think Italian is a beautiful language and is wonderful to sing in, I don’t think it should be learned by all Catholics. If any language, it probably should be Latin since that is the language of the Church. Actually, though, what I have learned in Italian has helped a little in understanding Latin. But I know from what my father tells me when it was a requirement for Catholic kids to learn Latin, it helped him a lot with his understanding of the English language and when he was learning French.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Well, I think it was Frederick the Great (a multilinguist) who said that he would “Speak to God in Spanish, to his mistress in Italian, and to his horse in German.”

I don’t know if that is even relevant to the topic. It’s just sort of amusing.

 

[ThomasBecker]

As much as I think Italian is a beautiful language and is wonderful to sing in, I don’t think it should be learned by all Catholics. If any language, it probably should be Latin since that is the language of the Church. Actually, though, what I have learned in Italian has helped a little in understanding Latin. But I know from what my father tells me when it was a requirement for Catholic kids to learn Latin, it helped him a lot with his understanding of the English language and when he was learning French.

Italian is indeed beautiful , easy , fun to speak , and amazingly impressive for women

Latin is a combination of italian and greek . Many parts of the grammar are similar to greek .

 

[Sarabande]

Italian is indeed beautiful , easy , fun to speak , and amazingly impressive for women

Latin is a combination of italian and greek . Many parts of the grammar are similar to greek .

Well, I’m not sure if it’s amazingly impressive for me - speaking as a woman. But I am always amazed when I meet a person who is completely fluent in more than one language. (My mother is fluent in three.) I’ve had to study four languages for my musical studies and while I can get around in these countries, my fluency is elementary (although my pronunciation is stellar… has to be with what I do. haha.), especially since I’m not in those countries that often to really practice my languages. I wish I could be completely fluent.

 

[Sarabande]

Latin is a combination of italian and greek . Many parts of the grammar are similar to greek .

I was aware of it having Italian, but I was not aware of the Greek. That’s very interesting.

I do prefer the Italian pronunciation of the Latin. But I do like hearing choirs do their native pronunciations of the Latin for masses composed by their countrymen. ie. German pronunciation for Bach masses or French pronunciation for sacred works by Faure.

 

[gus]

I was aware of it having Italian, but I was not aware of the Greek. That’s very interesting.

I do prefer the Italian pronunciation of the Latin. But I do like hearing choirs do their native pronunciations of the Latin for masses composed by their countrymen. ie. German pronunciation for Bach masses or French pronunciation for sacred works by Faure.

 

[Cat]

I think that someone else should give me money so that I wouldn’t have to work and then I would have time to learn multiple languages.

Kidding.

Actually, although I appreciate the OP’s enthusiasm, I have to be a wet-blanket and inform him/her that many of us are just not very good at learning foreign languages. I could probably spend months trying to learn Italian, and I would be lucky if I remembered how to ask where the bathroom is.

 

[Dakota_Roberts]

Since Italy is the capital of Catholicism , where the Vatican is , and the Pope’s main language , aside from his native tongue , is almost always italian . Since Italy is the one holding the catholic world , I think the italian language should be learnt by catholics.

I also think spanish should be learnt aswell , for the spanish speaking peoples , both spainiards and south americans , are a big part of the world’s catholic population , having countries with a clear catholic majority (over 90%) .

No, but we should try to teach both church and classical Latin far more as the is the language of the Church and the latter isn’t much more work while providing the classics. After learning Latin it becomes easier to learn Romance languages

Italian is indeed beautiful , easy , fun to speak , and amazingly impressive for women

Latin is a combination of italian and greek . Many parts of the grammar are similar to greek .

Latin is not a combination of Italian and Greek, Italian is an indirect offspring of Latin. Italian is a modification of the Tuscan language; there are multiple Italian languages.

 

[GEddie]

If someone gave me the Methuselah shot, so that I had centuries of life to work with, I would love to learn dozens of languages. In a normal human life, though, the return of investment on all that time and effort is limited.

You don’t need to speak the language to visit a country as a tourist.

And although the Vatican is enclosed territorially by Italian Rome, the language of the Vatican City State is not Italian but Latin. To be fluent in the Church, Latin is the language one should learn.

ICXC NIKA

 

[Mary_Gail_36]

Well, I’m not sure if it’s amazingly impressive for me - speaking as a woman. But I am always amazed when I meet a person who is completely fluent in more than one language. (My mother is fluent in three.) I’ve had to study four languages for my musical studies and while I can get around in these countries, my fluency is elementary (although my pronunciation is stellar… has to be with what I do. haha.), especially since I’m not in those countries that often to really practice my languages. I wish I could be completely fluent.

Actually Italian derives from Latin.

The romance languages derive from Latin.

Spanish, Italian, French, Portuguese and Romanian are romance languages.

 

[TEPO]

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well, i think it was frederick the great (a multilinguist) who said that he would “speak to god in spanish, to his mistress in italian, and to his horse in german.”

i don’t know if that is even relevant to the topic. It’s just sort of amusing.

Hahaha.

 

[agnes_therese]

Since Italy is the capital of Catholicism , where the Vatican is , and the Pope’s main language , aside from his native tongue , is almost always italian . Since Italy is the one holding the catholic world , I think the italian language should be learnt by catholics.

I also think spanish should be learnt aswell , for the spanish speaking peoples , both spainiards and south americans , are a big part of the world’s catholic population , having countries with a clear catholic majority (over 90%) .

In our abundant spare time, of course.

 

[johnmann]

I have no intention of living in Italy or regularly conversing with the pope so Italian’s not the first foreign language I’d like to learn. If I learn it, it would primarily be to understand operas.

If your interest is purely liturgical, Latin would be the language to learn. If your interest is in evangelization or you have a general secular interest, Spanish and Chinese would be more useful.

 

[Dakota_Roberts]

Actually Italian derives from Latin.

The romance languages derive from Latin.

Spanish, Italian, French, Portuguese and Romanian are romance languages.

Catalan and Occitan are also major Romance languages. The former being spoken by over 11 million people, the latter used to rather common in south France, but France waged war on it such are the tyrannies of democracy.

 

[Tarpeian_Rock]

Since Italy is the capital of Catholicism , where the Vatican is , and the Pope’s main language , aside from his native tongue , is almost always italian . Since Italy is the one holding the catholic world , I think the italian language should be learnt by catholics.

I also think spanish should be learnt aswell , for the spanish speaking peoples , both spainiards and south americans , are a big part of the world’s catholic population , having countries with a clear catholic majority (over 90%) .

I’m not sure of the truth of the statement “Italy is the one holding the Catholic world.” If anything, it’s my impression that Spanish is spoken by the majority of Catholics world-wide. The location of the Vatican would seem a secondary issue to that. If the election of Pope Francis has taught us anything, it’s that the “Catholic world” is far broader than Italy.

 

[Marie5890]

Nah,

It’s why people are paid to be translators.

 

[ProVobis]

Italian is indeed beautiful , easy , fun to speak , and amazingly impressive for women

Latin is a combination of italian and greek . Many parts of the grammar are similar to greek .

Greek no, though Latin and Greek are both highly inflective languages.

tumblr.com/tagged/language%20tree

Actually Italian is a descendant of Vulgar Latin, which was the spoken language of the early Roman Empire. The Latin the Church uses was the Latin codified by Cicero and Christianized by the Catholic Church. The pronunciations, however, were Italianized by Pius X.

 

[johnmann]

Italians should learn English.