4 ms·
Finland has some interesting literary quirks. My favorite is that it's one of the few places other than the Vatican where you can read the news in Latin, for ex
by hodgesrm 8y ago
Finland has some interesting literary quirks. My favorite is that it's one of the few places other than the Vatican where you can read the news in Latin, for example:
https://areena.yle.fi/1-1931339 https://areena.yle.fi/1-1931339
It's an account of the US/North Korea meeting in Singapore. A little out of date on July 18 but still appealing since most other 'news' you can read in Latin happened 2000 years ago.
- yosito 8y agoThis is interesting. But why does anyone bother to write news in Latin?
- fifnir 8y agoBecause they can!
- hodgesrm 8y agoWhy not? It's fun to bring old languages back to life. Also, Latin is a better 'universal language' than many alternatives, in part because it occupied exactly that role for many centuries throughout much of Europe. Something to consider in the EU if Brexit goes through. ;)
- icebraining 8y agoEnglish will still be the official language of two EU countries :)
- craigsmansion 8y agoStill be one official language of two EU countries. Ireland has Irish, and Malta has Maltese; both non-Germanic languages, very different from English. Oddly, Brexit can solidify the use of English as a common language in the EU, since its general use can now be considered not to give a political advantage to the UK. (Of course, English is already a default de-facto common language in the EU, but some larger countries can be rather protective of their national language in an official capacity.)
- pjmlp 8y agoAs former Swiss resident, and fluent speaker of three of the national languages, seeing Swiss speak among themselves in English was always kind of ironic. :)
- theoh 8y agoIrish in Ireland is adminstratively mandated, but as a language it is on life support. There's a particularly pernicious habit here (Ireland) of bleating about the requirement for bilingual versions (Irish always first) of official texts. It serves only to bolster the self-importance of gaeilgoirs (Irish speakers) who have voluntarily made the language part of their identity. Of course, it is impossible to refute the arguments they put forward for the cultural value of the language... so it goes on.
- Mediterraneo10 8y ago> This is interesting. But why does anyone bother to write news in Latin? The University of Helsinki has had a respected Classics department for generations. They do all kinds of mainstream research in the field. The production of news in Latin is just as a fun hobby that happens to be helpful to keeping their scholars’ skills honed.
- lainga 8y agoOff-topic from the OP article, I encourage anyone who knows a Romance language or two to read this. With a little knowledge of current events and a few choice neologisms (methano, Coreae, nuclearibus) it's astounding how much you can understand.
- saagarjha 8y agoI can kinda read Spanish by virtue of taking it in high school, but I think most of my understanding of that article comes from similar-sounding words: > armis nuclearibus in paeninsula Coreana I don’t think you need a Romance language to understand that.
- microcolonel 8y agoI never thought I'd hear a Finnish accent in Latin, very cool.
- jhbadger 8y agoIt's particularly interesting in that Finnish is non Indo-European. You'd think it would be a IE speaking country, particularly a Romance one, that would be into Latin, but no.