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Then, of course, Latin itself became the language of educated Western Europeans for centuries after the fall of the Roman Empire. The Roman Catholic Church no
by Turing_Machine 6y ago
Then, of course, Latin itself became the language of educated Western Europeans for centuries after the fall of the Roman Empire.
The Roman Catholic Church no doubt had a lot to do with that, thanks it its near-monopoly on education, but even after the Reformation scholars continued to use Latin for a very long time.
Isaac Newton wrote some of his works (e.g. the Principia) in Latin, but others (e.g., Opticks) in English. Leibniz wrote some works in Latin, and some in French. Their time may represent a transitional period.
Latin was routinely taught in British schools, and other British-influenced schools with pretensions to being "good schools", well into the 19th Century.
- billfruit 6y agoI think you could say, well into the 20th century, for Latin in school education. And also I have heard that there was considerable amounts of literature being produced in Latin even into the 18th and 19th centuries, so much for being a dead language, if new serious literature is being produced in it even 1000s of years after its heyday. May be it is true for Classical Greek as well. The famous orthodox hymn Agni Parthene was written only in the late 19th century.
- KineticLensman 6y ago> well into the 19th Century And even into the 21st Century. My English secondary school (a Grammar school that I joined in 1972) had two years of compulsory Latin in its first and second year (approx ages 11 to 13). Students who wanted to follow a classics curriculum could continue for O and A levels, and many picked up ancient Greek as well. Latin is still on their curriculum. At the time Latin and Greek were essential prerequisites for some courses taught at Oxford and Cambridge Universities, e.g. 'Greats' at Oxford [0]. which has produced several British prime ministers, including the current one. I abandoned Latin at the end of my second year. The main benefit of studying it that I realised in later years was that Latin introduced me to elements of language (e.g. a load of different tenses) that took a lot longer to reach in other languages. So it was useful, even if I never had to speak or read it afterwards. [Edit] Added 'Greats'. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literae_humaniores https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literae_humaniores
- jmnicolas 6y agoAh the memories of having to learn Latin in school ... I was so resentful of being forced to learn it, that it made me a cheater (what's the word in English for these little papers with all the answers that you hide before passing an exam?). But since I really didn't put any motivation into it, even with "help" I was having terrible grades :)