The Latin Language: Dead or Alive?

October 2003
by Terrence Moore
Latin is a dead language. No one sea!s Latin as his native language" and this has been the case #or $ore than a
$illenniu$. %n #act $ost teachers o# Latin" even very good ones" cannot say $ore than a #e& sentences o# Latin in
succession. Latin has not been re'uired #or ad$issions into A$erican universities #or $ore than a century. (ven
)arvard" &hose $otto is *+eritas, -Truth. and The /niversity o# 0hicago" &hose $otto is *0rescat scientia vita
e1colatur, -Let learning increase and thereby li#e be enriched." and a host o# other restigious institutions &ith Latin
$ottos do not re'uire any !no&ledge o# Latin #or ad$ission. 0lassics deart$ents at universities are usually the
s$allest and least #unded. 2hort o# beco$ing a Latin teacher" and there are #e&er o# these 3obs than any other osition
in schools or universities" there is not really anything you can do &ith Latin. 2o &hy bother &ith Latin? The language
had its day" a very long one. 2ed nihil ad in#initu$ vivit.
4ut hold the ost$orte$. One curious heno$enon o# conte$orary school re#or$ is that Latin is $a!ing a
co$ebac!. 5ecent ress releases indicate that nation&ide certain schools are e1eriencing gro&th in their Latin
rogra$s" the nu$ber o# students ta!ing the A6 Latin (1a$ has doubled in a decade" and students are actually
en3oying their study o# the language. The reasons #or ta!ing Latin are various" but they all ste$ #ro$ the advantages
o# either utility or leasure.
7irst" to say that Latin is dead" though in so$e sense true" is not a articularly hel#ul observation &hen it co$es to
education. 6lato and 0icero and 2ha!eseare and 8eorge 9ashington and the rest o# the 7ounding 7athers are also
dead" but &e still study the$ because they have i$ortant things to say about hu$an nature and have shaed our
civili:ation.
%n a si$ilar &ay" Latin has in#luenced the &ay &e get along in the &orld" na$ely" by tal!ing and &riting to each other.
7or about a thousand years a vital eole in the history o# the 9est" the 5o$ans" so!e and &rote to each other in
Latin. A#ter the #all o# 5o$e" Latin re$ained the language o# learning until the end o# the seventeenth century. Most
learned treatises &ere &ritten in Latin. 2choolboys in (uroe and to a lesser e1tent in this country studied $ostly
Latin in school until the end o# the nineteenth century. The *Latin ;uarter, in 6aris is so na$ed because that is &hat
students at the 2orbonne so!e rather than collo'uial 7rench.
This history has $ade i$ortant $ar!s on $odern languages. The 5o$ance languages derive directly #ro$ Latin and
thus are $ore easily learned &hen one has studied Latin #irst. (nglish" though it gre& out o# 8er$anic dialects" o&es
about si1ty ercent o# its &ords to Latin derivatives. <no&ing Latin thereby gives the student a real co$$and over
the (nglish language. The &ords *ulchritude, and *ecuniary, stu$ $ost o# today=s high school and even college
students" though they are the !inds o# &ords that aear regularly on college ad$issions e1a$s. Any eleven>year>old
&ho has had a $onth o# Latin" ho&ever" !no&s they derive #ro$ the Latin &ords #or beauty and $oney.
The structure o# Latin re'uires the study o# the language to be intensely gra$$atical. The necessity o# con3ugating
verbs and declining nouns causes the student to use $e$ory and logic &ith the translation o# every sentence.
Moreover" the student $ust soon con#ront his o&n native language gra$$atically or Latin &ill $a!e no sense to hi$.
The Latin dative case re'uires an understanding o# the (nglish indirect ob3ect" #or e1a$le. 9hatever today=s
students are learning in (nglish class" gra$$ar see$s not to be the leading concern" as a conversation &ith $ost any
young erson &ill reveal.
)aving a critical and historical !no&ledge o# one=s o&n language that co$es through the study o# Latin is lainly
use#ul. <no&ing Latin itsel# is also en3oyable. One can begin to $a!e sense o# the Latin #ound in ublic laces: e.g." *(
luribus unu$., 7ro$ there one can $ove onto ithy sayings o# the ancients: *6hilosohia est ars vitae, -*6hilosohy
is the art o# li#e., 0icero.. 2oon the scattered ieces o# Latin throughout 9estern literature &ill not see$ so obscure.
7inally" a#ter $uch study -#ro$ the Latinstadium" diligence" alication." the student &ill be able to read so$e o# the
best oetry" history" and oratory the &orld has ever !no&n. The standards o# e1cellence set by the ancients &ill
unavoidably shae his o&n.
Terrence Moore is an Adjunct Fellow of the Ashbrook Center. He is the Principal of Ridgeiew Classical !chools in
Fort Collins.