Latin

Is Latin really a dead language?

Each of us has had been told or has read in a prescription to take a medication a certain number of times "per diem". Similarly, each of us has had the chance to see, or to use, abbreviations such as "i.e", or "etc.", which stand for, respectively, "that is" and "all the other things (of the same kind)". Surely, each of us daily uses "a.m." (or "p.m.") to indicate the hours, knowing that the first refers to the morning (ante meridiem = before the mid-day), and the second to the afternoon (post meridiem = after the mid-day). These are all Latin expressions, which have been incorporated into our daily lives and our useful vocabulary.

Latin, the language of ancient Romans, is not a dead language; rather, it is alive in our daily usage. Indeed, Latin is present even in the English language! Take the English word "student", for instance: it comes from the Latin "studens" meaning "the one who studies". And, as we know, Latin survives through modern languages such as Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, Catalán, Galician, etc.

A solid knowledge of Latin will guarantee a faster and more thorough learning of any other language, especially the Romance languages. More importantly, since language is one of the ways we use to communicate thought, Latin is particularly suited to help us reflect upon and understand the ways in which the original speakers of Latin, people who lived in ancient Rome, organized their thoughts, beliefs and values. Latin is, in other words, the linguistic decodification of a civilization. Since so many of our political, legal, and cultural institutions derive from foundations established in Roman civilization, studying Latin helps us to deeply understand our own present world. Indeed, in terms of both pure language and expression of a culture, Latin constitutes one of the basic roots of what we know today as Western Civilization. This is the reason why - despite the wrong reputation of being a dead language - Latin is widely studied nowadays. In Texas it is the fourth most studied language.