LatinLanguage.us

Does Your Language Shape How You Think?

A bit off-topic, but I think students of any language (not just Latin) would find food for thought in Guy Deutscher’s cover story from the most recent NY Times Magazine. Of course, anyone who studies a foreign language quickly recognizes a fundamental relation between language and thought (one of the first questions brighter Latin students ask is “How did the Romans know if terra meant “land, “a land", or “the land"). But I guess I never gave the exact nature of the link much thought.

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People Who Quibble over Latin Translations

I’ve been reading with mild interest the on-line discussion on the new translation of the Roman Catholic Missal. NCR correspondent Jerry Filteau has a decent summary, and yes the changes are rather trivial from a language perspective–which is why I’ve mainly stayed out of the discussion. I suspect the arguments veil a political/religious tiff that I just don’t (or care to) understand.

Anyway, if you’re interested, the new English translation is here.

Punica reconsidered (or not)

As I previously mentioned, I’ve been reading Robert O’Connell’s The Ghosts of Cannae, an engrossing review of the second Punic war and its most pivotal battle. Early on O’Connell reviews the literary sources. As expected Polybius and Livy loom large, followed by a second tier of later authorities and biographers–important because they had access to records and histories that no longer exist. Beyond these there are other precious scraps–here a reference in Ovid’s Fasti, there a note from the elder Pliny, that sort of thing.

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Paene Octoginta Homines

Video from this year’s Conventiculum Lexintoniense

This year the Conventuculum featured longer-form orationes, and there is one speaker (Professor ~~“David Mani”~~ David Money) who spoke De arte versus componendi. If anyone has any information on this lecture (in particular the correct spelling of his name), please put some info in the comments–I’d like to transcribe his elegiac (starting ~5:40) over the next few days…

…[added 9/2/2010] A kind commenter (the author?) transcribed the verses–check them out below.