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I learned Latin in high school, and I learned from an old moving picture and from some old CEO who was one of the few who went to college in his time where he p

I learned Latin in high school, and I learned from an old moving picture and from some old CEO who was one of the few who went to college in his time where he picked to major in Latin and math, that Latin had a far more mainstream role in academia, such that it could propel one to a CEO position of a really big company and that it could be used as one of the basis of a college entrance exam. Latin gave me the ability to form a third brain and be able to dissect the English language and multiple other languages quite mathematically and systematically. I think it might be the key to unlocking the comprehension part of artificial intelligence. I also think that because Latin has become so distant now from mainstream academia has in an essence made our language too simple and rough, lacking poetry and love, and even intelligence. The dialogues from old movies seem alien to us. If we were to reintroduce Latin, I think society's language skills would improve and thereby communication would improve.

jgoewert 12y ago
Auxilium! Non possum surgere et decidi. - Last words of Beowulf :)
- escherplex 12y ago
  Probably something more like 'Ekhjelpe! Ek hefi ratað eða get ek ei standa'.
umruehren 12y ago
Latin gave you a third brain and it will be the key to artificial intelligence?
- TeMPOraL 12y ago
  > Latin (...) will be the key to artificial intelligence? Deus ex machina. We knew that for hundreds of years. ;).
bentcorner 12y ago
I took an intro Latin course in university, and while I didn't get as much out of it as you did, it did give me a great appreciation for understanding the roots of words, and why they mean what they mean.
- jeffwass 12y ago
  Wouldn't you get most of that understanding anyway if you took French, Spanish, or another Romance language? Albeit with the added benefit of ability to communicate with a whole new sphere of people? Not dissing on Latin per se, but other than maybe interest in studying classics, I don't see why one would choose Latin over a living language that can be used in the 'real world'.
fidotron 12y ago
That's just the classic false attachment of Latin constructs to English usage. French, Italian etc. obviously derive from Latin while the Germanic languages do not, much to the disgrace of the self professed enlightened classes for the last several hundred years.
- bodyfour 12y ago
  I don't mean to defend the Latin crowd here, but your argument is flawed. It's true that English historically comes from the Germanic side of the tree -- starting with Old Frisian with later Old Norse influences. However, the last millennium has been a long process of romancification: * post-Hastings, all of the English ruling class spoke Norman French for centuries * the Latin church, which was for a long time the main source of literate people * a heavy dose of classics in school meant that the educated classes would consciously turn to Latin (and to a lesser extent Greek) when coining new words and phrases You're right that English is Germanic by heritage. However modern English vocabulary is probably as close to French than anything else. Knowing some rudimentary Latin does let you decipher a lot of etymologies.
scarmig 12y ago
Most of the application of Latinate concepts (those systems you mention) to English grammar are pretty faulty. It's what led us down the path to people complaining about split infinitives, and all that nonsense up with which I refuse to put. It leads to situations that are akin to someone trying really hard to write a Java program in Ruby. Which isn't to say that learning Latin doesn't improve grammar skills, or push you toward thinking more analytically about language. My argument, though, would be that learning any second language will give you pretty much the same benefit. 5 on AP Latin, here.
- cbd1984 12y ago
  Right. It's amazing how many people don't realize English is a Germanic language and that despite the fact we absorbed a lot of Romance words from Norman French and other places, we still have a Germanic grammar. (For one thing, our adjectives go before our nouns, not after: We have a "red dog", not a "perro rojo".)
arnsholt 12y ago
Latin is not magical. While your idea is old enough to be mostly quaint and charming, the fact of the matter is that it's completely unrealistic. Not only that; it's already been tried, although using Sanskrit, not Latin. You've basically rediscovered a bad idea from the 80ies
- ghaff 12y ago
  I suspect that a lot of the "Latin helps you with English" meme comes from the coming together of a couple of things: 1. Some schools wanting to teach Latin at least in part simply because it was part of a classical Western curriculum but 2. Wanting to justify that inclusion based on more modern practical concerns than it just being something properly educated people learn. Nothing against Latin or classical Western liberal arts. But the idea that Latin uniquely helps with English is sort of silly.
  - plorkyeran 12y ago
    Personally Latin helped me with English mostly because my Latin classes were the only place I ever got any formal instruction in English grammar.
    - rab_oof 12y ago
      English might be German, French, etc. influenced, but it's nowhere as straightforward as German. Also, it is no surprise that it's about as difficult to learn as a foreign language as Xhosa.
- rab_oof 12y ago
  Quidquid latine dictum, altum videtur.
sqrt17 12y ago
There's nothing special about latin. If you teach people the grammar of a language throroughly, and expose them to all sorts of historic, philosophical and poetic writings, they will also learn some abstract thinking. For most foreign languages, it's considered more useful to be able to do trifling things like buy food, find shelter, or write business letters. Romans had some of these woes, but their empire-building efforts and the ensuing plundering and enslaving of half of Europe (and a corresponding part of Northern Africa) allowed them to employ philosophers and poets that were not caught up in the rat race that most such people in the 19th and 20th Century were subjected to.
Osmium 12y ago
> Latin gave me the ability to ... be able to dissect the English language and multiple other languages quite mathematically and systematically A formal study of linguistics will do a much better job of this than a study of Latin (of course, there's no reason one can't do both). > If we were to reintroduce Latin, I think society's language skills would improve and thereby communication would improve. Do society's language skills need improving? I realise you haven't said this, but there is a common myth that somehow language use is deteriorating, when actually it's just changing. This, of course, is nothing new [1]. [1] http://grammar.about.com/od/readingsonlanguage/a/The-Endless-Decline-Of-The-English-Language.htm http://grammar.about.com/od/readingsonlanguage/a/The-Endless...
Zigurd 12y ago
Mandarin and Simplified Chinese is a popular course these days, even in some high schools. If you want something different from the way Westerners think about writing, grammar, and spoken language, and a different body of literature, there it is. And it's more useful in practical ways.
Svenstaro 12y ago
I respectfully disagree. I had Latin in school for 7 years and while I didn't learn as much as I should have, I know enough to discuss about. Latin, as all other languages, wasn't designed, it grew organically. As such, it has many annoying inconsistencies and I don't feel that they add much to the language. Why do you feel Latin might be part of the key to artificial intelligence?
- cbd1984 12y ago
  > Latin, as all other languages, wasn't designed To be fair, some languages were designed, such as Volapük, Esperanto, Ido, Lojban, Klingon, Sindarin, Verdurian, and other, less-known examples.
  - Svenstaro 12y ago
    But it's not like they influence any big parts of culture as opposed to Latin which influences pretty much everything since then.
    - cbd1984 12y ago
      By that measure, learning English is more important than learning Latin, and learning Sumerian is more important still.
xacaxulu 12y ago
I was lucky enough to go to a private school where Latin/Logic/Rhetoric/Greek were taught as core subjects and I've also found Latin incredibly helpful in my life. I found learning French and Spanish to be quite easy and reading medical documentation comes fairly intuitively. For those of European descent (at least a large chunk of what we call Europe today), Latin is an incredibly important part of our culture and history and helps link us with an incredibly rich past. I would say for pleasure and knowledge, study any language that saw such developments in medical practice, art and naval/military sciences. I'd assume that Sino-Tibetan language groups have a similarly rich history and learning one of those languages would be of equal benefit.

jgoewert 12y ago

Auxilium! Non possum surgere et decidi. - Last words of Beowulf :)

escherplex 12y ago
Probably something more like 'Ekhjelpe! Ek hefi ratað eða get ek ei standa'.

umruehren 12y ago

Latin gave you a third brain and it will be the key to artificial intelligence?

TeMPOraL 12y ago
> Latin (...) will be the key to artificial intelligence? Deus ex machina. We knew that for hundreds of years. ;).

bentcorner 12y ago

I took an intro Latin course in university, and while I didn't get as much out of it as you did, it did give me a great appreciation for understanding the roots of words, and why they mean what they mean.

jeffwass 12y ago
Wouldn't you get most of that understanding anyway if you took French, Spanish, or another Romance language? Albeit with the added benefit of ability to communicate with a whole new sphere of people? Not dissing on Latin per se, but other than maybe interest in studying classics, I don't see why one would choose Latin over a living language that can be used in the 'real world'.

fidotron 12y ago

That's just the classic false attachment of Latin constructs to English usage. French, Italian etc. obviously derive from Latin while the Germanic languages do not, much to the disgrace of the self professed enlightened classes for the last several hundred years.

bodyfour 12y ago
I don't mean to defend the Latin crowd here, but your argument is flawed. It's true that English historically comes from the Germanic side of the tree -- starting with Old Frisian with later Old Norse influences. However, the last millennium has been a long process of romancification: * post-Hastings, all of the English ruling class spoke Norman French for centuries * the Latin church, which was for a long time the main source of literate people * a heavy dose of classics in school meant that the educated classes would consciously turn to Latin (and to a lesser extent Greek) when coining new words and phrases You're right that English is Germanic by heritage. However modern English vocabulary is probably as close to French than anything else. Knowing some rudimentary Latin does let you decipher a lot of etymologies.

scarmig 12y ago

Most of the application of Latinate concepts (those systems you mention) to English grammar are pretty faulty. It's what led us down the path to people complaining about split infinitives, and all that nonsense up with which I refuse to put. It leads to situations that are akin to someone trying really hard to write a Java program in Ruby. Which isn't to say that learning Latin doesn't improve grammar skills, or push you toward thinking more analytically about language. My argument, though, would be that learning any second language will give you pretty much the same benefit. 5 on AP Latin, here.

cbd1984 12y ago
Right. It's amazing how many people don't realize English is a Germanic language and that despite the fact we absorbed a lot of Romance words from Norman French and other places, we still have a Germanic grammar. (For one thing, our adjectives go before our nouns, not after: We have a "red dog", not a "perro rojo".)

arnsholt 12y ago

Latin is not magical. While your idea is old enough to be mostly quaint and charming, the fact of the matter is that it's completely unrealistic. Not only that; it's already been tried, although using Sanskrit, not Latin. You've basically rediscovered a bad idea from the 80ies

ghaff 12y ago
I suspect that a lot of the "Latin helps you with English" meme comes from the coming together of a couple of things: 1. Some schools wanting to teach Latin at least in part simply because it was part of a classical Western curriculum but 2. Wanting to justify that inclusion based on more modern practical concerns than it just being something properly educated people learn. Nothing against Latin or classical Western liberal arts. But the idea that Latin uniquely helps with English is sort of silly.
- plorkyeran 12y ago
  Personally Latin helped me with English mostly because my Latin classes were the only place I ever got any formal instruction in English grammar.
  - rab_oof 12y ago
    English might be German, French, etc. influenced, but it's nowhere as straightforward as German. Also, it is no surprise that it's about as difficult to learn as a foreign language as Xhosa.
rab_oof 12y ago
Quidquid latine dictum, altum videtur.

sqrt17 12y ago

There's nothing special about latin. If you teach people the grammar of a language throroughly, and expose them to all sorts of historic, philosophical and poetic writings, they will also learn some abstract thinking. For most foreign languages, it's considered more useful to be able to do trifling things like buy food, find shelter, or write business letters. Romans had some of these woes, but their empire-building efforts and the ensuing plundering and enslaving of half of Europe (and a corresponding part of Northern Africa) allowed them to employ philosophers and poets that were not caught up in the rat race that most such people in the 19th and 20th Century were subjected to.

Osmium 12y ago

> Latin gave me the ability to ... be able to dissect the English language and multiple other languages quite mathematically and systematically A formal study of linguistics will do a much better job of this than a study of Latin (of course, there's no reason one can't do both). > If we were to reintroduce Latin, I think society's language skills would improve and thereby communication would improve. Do society's language skills need improving? I realise you haven't said this, but there is a common myth that somehow language use is deteriorating, when actually it's just changing. This, of course, is nothing new [1]. [1] http://grammar.about.com/od/readingsonlanguage/a/The-Endless-Decline-Of-The-English-Language.htm http://grammar.about.com/od/readingsonlanguage/a/The-Endless...

Zigurd 12y ago

Mandarin and Simplified Chinese is a popular course these days, even in some high schools. If you want something different from the way Westerners think about writing, grammar, and spoken language, and a different body of literature, there it is. And it's more useful in practical ways.

Svenstaro 12y ago

I respectfully disagree. I had Latin in school for 7 years and while I didn't learn as much as I should have, I know enough to discuss about. Latin, as all other languages, wasn't designed, it grew organically. As such, it has many annoying inconsistencies and I don't feel that they add much to the language. Why do you feel Latin might be part of the key to artificial intelligence?

cbd1984 12y ago
> Latin, as all other languages, wasn't designed To be fair, some languages were designed, such as Volapük, Esperanto, Ido, Lojban, Klingon, Sindarin, Verdurian, and other, less-known examples.
- Svenstaro 12y ago
  But it's not like they influence any big parts of culture as opposed to Latin which influences pretty much everything since then.
  - cbd1984 12y ago
    By that measure, learning English is more important than learning Latin, and learning Sumerian is more important still.

xacaxulu 12y ago

I was lucky enough to go to a private school where Latin/Logic/Rhetoric/Greek were taught as core subjects and I've also found Latin incredibly helpful in my life. I found learning French and Spanish to be quite easy and reading medical documentation comes fairly intuitively. For those of European descent (at least a large chunk of what we call Europe today), Latin is an incredibly important part of our culture and history and helps link us with an incredibly rich past. I would say for pleasure and knowledge, study any language that saw such developments in medical practice, art and naval/military sciences. I'd assume that Sino-Tibetan language groups have a similarly rich history and learning one of those languages would be of equal benefit.