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You can walk the street of Rome and read inscriptions that are 2000 years old, they will either be close enough to any latin language or you may have some notio
by cm2187 5y ago
You can walk the street of Rome and read inscriptions that are 2000 years old, they will either be close enough to any latin language or you may have some notions of latin yourself. My point being that english is probably much more significant culturally today than latin ever was. The chances that it will be some sort of forgotten language are pretty slim (though I am sure it will have evolved).
Now the real question is whether that website will have more significance than a XVI century grocery list, and be really worth preserving to your descendants…
- fn-mote 5y agoYes, inscriptions like "long live the LX regiment" or whatever graffiti. (Kind of joking.) Given the extent of the Roman Empire, I think Latin achieved some pretty significant cultural status. Afaik, Catholic mass stopped being in latin in the 1960's. That's ~3rd century to 20th century. So in use roughly 3x as long as English? (Not a specialist.)
- inciampati 5y agoAnd given that something like half of the words in your post descend from latin, we might even regard english as a kind of daughter language. Of course I'm painting in overly broad strokes for the sake of conversation.
- cm2187 5y agoIt did in europe and northern africa. English is spoken (“airport english” that is) pretty much across the whole world. Entire industries only communicate in english. It is the international language of the elites, very much like latin was at a much smaller scale. And it has already influenced other languages that regularly use english words, and that’s only after a century of influence.