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> For over a thousand years, nobody has been brought up to speak [Latin] naturally at home; ... except Milton. In my high school (literally a Latin school) yo
by gumby 4y ago
> For over a thousand years, nobody has been brought up to speak [Latin] naturally at home;
... except Milton.
In my high school (literally a Latin school) you could hear Latin spoken in the corridor, but I'm pretty sure never by any student, unless put on the spot by a teacher! So yes, it was technically a spoken language, but without gainsaying the author's point.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- tgv 4y agoI'm reading a biography on Erasmus, and he lived in England, had pupils there, made friends and visited the archbishop of Canterbury and even the king, not speaking English. He taught his pupils in Latin. English, or Dutch for that matter, was not a proper language. So Latin wouldn't be really alive, but also not dead. It was still a second language to more than a few as late as the 16th century.