it's Greek to me

 

So far, I have studied six languages. Besides English, I studied Latin, Spanish, German, ASL and Mandarin. All of them are in use today, but the use of Latin requires a broader explanation.

When I was in elementary school, all of the masses I attended were performed in Latin. That was still true until I was a sophomore in high school, when the 2^nd Vatican council allowed mass to be said in the local language.

In a way, attending mass during my elementary years was a bit like watching a magic show, especially during those times when incense was being used. The priest faced away from the congregation and chanted out phrases in a language that none of us understood, and the burning of incense imparted a bit of mysticism to the ceremony, not unlike Shakespeare’s “bubble, bubble, toil and trouble”.

Virtually all of my fellow students at the Catholic high school attended thought that the two years of Latin that we were required to learn were a total waste of time. The faculty explained that learning Latin improved our study skills, which I thought was a pretty flimsy excuse.

I later learned that 60% of the words in the English language are based on Latin words. English also contains a number of words that are French or Greek in their origin. Unless you are a native speaker, you’ll discover that the many goofy rules in the language make it difficult to learn how to speak English, which has been the official world business language for over 200 years.

British colonialism spread the English language around the globe as it was administratively imposed on the non-English speakers in these colonies. English started to become increasingly influential on the world-scene at the beginning of the Twentieth Century. The Versailles Treaty of 1919 was drawn up not only in French (the diplomatic language of the time) but also in English. The US’s powerful political, military and economic position in the second half of the Twentieth Century meant that English became the main language of communication in such organizations as NATO and the IMF. The following facts from the British Council website reveal the current widespread use of English: English is spoken as a first language by around 375 million and as a second language by around 375 million speakers. Around 750 million people are believed to speak English as a foreign language.

Surprisingly, Latin is still in the news today.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/07/18/metro/pope-restricts-latin-mass-some-boston-catholics-respond-with-praise-some-with-frustration/

Some Massachusetts Catholics are denouncing and some are extolling a move by Pope Francis on Friday to restrict celebration of the Latin Mass, the church’s standard form of worship until the 1960s, in what the pope says is an effort to unify believers.

The edict allows bishops to regulate the Latin Mass in their dioceses, but adds certain conditions to the rite’s celebration that will in effect curtail it. The decree, for instance, mandates that, from now on, new priests must get Vatican approval in order to say the rite.

The document also calls for bishops to ensure that people who attend Latin Masses do not “deny the validity and the legitimacy” of the Second Vatican Council, which initiated worship in local languages.

Francis said he made the decision after a survey of the world’s Catholic bishops last year indicated that the Latin Mass was a source of division in the church. His action reverses the work of his predecessor, Benedict XVI, who loosened rules around the Latin Mass in 2007.

The Latin Mass has become a focal point in the conservative-liberal culture war between US Catholics, which parallels divisions in the country at large. Traditional forms of worship like the Latin Mass generally are favored by conservative Catholics, while left-leaning Catholics typically prefer more contemporary styles of prayer.

For the Catholics who want to hear mass in Latin again, there are cities other than Boston where they can do that. The link below lists most of them. Of the countries listed, the United States has the most venues, at 658.

https://www.latinmassdir.org/

if you want to take a step back in time, you will be interested to know that Google Translate recently added Latin as one of its choices. As a result, the first five paragraphs of this article would look like this:

Ita longe, et sex linguis studuimus. Praeter Anglis, ut linguam Latinam didicerunt, Hispanica, Germanico, ASL & Mandarin. Omnia quae in illorum usum hodie latius explicandum autem Latinae linguae usus postulat.

Cum in ludo litterario erat, ut omnia vulgi facta Attendi et latine. Verum tamen est quod dum fui in alta schola a sophomore cum concilio Vaticano II 2 liceat massa ut dicitur in loci lingua.

Et ita quoque perdurantes unanimiter in mole me elementa exordii annorum eram aliquantulus magica ut vigilo a ostendit, praecipue per ea tempora esse solebant, cum thure. Aperta sunt verba a sacerdote in lingua canuntur multitudinem nemo intelligitur aliquid impertiri mystica ad adolendum incensum ritum haut Shakespeare "Bulla niti laboribus laborumque".

Alio modo virtualiter omnes conservis meis fabulam narrat princeps schola alumni ad Catholico putaverunt duos annos Latine discere, quod requiritur in summa sunt perditio tempus. Melius explicavit et latine nostri facultate discendi studium solers quod cogitavi erat enim pulchra tenues inexcusabiles.

Ut postea cognitum est, LX% sunt verborum in lingua Anglica secundum verba Latina. Et anglicus continet numerum verborum Graecorum quae in Gallica vel originis. Nisi sint nativi latine loquitur, youll 'quod plures inveniunt eam RETUNSUS praecepta in lingua Latina loqui quam difficile est cognoscere, qui fuerit in negotium mundi officialis lingua est super CC annis.