WILLIAM’S WORDS
Language level: Upper Intermediate
Speaker: Justin Ratcliffe
Standard: British accent
CONFESSIONS OF A LATIN TEACHER By William Sutton
The UK government has ignored demands to offer Latin in all schools. But the ancient world still holds our imaginations, from law and politics through to films like Clash of the Titans and Percy Jackson and he Lighting Thief.
CODGITO ERGO SUM
Politically, Roman laws passed through two houses. The UK copied this arrangement. The US went further, placing the Senate and House of Representative on Capitol Hill. Money stamped with our leaders’ faces is inspired by Roman coins. The Romans gave us public and civil law. Trial by jury and the principle “innocent till proven guilty. Today’s politicians are still influenced by Cicero’s oratory. We take rhetorical devices from the classics simile metaphor metonymy. Although we may prefer films to poetry, we use their literary genres: tragedy and comedy, epic and satire.
Even since Freud psychology has used classical words and concepts. We are aware of our ego, id and superego. We recognize narcissism, mania and the Oedipus complex. Philosophy is built upon Plato and Aristotle, giving us arguments a priori and a posteriori, syllogisms and reductio ad absurdum. Everybody knows Descartes’ phrase. “Cogito ergo sum.”
SCIENCE AND SPORT
Science is full of Latin from geometry’s humble oval to paleontology’s mighty Tyrannosaurus rex in meteorology, we have cumulo-numbus clouds, in physics, the quantum. We named the planets after roman gods. Neighbours Venous and Mars reflect the mythical enlargement of love and war. The Pluto was dismissed to the underworld, in 2006, his planet was deplaneted’.
In sport, Romans took Greek pursuits and turned them into big business, with stadiums and gambling. Watch today’s racing, horses of Formula One, and you can’t help thinking of chariot racing in the Circus Maximus. The celebrities and hysteria in boxing, wrestling, rugby and football recall Rome’s gladiators.
LATIN ADVOCATES
Oxford classics professors recently urged the British government to give Latin the same status in schools as modern languages. The Department for Education replied: “Latin is an important subject, valuable for learning of modern languages and a useful basis for many disciplines. It is, however not classified in the curriculum as at modern language as pupils cannot interact with native Latin speakers or visit parts of the world where Latin is spoken as a native language.” A diplomatic response!
Even if few British schools teach Latin, nobody denies its influence on modern life. The little of a recent book says it all Vote for Caesar: How the Ancient Greeks and Romans Solved the Problems of Today. Next month we’ll investigate whether that’s really true. but there’s no doubt classical culture is with us every day. Whatever the Education Secretary says. QED (Quod Erat Demostrandum). And, to prove our point, here are some Latin words and expressions used in everyday English.
LATIN WORDS
Virus
Antenna
Doctor
Facsimile
Via
Modus operandi
Per diem
Sine qua non
RIP (Resquiescat in Pace)
QED (Quod Erat)
Demonstrandum
Vice-versa
Alter ego
Alumnus
Alma mater
Post mortem
Bona fide
Tedium
Museum
Simulacrum
Agenda
De facto
Ex cathedra
Status quo
Quid pro quo
Sic
Ad hoc
