Latin proposed as common language for the European Union...
EU Could Revive Latin as a Working Language
By Jonathan Luxmoore, August 29, 2006
The Vatican's daily newspaper has called for Latin to be made the official working language of the European Union, after attempts by the new Finnish presidency to promote its use in EU departments.
A Latin-language news programme, Nuntii Latini, has been broadcast weekly for the past decade by YLE, Finland’s equivalent to the BBC, making the ancient Roman language "potentially contemporary."
Latin formulations have been found for numerous modern phenomena, such autocinetica (motorway), supervenalicium (supermarket), fullonica electrica (washing machine) and pilae coriaceae lusor (soccer star).
The Finnish government set up a weekly news summary in Latin when it first assumed the EU’s rotating presidency in 1999, and has repeated the service, alongside English, French and Swedish.
Classics scholars have insisted use of the language would "turn EU jargon into poetry". As examples, they said the Common Agricultural Policy could be rendered as "Ratio communis agros colendi" ("common scheme for cultivating the fields"), while the EU's Acquis Communautaire, or body of laws and regulations, could be Latinised as "Corpus legum institutorumque iuris Europaei."
"Latin isn't dead – it’s still very much in use in different forms across the world today. After all, Italians, French and Spaniards all speak a new form of Latin."
Several Italian newspapers have backed the L’Osservatore Romano proposal, while noting that Finland itself was never part of the Roman Empire.
Technorati Tags: Language, European Union
by melinama @ 6:57 AM
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A few of my daughter
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6 Comments:
I took Latin here in America for 3 years. While it's a nice language, i can't imagine that it will catch on in the EU, even if (or because) the Vatican endorses it.
While Latin may be the root language of much of the western world, it's grammar rules are very different from those in English, and Spanish, germain, and french i believe(though I don't speak those languages, so i don't know for sure).
Also, i like your blog, and the information on the cuyahoga river fire was just what i was looking for, and will cite you in my blog.
I studied Latin in high school. Then, it went out of fashion, but about 10 years ago , some high schools in this area brought it back again. It's helpful in figuring out English, French, Spanish, and Italian word meaning. It's also great for law and medicine students to study for terminology in those fields, but as a living language now...I don't know. Remember Esperante???[sp??]
You can study Latin by downloading the free lessons for Spoken Latin from the Latinum podcast
http://latinum.mypodcast.com
You can study Latin as a perennial, living language at the Schola Latina Universalis and the Academia Thules.
There are hundreds of speakers around the world. You can watch for instance Reginaldus Fosterus and A. Gratius Avitus speaking it as any other language.
Simple versions of Latin exist, the most popular among them is Interlingua. Rather readable for me (I am Russian).
Ressurecting the Roman Empire...
How hard can it be? What needs to be done are five sequential things 1) an EU directive mandating all schools to teach all children across the union Latin as first foreign language at the age of seven for historical reasons(before English and French). 2) EU-fund and promote free Pan-European pop TV and pop Music channels in Latin, where modern American movies are dubbed and subtitled to Latin. 3) establish Latin as one of the official languages of the Union. 4) just wait 20 years and by time those kids will eventually start speaking Latin to each other - referencing the films and the music - and their ancient and historical European bonds. By time all 25 local languages (English, German, French, Spanish...) will turn into second languages of the Union - the first being Latin 5) Create a proper Federal sovereign EU-state and move all those EU-institions from cold Brussels to the Eternal City, to ROME, where they belong - and rebrand the Union as the Old Republic and incorporate the ancient symbols. *WOW*. It would just be so way out cool *smile*. /Andy from northern Europe.
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