Latin To Be Introduced At 40 State Secondaries In England

[naomi24]

//£4m scheme will form part of government effort to counter subject’s reputation as elitist//

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2021/jul/31/latin-introduced-40-state-secondaries-england

A difficult one. I tend to think that teaching modern languages is more beneficial to the majority - but I would welcome teaching Latin selectively - which makes it elitist. No?

[pixie374]

Tomus, modern languages are more difficult... :-). And, if you do Latin, you still have to do a modern language on top, as I said earlier.
Although, when we went to Italy, my dad was fully able to understand Italian (although not speak it well) purely because he knew Latin. And that's the same with many languages. It does help.

[pixie374]

Again though, Andy. The rules are that everyone needs to learn a modern language "as well". So Spanish plus Latin, would be an option.

[The Builder]

That's it, Pixie.
Latin is a useful adjunct to learning a modern language.
I've been learning Swedish for quite a while. Although it's a Germanic language (as is English), it shares a lot with Latin in, not only word meanings, but grammar rules, word order, genders... the nuts and bolts of language.

[pixie374]

Yes... helps no end with crosswords too :-). My gran always tried to teach me Icelandic, as it was her first language. I wish I had tried harder.... but well done and good luck with yours x

[Peter Pedant]

well ! you all seem to be having a lot of fun !

Common names of plants vary among languages and even among regions within a single country -
No actually they dont ( Naomi screams her bits off with a direct contradiction ) butI am sure AH can stand the move.

and the name shows conservation ( linguistic conservation that is! lack of mutation ) - and steggie ( dat short for steggosaurus innit) used Larix goes to our Larch
Kaempfer would be the fella to first say it was a separate species

elm hateth man and waiteth..... latin elmus
quercus - cut orf the qu ( er prune the qu ) and you get oak
pinus pine
prunus - prune
hedera - ivy OK has to be some exception

so the names of plants (trees) tend not to change over time
( historical linguists will say 'oh that is because they were worshipped as sacred objects, and the name of a god has special power - see commandment 1)

[douglas9401]

Aye, what did the Romans do for us anyway?

[pixie374]

She also was fluent in Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian, Danish and English. The basis does help.

[ToraToraTora]

doug.....sanitation....

[Peter Pedant]

// My gran always tried to teach me Icelandic, as it was her first language.//

a piddy the kids dont listen - Poles VERY successful along with the Chinese. Icelandic is quite like swedish and anglo saxon innit
BUT the only thing to read are the Icelandic Sagas....The corpus is shorter than the NT

[Bazile]

^^I beleive they taught us to lay down a length of tarmacadam in a straight line

[Peter Pedant]

no those dont count as they are ALL North Germanic ( I think )

I was the first to do Dutch before German - everyone thought I was lying

[eve1974]

In secondary schools pupils have a choice (to some degree) of subjects they take don’t they?
If so, Latin wld be selective but not elitist.

[Bazile]

My response was to Douglas above

( Will you all not post while I'm in the process of typing , please ?)

[Peter Pedant]

// ^^I beleive they taught us to lay down a length of tarmacadam in a straight line// er that would be the famous Roman - Black Jack Macadamus
wayni - weedie - I went by bicycle.
that one

[jno]

pixie, when the Lockerbie disaster happened, I was in Peru. I don't speak any Spanish apart from por favor, gracias and mojito, but I was able to understand the story in the newspapers just from my memories of Latin.

[Peter Pedant]

// If so, Latin wld be selective but not elitist.//
taking this too seriously chrissakes

at skool the lads did metalwork and the gels Cooking
EVEN tho it was the sixties and everyone knew the students wd be fending for themselves - and NOT using a lathe if you get my meaning

[Peter Pedant]

Oh we had a medical transfer from Communist Poland
1973 - and I said - the notes are nt polish they are latin and they say... ....
( all RCs and they assumed that a RC our end would be knocking around)

[maggiebee]

Sounds like a total waste of money to me. Thank goodness this only applies to England.

[tamborine]

most RCs know latin prayers & the latin Mass. Go to church or buy a missal to learn latin.