Is Latin a Dead Language?

      There may be some in our community who want to insist that Latin is a dead language. To them, I say: Latin is a language that features more conjugations, declensions, memorization, and violence (for example: Julius Caesar was stabbed 23 times to death) than any other language we’ve ever heard. It’s an amazing opportunity to see how people spoke in the past and constructed the language we speak now. (And also, the class and Mr. Riley are really fun!) 

First, let’s define what “dead” really means. The death of a language happens when the last speaker dies, which means Latin is not dead because of our numerous Latin classes and our local Latin teacher, Mr. Riley. In these terms, Latin is absolutely not dead. To people who believe in the demise of Latin, I ask: how? And anyway, were you there at Latin’s funeral? Can you show me its death certificate? Yeah, I didn’t think so.

To those who insist that Latin is dead, I have to say: this unique language has so much energy and culture in it that it doesn't deserve to be considered “dead.” Think about it: if Latin was a “dead” language, then why would Lakeside hire a teacher and have four different classes on the same subject? The culture of Latin and the beauty of the past are really cool to learn about. For example, the first word I learned in Latin was “popina” (bar). Quite unusual, since at the start of most languages, you learn words like “baño” (bathroom) and “bruder” (brother). This brings much more interest into learning. In addition, the conjugations and declensions are just a fun visual puzzle. Trying to memorize all the different scenarios and versions of just one word is really fun! Memorization is also very key to learning anything, really. It makes your brain work harder. 

This fascinating blend has many strong ties to English, as well as all the Romance languages like French and Spanish. In fact, without Latin providing the building blocks, we’d have no Spanish, French or English. These languages thought Latin was just so awesome that they wanted to copy off of it by making their own “original'' words.

Now, I’ve talked a lot about my perspective, but let’s see what a cheery 7th-grade Mandarin student has to say. Past the joyful smile and quirky comments, she has a deep, inner dark side. Dislike of Latin. According to her, “Latin is just a pointless, bad language that nobody speaks anymore.”  

However, if Latin was dead, why would millions of people have studied it in college or at school? Latin enhances your reading, writing and just understanding of words in general! Also, Latin has a lot of fascinating sentences for beginners. Overall, Latin is just a beautiful language that doesn’t deserve your insults.

(But if Latin “dies”, I assure you it will haunt the naysayers as a ghost.)