Learn and teach Latin here

Languages are quite weird - and endlessly fascinating! Whilst watching all the Scandinavian cop series these past few years, I realised that I can often follow what is being said without looking at the sub-titles, because I am fluent in Afrikaans, which comes from Dutch, so there must be a stem language in there somewhere that links with the Scandinavian languages. Drove husband nuts because I would repeat words in Afrikaans moments before the subs came up!

Caveat emptor - buyer beware. Say this to myself every time I go shopping!

addendum/addenda - thing(s) to be added.
referendum/referenda - thing(s) to be referred
agendum/agenda - - thing(s) to be done
Amanda - she who must be loved.

etcetera - and the rest.

post hoc, propter hoc - followed after that, so must have been caused by that (False logic, a lot of the time)

Alea iacta est. trying to get ipad to do this is fun.

Arma virumque cano - I sing of arms and of a man - opening bit of the Aeneid. I also did A level latin, and it does give you a good grasp of grammar. What ho for the gerund and the gerundive!

Re languages at Scottish universities, Anno, I had to have Higher Latin as an entrance qualification for my course in French and German. Without it I would have had to do a year of Latin at St A's and I reckoned that Higher was going to be easier!! A local minister came in to school 2 days a week to try to teach me Greek as well, but to my regret to this day, I didn't persevere.

Grannyknot, when I was taking the ESOL teaching course, our tutor used Swedish to demonstrate how to teach a language none of us knew. I found a lot of cognates with Scottish dialect words, for example 'bra' (good) in Swedish and the Scottish 'braw'.

Sic Biscuitas Desintegrat...

Very amusing feetle

anno and you of course have a Latin username .

I can think of quite a few Scottish/Afrikaans words that apply, the one that springs to mind is "kerk/kirk" for "church".

At my Yorkshire grammar school I did Latin, French and German at O level - passed them all, but I truly loved Latin. It was a troubled love though, as I find rote learning very very hard. We did French from 1st form, Latin from 2nd and just two years of German from 4th. I remember my absolute horror when I found out that German grammar was like Latin grammar, except there were 4 cases not 6.

But the Latin teacher was magic - he spent the first two weeks of our first year of Latin telling us tales of ancient Rome. No visual aids - he just perched on his chair and talked. I fell in love with ancient Rome, and love it still. When Time Team do a Roman dig I'm glued to the telly.

Well, the school motto was nil sine labore - nothing without work, or nowt baht graft if you want it in Yorkshirish.

Then I went to work at a County Court and found the law is full of Latin - most of it pronounced any way but the way we were taught. I was deeply peeved at that.

Oh, Grannyknot I'm the same as you with Scandinavian series, but from a slightly different perspective - I get my understanding from German, and also Yorkshire dialect.

In the Scots vernacular, the dominie was the schoolmaster. Latin, dominus - master.

I was given this to learn as a punishment for watering a hideous aspidistra plant with boiling water. Still remember it.

Non possidentem multa vocaveris
Recte beatum; rectius occupat
Nomen beati, qui deorum
Muneribus sapienter uti
Duramque calletauperiem pati
Peiusque leto flagitium timet.

It is not the possessor of many things whom you will rightly call happy. The name of the happy man is claimed more justly by him who has learnt the art wisely to use what the gods give, and who can endure the hardships of poverty, who dreads disgrace as something worse than death.

Horace.

I hesitate to bring in alter ego in case it infringes GNHQ guidelines
but where would English be without Latin?
per capita
ad hoc
dies irae
agnus dei
vivat regina
even
sic transit gloria mundi
I feel young people whose education has not included these basics are missing out on the richness of language and shades of meaning.

Ok whose aspidistra were you watering? Was it a love hate relationship?

I was allowed to give Latin up after a couple of years when it became clear that I was no good at it:

22%: this is a true reflection of E's ability in Latin.

That is what the Latin teacher wrote in my report. Did not reflect that maybe he was not a very good teacher and his only strategy if you did not understand was to shout at you and call you very stupid! He left his wife and young family and ran off with a 6th former he was giving extra curricula Greek lessons to!

However I still know all the common Latin phrases and roots of words etc. Don't need an exam to know those bits!

Agree WHEN, it would be mightly helpful !

Or even , mightily. [titter]

There was a large and ancient aspidistra in my Fourth Form classroom and I had been assigned the task of dusting its leaves and watering it when it needed moisture. Which I hated. So I devised a cunning plan; if it died my task would be no more. Boiling water was obtainable from the almonary and was not hard to pour a good mugful over the plant. Actually when I left, Sister Agnes Mary told me that all the staff were glad to see the back of it and had a lot of sympathy. But the proprieties had to be maintained, hence the Latin punishment.

And actually, the words are wise.

That Horace should be compulsory for all students.

I loved Latin (good teacher) but blame it for my over complex sentences - Hannibal, having crossed the Alps & all that.

Greatnan, I bet it has been more useful to you than you give it credit. Although we didn't do German at school our understanding of Latin helped us help our son in Germany when he was struggling to learn it. It helped me too when I started to learn.

Latin seemed so straightforward because it had rules. If you know how one verb behaves, you know how all the others in the same conjugation behave. I like things that work to a pattern.

My French master said 'Latin is a dead language that won't lie down' to which the Latin master riposted 'French is just Latin with the endings chewed off!"

Isn't there a radio station in Finland that broadcasts the news in Latin?

Having learnt Latin and French certainly helped when I went to work in French speaking countries.

Napier was supposed to have sent one word home to Britain during the Indian campaign - 'peccavi' - meaning 'I have sinned'. He had taken the town of Sind. He thought only senior officers would be educated enough to interpret the message so it would be secure.