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Contemporary Latin

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Contemporary Latin is the form of the Latin language used from the end of the 19th century down to the present. Various kinds of contemporary Latin can be distinguished. On the one hand there is its symbolic survival in areas like taxonomy and others as the result of the widespread presence of the langauge in the New Latin era. This is normally found in the form of mere words or phrases used in the general context of other languages. On the other hand there is the use of Latin as a language in its own right as fully fledged means of expression. Living or Spoken Latin, being the most specific development of Latin in the contemporary context, is the primary subject of this article.

A contemporary Latin inscription at Salamanca University commemorating the visit of the then-Prince Akihito and Princess Michiko of Japan in, as the inscription states (MCMLXXXV), 1985.

Token Latin

As a relic of the great importance of New Latin as the formerly dominant international lingua franca down to the 19th century in a great number of fields, Latin is still present in words or phrases used in many languages around the world.

Mottos

The official use of Latin in previous eras has survived at a symbolic level in many mottos that are still being used and even coined in Latin to this day. Old mottos like E pluribus unum found in 1776 on the Seal of the United States, along with Annuit cœptis and Novus ordo seclorum, and adopted by an Act of Congress in 1782, are still in use. Similarly current pound sterling coins are minted with the Latin inscription ELIZABETH·II·D·G·REG·F·D (Dei Gratia Regina, Fidei Defensor, i.e. Queen by the Grace of God, Defensor of the Faith). The official motto of the European Union, adopted as recently as 2000, is the Latin In varietate concordia.

Fixed phrases

Some common phrases that are still in use in many languages have remained fixed in Latin, like the well known dramatis personæ or habeas corpus.

Taxonomy

In fields as varied as mathematics, physics, astronomy, medicine, pharmacy, biology, zoology and veterinary medicine, Latin is still used today for the international names of animals, drugs, illnesses, anatomy and botany, where Latin nomenclature is still required.[1]

The most famous form of this is the biological system of binomial nomenclature and classification of living organisms devised by Carolus Linnæus, although the rules of the ICZN allow the construction of names which may deviate considerably from historical norms.

Another continuation is the use of Latin names for the surface features of planets and planetary satellites (planetary nomenclature), originated in the mid-17th century for selenographic toponyms.

The symbols for the chemical elements of the periodic table are also based on the Latin names, like Au for aurum or Fe for ferrum.

Vernacular vocabulary

Latin has also contributed a vocabulary for specialized fields such as anatomy and law which has become part of the normal, non-technical vocabulary of various European languages. Latin continues to be used to form international scientific vocabulary and classical compounds. In fact, 60% of the vocabulary still used in English today derives ultimately from Latin, either directly (30%) or through French (30%).

Ecclesiastical Latin

Main article: Ecclesiastical Latin

The Catholic Church has continued to use Latin as in preceding centuries. Two main areas can be distinguished. One is its use for the official version of all documents issued by the Vatican City, which has remained intact to the present. Although documents are first drafted in various vernaculars (mostly Italian, now also German), the official version is written in Latin by the specific Latin letters office. The other is its use for the liturgy, which was as good as abandoned after the Second Vatican Council of 1962-65, but seems to have recently seen some resurgence sponsored in part by Pope Benedict XVI.

Academic Latin

Latin has also survived to some extent in the context of classical scholarship. Some classical periodicals, like Mnemosyne or the German Hermes, to this day accept articles in Latin for publication.[2]

Latin is used in most of the introductions to the critical editions of ancient authors in the Oxford Classical Texts series, and it is also nearly always used for the apparatus criticus of Ancient Greek and Latin texts.

The University Orator at the University of Cambridge makes a speech in Latin marking the achievements of each of the honorands at the annual Honorary Degree Congregations, as does the Public Orator at the Encaenia ceremony at the University of Oxford. These degree ceremonies as well as the formal proceedings of other degree ceremonies are conducted in Latin. Likewise does the Charles University in Prague[3] and many other universities around the world for their doctoral degrees.

Oxford, Harvard, Princeton, Brown, Sewanee and Bard College also hold in Latin a portion of their graduation ceremonies.

In a much more informal vein, but no less exquisite Latin, Harvard and Princeton have Latin Salutatory commencement addresses every year.[4]

The famous hymn Gaudeamus igitur is acknowledged as the anthem of academia and is sung at university opening or graduation ceremonies throughout Europe.

Living Latin

Living Latin (latin vivant in French or Latinitas viva in Latin itself), also known as Spoken Latin, is an effort to revive Latin as a spoken language and as the vehicle for contemporary communication and publication. Involvement in this Latin revival can be a mere hobby or extend to more serious projects for restoring its former role as an international auxiliary language. People from all walks of live, from private enthusiasts (doctors, architects, politicians) to highbrow classical scholars, are involved in this movement.

Origins

As soon as the decline of Latin at the end of the New Latin era started to be perceived, there were attempts to counteract this process and revitalise the use of Latin for international communication.

In 1815 Miguel Olmo wrote a little booklet proposing Latin as the common language for Europe with the title Otia Villaudricensia ad octo magnos principes qui Vindobonæ anno MDCCCXV pacem orbis sanxerunt, de lingua Latina et civitate Latina fundanda liber singularis (Villaudric leisure to the eight great princes who signed world peace at Vienna in 1815, a book about the Latin language and the foundation of a Latin city).[5]

In the late nineteenth century, Latin periodicals advocating the revived use of Latin as an international language started to appear. Between 1889 and 1895 Karl Heinrich Ulrichs published in Italy his Alaudæ[6]. This publication was followed by the Vox Urbis: de litteris et bonis artibus commentarius[7], published by the architect and engineer Aristide Leonori from 1898, twice a month, until 1913, one year before the outbreak of World War I.

The early 20th century, marked by warfare and by drastic social and technological changes, saw few advances in the use of Latin outside of academia. Following the beginnings of the re-integration of postwar Europe, however, Latin revivalism gained some strength.

One of its main promoters was the former dean of the University of Nancy (France), Prof. Jean Capelle, who in 1952 published a cornerstone article called "Latin or Babel"[8] where he proposed Latin as an international spoken language.

Capelle was called "the soul of the movement" when in 1956 the first International Conference for living Latin (Congrès international pour le Latin vivant) took place in Avignon[9], marking the beginning of a new era for the active use of Latin. About 200 participants from 22 different countries took part in that foundational conference.

Pronunciation

The essentials of the classical pronunciation had been defined since the early 19th century (e.g. in K.L. Schneider's Elementarlehre der Lateinischen Sprache, 1819), but in many countries there was strong resistance to adopting it in instruction. In English-speaking countries, where the academic pronunciation diverged most markedly from the restored classical model, the struggle between the two pronunciations lasted for the entire 19th century. The transition between Latin pronunciations was sudden and drastic (the "new pronunciation" was adopted throughout the schools in England in 1907).[10]

Although the older pronunciation, as found in the nomenclature and terminology of various professions, continued to be used for several decades, and, in some spheres, prevails to the present day, contemporary Latin as used by the living Latin community is largely characterized by the general adoption of the classical pronunciation of Latin as restored by specialists in Latin historical phonology. [11]

Aims

Many users of contemporary Latin promote its use as a spoken language, a movement that dubs itself "Living Latin". Two main aims can be distinguished in this movement.

For Latin instruction

Main article: Instruction in Latin

Among the proponents of spoken Latin, some promote the active use of the language to make learning Latin both more enjoyable and more efficient, in this respect drawing upon the methodologies of instructors of modern languages.

In Great Britain, the Classical Association encourages this approach, and Latin language books describing the adventures of a mouse called Minimus have been published.

One of the most accomplished handbooks using the direct method for Latin is the well known Lingua Latina per se illustrata by the Dane Hans Henning Ørberg published first in 1955 and improved in 1990.

For contemporary communication

Others support the revival of Latin as a language of international communication, in the academic, perhaps even scientific and diplomatic, spheres (as it was in Europe and European colonies through Middle Ages until the mid-18th century), or as an international auxiliary language to be used by anyone. However, as a language native to no people, this movement has not received support from any government, national or supranational.

Supporting institutions and publications

A substantial group of institutions (particularly in Europe, but also in North and South America) has emerged to support the use of Latin as a spoken language.

The foundational first International Conference for living Latin (Congrès international pour le Latin vivant) that took place in Avignon was followed by at least five others[12]. As a result of those first conferences, the Academia Latinitati Fovendae was then created in Rome (Italy). Among its most prominent members are well known classicists from all over the world[13], like Prof. Michael von Albrecht or Prof. Kurt Smolak. The ALF held its first international conference in Rome in 1966 bringing together about 500 participants. From then on conferences have taken place every four or five years, in Bucarest (Rumania), Malta, Dakar (Senegal), Erfurt and Berlin (Germany), Madrid (Spain) and many other places. The official language of the ALF is Latin and all acts and proceedings take place in Latin.

Also in the year 1966 Clément Desessard published a method with tapes within the series sans peine of the French company Assimil. Desessard's work aimed at teaching contemporary Latin for use in an everyday context. Assimil took this out of print at the end of 2007 and published another Latin method which now focuses on the classical idiom only.

At the present time, several periodicals and social networking web sites are published in Latin. In France, immediately after the conference at Avignon, the publisher Théodore Aubanel launched the magazine Vita Latina, which still exists, associated to the CERCAM (Centre d’Étude et de Recherche sur les Civilisations Antiques de la Méditerranée) of the University Paul Valéry of Montpellier. Until very recently, it was published in Latin in its entirety. In Germany, the magazine Vox Latina was founded in 1956 by Caelestis Eichenseer (1924-2008) at the University of Saarbrücken and is to this day published wholly in Latin four times a year. In Belgium, the magazine Melissa created in 1984 by the doctor Guy Licoppe is still published six times a year completely in Latin.

An on-line newspaper Ephemeris founded in Warsaw (Poland) is published wholly in Latin about current affairs.

There is a Finnish radio station (YLE Radio 1) and a German one (Radio Bremen) that have regular broadcasts in Latin.

The government of Finland, during its presidencies of the European Union, issued official newsletters in Latin on top of the official languages of the Union.[14]

Every summer Latin is used as a spoken language in numerous conferences throughout Europe, and more recently in America.[15]

Notable proponents of spoken Latin today include A. Gratius Avitus, Hans Henning Ørberg, Gaius Licoppe, Luigi Miraglia, and Terentius Tunberg.

Other instances

The Wallsend Metro station of the Tyne and Wear Metro has signs in Latin.

In the Vatican City there is an ATM (bank machine) with instructions in Latin: image.

Google search engine has Latin as a language option.

Original production

Poetry

  • 1924. Carminum libri quattuor by Tomás Viñas.[16]
  • 1946. Carmina Latina by A. Pinto de Carvalho.[17]
  • 1954. Vox Humana by Johannes Alexander Gaertner.[18]
  • 1962. Pegasus Tolutarius by Henry C. Snurr aka C. Arrius Nurus.
  • 1966. Suaviloquia by Jan Novák.
  • 1966. Cantus Firmus by Johannes Alexander Gaertner.[19]
  • 1972. Carmina by Traian Lăzărescu.[20]
  • 1991. Periegesis Amatoria by Geneviève Immè.
  • 1992. Harmonica vitrea by Anna Elissa Radke.

Prose

  • 1952. Latinarum Litterarum Historia by Antonio d'Elia.[21]
  • 1961. De sacerdotibus sacerdotiisque Alexandri Magni et Lagidarum eponymis by Jozef IJsewijn.[22]
  • 1965. Sententiæ by Alain van Dievoet.
  • 1966. Mystagogus Lycius, sive de historia linguaque Lyciorum by Wolfgang Jenniges.[23]

Music

  • 1994. Ista?!?! by Latin hiphop band Ista.

Cinema

Translations

Various texts—usually children's books—have been translated into Latin since the beginning of the living Latin movement in the early fifties for various purposes, including use as a teaching tool or simply to demonstrate the capability of Latin as a means of expression in a popular context. They include:

Dictionaries, glossaries and phrase books for contemporary Latin

  • 1990. Latin for All Occasions, a book by Henry Beard, attempts to find Latin equivalents for contemporary catchphrases.
  • 1992-1997. Neues Latein Lexicon / Lexicon recentis Latinitatis by Karl Egger, containing more than 15,000 words for contemporary everyday life.
  • 1998. Imaginum vocabularium Latinum by Sigrid Albert.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ "International Code of Botanical Nomenclature (Saint Louis Code), Electronic Version". Retrieved 2008-08-05.
  2. ^ Cf. Konrad M. Kokoszkiewicz, "A. Gellius, Noctes Atticæ, 16.2.6: tamquam si te dicas adulterum negent", Mnemosyne 58 (2005) 132-135; "Et futura panda siue de Catulli carmine sexto corrigendo", Hermes 132 (2004) 125-128.
  3. ^ Sponse doktorská
  4. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47u6IJ2GVdM
  5. ^ IJsewijn, Jozef, Companion to Neo-Latin Studies. Part I. History and Diffusion of Neo-Latin Literature, Leuven University Press, 1990, p. 112s.
  6. ^ Cf. Wilfried Stroh (ed.), Alaudæ. Eine lateinische Zeitschrift 1889-1895 herausgegeben von Karl Heinrich Ulrichs. Nachdruck mit einer Einleitung von Wilfried Stroh, Hamburg, MännerschwarmSkript Verlag, 2004.
  7. ^ Cf. Volfgangus Jenniges, "Vox Urbis (1898-1913) quid sibi proposuerit", Melissa, 139 (2007) 8-11.
  8. ^ Published on the 23rd of October 1952 in the French Bulletin de l'Éducation Nationale, an English version of the same was published in The Classical Journal and signed by himself and Thomas H. Quigley (The Classical Journal, Vol. 49, No. 1, October 1953, pp. 37-40)
  9. ^ Cf. Goodwin B. Beach, "The Congress for Living Latin: Another View", The Classical Journal, Vol. 53, No. 3, December 1957, pp. 119-122:
  10. ^ The School world, Macmillan & Co., 1907
  11. ^ E.g. Prof. Edgar H. Sturtevant (The Pronunciation of Greek and Latin, Chicago Ares Publishers Inc. 1940) and Prof. W. Sidney Allen (Vox Latina, A Guide to the Pronunciation of Classical Latin, Cambridge University Press 1965), who followed in the tradition of previous pronunciation reformers; cf. Erasmus's De recta Latini Græcique sermonis pronuntiatione dialogus and even Alcuin's De orthographia.
  12. ^ The fifth conference took place in Pau, France, from the 1st to the 5th of April 1975.
  13. ^ Cf. http://www.academialatina.org/sodales.html
  14. ^ Cf. http://www.eu2006.fi/NEWS_AND_DOCUMENTS/NEWSLETTERS/EN_GB/NEWSLETTERS/INDEX.HTM
  15. ^ Cf. http://www.lvpa.de/html/latinus.htm
  16. ^ IJsewijn, Jozef, Companion to Neo-Latin Studies. Part I. History and Diffusion of Neo-Latin Literature, Leuven University Press, 1990, p. 113.
  17. ^ IJsewijn, Jozef, Companion to Neo-Latin Studies. Part I. History and Diffusion of Neo-Latin Literature, Leuven University Press, 1990, p. 123.
  18. ^ IJsewijn, Jozef, Companion to Neo-Latin Studies. Part I. History and Diffusion of Neo-Latin Literature, Leuven University Press, 1990, p. 293.
  19. ^ IJsewijn, Jozef, Companion to Neo-Latin Studies. Part I. History and Diffusion of Neo-Latin Literature, Leuven University Press, 1990, p. 293.
  20. ^ IJsewijn, Jozef, Companion to Neo-Latin Studies. Part I. History and Diffusion of Neo-Latin Literature, Leuven University Press, 1990, p. 226.
  21. ^ Cf. http://www.jstor.org/pss/3292896
  22. ^ IJsewijn, Jozef, Companion to Neo-Latin Studies. Part I. History and Diffusion of Neo-Latin Literature, Leuven University Press, 1990, p. 156.
  23. ^ Cf. http://web.me.com/fundatiomelissa/Site/Libri_editi.html
  24. ^ Asterix in Latin.

Further reading

English:

  • W.H.S.Jones, M.A. Via Nova or The Application of the Direct Method to Latin and Greek, Cambridge University Press 1915.
  • Jozef Ijzewijn, A companion to neo-latin studies, 1977.

Spanish:

  • José Juan del Col, ¿Latín hoy?, published by the Instituto Superior Juan XXII, Bahía Blanca, Argentina, 1998. Downloadable PDF version: ¿Latín hoy?.

French:

  • Guy Licoppe, Pourquoi le latin aujourd'hui ? : (Cur adhuc discenda sit lingua Latina), s.l., 1989
  • Guy Licoppe, Le latin et le politique : les avatars du latin à travers les âges, Bruxelles, 2003.
  • Françoise Waquet, Le latin ou l'empire d'un signe, XVIe-XXe siècle, Paris, Albin Michel, 1998.

German:

  • Wilfried Stroh, Latein ist tot, es lebe Latein!: Kleine Geschichte einer großen Sprache (ISBN 9783471788295 & ISBN 3471788298)

Dictionaries and glossaries

Groups

News

Social

Other

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