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Languages are living things. They morph and change, evolve and grow, and die. Latin lives on in English, French, Italian, Spanish and other languages. So in a s
by jedwhite 13y ago
Languages are living things. They morph and change, evolve and grow, and die. Latin lives on in English, French, Italian, Spanish and other languages. So in a sense it is not dead. Reading Beowulf (Old English) would not be much less intelligible to a modern audience than reading the Aeneid in Latin. Time changes all languages... and fugit interea, fugit irreparabile tempus, singula dum capti circumvectamur amore.
Edit: that is, "meanwhile it flees: time flees irretrievably, while we wander around, prisoners of our love of detail."
- derleth 13y ago> Latin lives on in English Only through borrowings. English is a Germanic language.
- jedwhite 13y agoI think it's fair to say that Latin lives on in English, although one might quibble over the definition of "lives on". Old English was derived from a number of closely related Germanic dialects. The English language, however, is a fusion. It was influenced by Old Norse, and borrows from many languages. It has a more-than-significant number of words with Latin roots, beyond, I think, merely borrowings. Latin is used particularly heavily in scientific and legal domains, but Latin roots permeate English vocabulary, and Latin phrases are peppered through common use in various forms -- e.g. "i.e" :-)