The Continuing Importance of Learning
Ancient Languages
by Anna Tagliabue
This paper was written in 1998 for a high school English class in Houston, Texas
About the Author / The Paper / Works Cited
I was born in Bonn, Germany, on April 3, 1981, I live there
with my mother and my older brother, and (very important!) my cat Tiger. I met my first ancient language in 5th
grade when I started studying Latin in school.
4 years later, I added ancient Greek.
I thoroughly enjoy learning languages of all sorts. Other interests of mine lie in music and art
— I play the violin and recorder, and I like to draw and do Origami. At present I am spending my 11th
grade in Houston, Texas as an exchange student. I wrote this paper for my English class here. This year I have also begun to learn Hebrew. I will return to Germany in June.
Teacher: Mrs. White
School: Clear Lake High School
2929 Bay Area Blvd.
Houston, TX 77058-1099
The Continuing Importance of Learning
Ancient Languages
Thousands
of years ago, in ancient times, people expressed their thoughts and feelings in
other languages than they use today.
The world spoke Latin, ancient Greek and Hebrew, and even earlier on,
Egyptian. In time these languages
changed and developed into today’s modern tongues. For a long time Latin stayed the common language of the educated,
and every school required its students to learn Latin and Greek. Then, slowly, people stopped studying Latin
and especially ancient Greek. Now only
a few schools require their students to study Latin, and fewer still even offer
Greek or Hebrew. Often people will say,
“Nobody speaks these languages any more — why should I study them?” But even though languages like Latin and
ancient Greek are not generally spoken any more today, it is still important to
study these so-called “dead” languages.
Of course
it may be true that the use of ancient languages as actual communication tools
today is limited. Only in the Vatican
is Latin still actually spoken, and only enthusiastic philologists deny the
fact that the ancient languages are extinct.
Scholars still get together to invent “new” Latin words for things that
did not exist in Roman times (Wilkes 2).
In a sense, though, they are right.
These languages can be kept alive by studying them.
But why
should people study ancient languages?
“I was four years old, and my young uncle was practicing his Greek on
me. He read me the Iliad and the
Odyssey, translating as he went.
The unknown words poured over me like dark music, and when he turned to
English it was always a letdown. I was
very glad to hear what was happening, and wanted to know what happened next —
but still there seemed something missing, the golden hero voices, sea whispers,
spear shock. I had been bitten by poetry
in the dark and didn’t know it. Later,
modeling myself after my uncle, I studied Greek and Latin and read the stories
the way Hesiod told them; and Herodotus, Homer, Virgil, Ovid... and knew the
old enchantment. Then I went to them in
their English versions, and again felt this terrible loss” (Evslin 6). Evslin says that the translated version of
the masterwork of an ancient writer can never have just the same effect on its
reader as the original text, because a translator can only convert the meaning of
words into another language, but not the feel and atmosphere that is connected
to the original words. The introduction
of the book “Latin Made Simple” agrees that all translations have their
failings (Hendricks 5).
Another
argument is the use of ancient words for international communication. “...in the dawn of modern science, back in
the sixteenth century, Latin was the language of scholarship. Any educated man could speak Latin; many
could read Greek. So making up
[scientific] words out of those languages was as though we were making up words
out of English. The practice continued
even as Latin and Greek slowly lost their place in the school curriculum — but
for once inertia served a good purpose.
By keeping to the ‘dead’ languages, the scientific vocabulary has
remained very largely international” (Asimov 2). The author shows how ancient languages can prove useful as
sources for scientific terms, especially since this way no country has an
advantage over another because the international language of science might
happen to be its national language. For
instance, many chemical elements have Latin names (Hendricks 7). “But Latin is still seen in everyday writing
about matters of law, and the law is a serious matter” (Ehrlich xi-xii). So not only in science, but also in law,
Latin serves a useful purpose.
Yet another
advantage of learning ancient languages is its positive influence on the
student’s English, and more generally, all linguistic abilities. “If all educated people still had their Latin
and Greek, each would see at once that thermometer, for instance, is a
word that combines the Greek ‘therme’ (heat) and ‘metron’ (a measure). It is a ‘heat measure’, and what could be
plainer?” (Asimov 6). This example
shows that the study of ancient languages can help us to speak and understand
English better, even esoteric foreign words.
When the Normans invaded Britain in AD 1066, they brought not only the
French language with them, but also Latin, which was the trade language of
Europe (Hendricks 7). Words like historical,
philosophical, mathematical, cosmological, rhetorical and political
show that not only the concepts described by these words, but also the terms
for them come from the ancient languages, knowing the roots of today’s modern
languages makes it easier to see what an unknown word means even at first
sight. “The most common misuse [of
Latin] I encounter is the confusion of e.g. with i.e., but there
are many others” (Ehrlich xi). So Latin
can not only help p0eople to understand English more thoroughly, but also to
speak better English themselves. Many
Latin abbreviations and words are still part of the English language in their
ancient form. It is easy to use them in
a wrong way if one is not familiar with the language. “The next time you feel like using the immortal language of
Caesar, Cicero, Virgil, and Horace to turn an ordinary remark into a timeless
utterance, don’t let feles, felis, feli, felem, fele (the cat) get your
tongue” (Beard ix-x). Here the author
makes clear that using ancient languages while speaking can make what somebody
says sound more important. He also
calls the ancient languages “immortal”.
Mario is another author who thinks ancient languages are more stable
than modern English. He quotes: “Waller
says, in his Of English Verse: Boets that lasting marble seek/Must carve
in Latin or in Greek/We write on sand...” (Pei 286). Here is another example of the usefulness of Latin in the English
language: “For instance, for some reason I find it handier even in idiomatic
exchanges to say ‘per impossibile’ over against, say, ‘assuming that the
impossible were actually to take place’” (Buckley 1). In this example, the Latin phrase is simply shorter than the
awkward English equivalent.
Now three
arguments for studying ancient languages have been found: the preservation of
ancient literature in the original, the use of ancient languages as
international languages for science and law, and the facilitation of speaking
and understanding ;modern languages like English through the study of ancient
languages.
But back to
the first point: much of the ancient literature that has survived to this day
is a work of art. Therefore it would be a great loss if ancient writings could
be no longer read and enjoyed in the original language. A classics student says, “In my experience,
few translations, however sensitive and literate, can accurately convey the
spirit and flavor of the original” (Sampath).
Whole libraries full of books would be lost to the world in their
original form — the meaning of the words could be preserved, but if no one
could read the original texts any longer, the artistic talent and expertise of
the ancient writers would be forgotten and no longer honored.
The second
point states that the ancient languages remain useful as communication devices
between scientists of different nationa.
In this way there is no hindering language barrier between scientists of
different nationalities, and they can discuss important projects and
discoveries without a problem. Without
the international scientific terms, taken from ancient languages, scientists of
the world might never have gotten together to boost the progress of modern
technology. Hereby we see that Latin
and Greek can bring the people of the world closer together and serve as a
binding force of humanity. With law it
is the same — since the law often decides about the lives of people, everyone
should be able to defend himself in the ancient and universal language of law,
in any country. This is made possible
only by the study of ancient languages.
The third
point is this: by studying the roots of today’s modern languages, it becomes
easier for people to see the likenesses between them, and picking up a new
modern language becomes less difficult.
“Students who have studied Latin go on to learn other languages like
French, Spanish or Italian so much more easily,” says a high school Latin
teacher (Rawlings). And since the
English language, too, comes from ancient languages, many of their words are
still part of it. With only a vague
knowledge of the ancient tongues, it is easy to pronounce the
different-sounding words in a wrong way or misuse them in a sentence. A very practical use for students is that
their SAT scores are usually higher if they are learning Latin or Greek. A former classics student agrees with
regret: “Latin enhanced my English vocabulary almost over night! Studying Greek did the same. I realized, while in college, that if I had
taken some high school Latin, and maybe a little Greek, I would have done so
much better on certain standardized exams high school students take before
going to college” (Dickens). Latin
teacher Linda Rawlings says the same thing: “Many high school students take
Latin, because it will help them on the SAT” (Rawlings). And not only Latin words appear in the
English language, even some Latin sayings are still in use. Also, phrases in ancient languages are
sometimes handy to use. If everyone still
spoke and understood the ancient languages, people could take advantage of Latin
or Greek conciseness without the worry that their listeners may not understand.
In
conclusion, these are the reasons for learning ancient languages in our modern
world: One, supported by the anecdote of Bernard Ehrlich, is that ancient
writings are infinitely more valuable in their original form, since a
translation can never sound quite as impressive. The second reason is that ancient languages are still in use for
international terms in science, as Isaac Asimov tells in his history of
scientific words, and in law, as stated by Ehrlich. The third reason is that the study of ancient languages can help
us speak and understand English and other modern languages more thoroughly,
because many words from the ancient tongues are still part of our languages
today. This is agreed upon by Asimov,
Ehrlich, and Henry Beard. These three
points prove that it is still important to study so-called “dead” languages
today, even though they are not generally spoken any longer.
#
Asimov, Isaac. Words of Science and
the History behind Them. Boston:
Houghton Mifflin Company,
1959.
#
Beard, Henry. Latin for all
Occasions/Lingua latina occasionibus omnibus. New York: Villard Books, 1991.
#Buckley, William F., Jr. Introduction. Amo, Amas, Amat and More by Euguen Ehrlich. New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1991.
#
Dickens, Timothy. Correspondence
interview. 9 March 1998.
#
Ehrlich, Eugene. Amo, Amas, Amat and
More. New York: Harper & Row,
Publishers, 1991.
#
Evslin, Bernard. Heroes, Gods and
Monsters of the Greek Myths. New
York: Four Winds Press, 1979.
#
Hendricks, Rhoda. Latin Made Simple. New York: Doubleday, 1992.
#
Holmes, Eva. Correspondence
interview. 10 March 1998.
#
Humez, Alexander & Nicholas. Alpha
to Omega - The Life and Times of the Greek Alphabet. Boston/London: David R. Godine,
Publisher, 1983.
#
Pei, Mario. The Story of the English. Philadelphia & New York: J. B.
Lippincott Company, 1967.
# Rawlings,
Linda. Personal interview. 10 March 1998.
#
Sampath, Divya. Correspondence
interview. 10 March 1998.
# Wilkes, Angela. Latin for Beginners. Lincolnwood (Chicago): Passport Books, 1996.
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