Languages

[sesame]

Effor vestri. Libero vestri animus. Impendo vestri scientia.

~ Express yourself. Free your soul. Expand your knowledge.

[sesame]

Amor est via gratia Deus


~Love is the way to God.

[Mel Asher]

What, Sesame ? Reads like Classical Greek to me. Maybe some Latin too ?

As these are not exactly developing languages, they're only part of my murky academic past. I am however stumblingly fluent in French. German - nice easy language to learn but I have not gone very far - no real incentive. But I think it's a good point : Europeans should have access to a Translator on this Forum, and feel free to use their native tongue in expressing their opinions. I for one would enjoy unravelling their contributions - as long as they are not in Basque or Languedoc or similar obscure dialects.

Anyway keep stretching this thread - it's an interesting one -

[sesame]

What, Sesame ? Reads like Classical Greek to me. Maybe some Latin too ?

Its only Latin Mel, I'm referring to the last two posts. I think that Latin has a grace which no other European language has. Also many words in English, French, Italian or German have their Origin in Latin. Most species have their scientific names in Latin.

In old times, upto mid 18th century, scientists whimsically referred to plants and animals with their common names. But these names were Local and varied from region to region. So two people might have been talking about the same animal unknowingly and imagine them to be different due to their fanciful local names!

This problem was solved by Carl Linnaeus (Swedish biologist) in 1758 AD. He proposed a universal naming system called binomial nomenclature. According to him each species should have a unique name and everyone should call it by that name in the scientific community. Binomial, as you can guess means two names, one personal name and one surname(family name = genus). Its very similar to human names, like in Albert Einstein, Albert is his personal name, Einstein is the family name. As a convention, this scientific name was chosen mostly from Latin words. Hence the Latin Name. Later more words are added to denote regional variations. Anyway, in a Latin name, the family name stands first and then comes the personal name. So many species can share the family name, like brothers and sisters, but there is only one personal name. Like there may be many Einsteins, but only one Albert Einstein.

Eg. Tiger
Latin name: Panthera tigris.
subspecies:
Panthera tigris tigris (Royal Bengal tiger)
Panthera tigris balica (Bali tiger became extinct in 1937)
Panthera tigris altaica (Siberian tiger)
Panthera tigris amoyensis (South China tiger)
Panthera tigris corbetti (Indochinese tigers, Thailand, named after Jim Corbett, only 1000 left in the world!)
Panthera tigris sumatrae (Sumatra tigers, only about 500!)

Panthera pardus (Leopard)
Panthera onca (Jaguar)
Panthera leo (Lion)

Forgive me, if I bored you to hell with Latin, Linnaeus, Lions and Tigers.

[twistedone]

I used to be pretty good with Italian, but its like everything else, if you don't use it, you lose it.

[jimnaseum]

Elucidate please. What?
When F Scott and Hemingway and Orson Welles got famous they went to Europe, got to know the people, the languages, absorb, then when they got home it hit them in the face how rascist America was. When Malcolm X went to the middle East he said for the first time in his life he could walk down the street and not FEEL people eryeballing him. Of course it's not as bad now, but there was an episode on the Sopranos where Tony goes to Italy, everybody eats together, the kids play with the parents, there's flowers everywhere, then Tony gets back to Jersey and drives down the NJ parkway and it's chain link fences and smokestacks. People in Europe pay higher taxes but they get it back in services. The Romance languages are deeper culturally.

[Mel Asher]

Since I have you pegged as Ahasuerus ( although he was last identified in Mainz 400 years ago, and you do not claim knowledge of German ) Ecclesiastical Latin would be familiar ground to you. Perhaps you gave Linnaeus a helping hand. Either way, may I be so bold as to point out that you left Panthera uncia off your list. Snow Leopards are so beautiful, they deserve a mention. Next to Panthera nebulosa ( which is still a matter of hot debate in zoological circles as to whether it should be a Felis or one of the Panthera ) it is certainly one of the rarest cats.

No apologies please, Sesame, by all means bang on about Linnaeus. I'm really obsessive about nature, mammals in particular ( quite apart from Trannies, that is ! ), so I'm happy !

[ila]

Originally Posted by jimnaseum

The Romance languages are deeper culturally.

How did you arrive at this conclusion? The Romance languages developed from Latin. How does that make them culturally deeper than any other language? Don't give me the explanation that Romance languages are more romantic than other languages. The term Romance language is not used to describe the languages in the sense that romance is currently used in English. Rather the term Romance language only means that it was derived from the Romans, who spoke Latin.

[ila]

Originally Posted by sesame

I think that Latin has a grace which no other European language has. Also many words in English, French, Italian or German have their Origin in Latin.

Latin has influenced so many languages because of the Roman conquests and settlements. A main invasion route to northern Europe was through the Rhine valley in Germany. The Romans built many settlements and fortifications throughout the Rhine valley and that is why Latin had a great influence on German. The Romans were in the British Isles for more than 400 years and that is lone of the reasons there is such a great Latin influence on English. The other reason for the Latin influence on English was the Norman conquest of the 11th century which brought a French influence to English.

French and Italian are derivitives of Latin as are the other Romance languages. They are in effect different developments of Latin created because the people, over time, changed Latin in their local areas and made the new language their own.

Much the same has happened with English and Dutch which are just two languages derived from German.

[ila]

Originally Posted by Mel Asher

I for one would enjoy unravelling their contributions - as long as they are not in Basque or Languedoc or similar obscure dialects.

Basque is not a dialect. It is a language in its own right. It is unrelated to any other language currently spoken in Europe. If I remember correctly Basque is not related to any known language anywhere in the world.