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Previous Thread Next Thread Print Thread Is Latin Really a Dead Language #166489 03/05/07 01:43 PM Joined: Mar 2007 Posts: 1 L Little Foot OP stranger OP Little Foot stranger L Joined: Mar 2007 Posts: 1 When I was a teenager (which was a lot of years ago) I had the good fortune to spend several years in Switzerland. I was in the German-speaking region, and enjoyed many visits to the French and Italian speaking sections. I was told repeatedly by the Swiss that there is still a small region in the center of Switzerland where most people still speak Romansche, which I was told was quite close to Latin (much closer than any of the latin-based languages commonly in use today). Does anyone else have information on this? Thanks, Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Re: Is Latin Really a Dead Language Little Foot #166496 03/05/07 04:13 PM Joined: Aug 2005 Posts: 3,290 R'lyeh zmjezhd Carpal Tunnel zmjezhd Carpal Tunnel Joined: Aug 2005 Posts: 3,290 R'lyeh There are Rhaeto-Romance dialects spoken in Switzerland (called collectively Romansh) and some in the Tyrolian Dolomite section of Italy (called Ladin). They are most closely related to a Romance language (or Italian dialect, depending on your politics) called Friulian. The Italian filmmaker Pasolini wrote poetry in Friulian. I've heard another Romance language, Sardinian, called the most conservative. Non of the Romance languages are close to Latin, in that most of the latter's distinct grammatical characteristics have disappeared or been highly modified: i.e., the loss of case in the nominal system and the massive changes in the verbal system. What is usually meant is that Romansh and Sardinian have preserved some Latin sounds (i.e., velar stops do not become palatalized as they do in French, Spanish, or any of the other majority Romance languages abecome fricatives or affricates). For further reading on Romance languages and linguistics, you might want to find: W.D. Elcock. 1975. The Romance Languages. Also, there's a collaborative site called Orbis Latinus. Welcome aboard; hope you stick around. Ceci n'est pas un seing. Copy Link to Clipboard Share Post on Facebook Share Post on Twitter Moderated by  Jackie  Hop To General Topics ------  Information and announcements  Q&A about words  Wordplay and fun  Words and languages in schools  Miscellany  Weekly Themes  Looking for (writers, speakers,... (Old) Weekly themes. (have been... ------  Words from medicine  Beheading words  Meta-words  Words from classical mythology  Animal Safari  Words with unusual etymologies  Eponyms or words derived from p...  Loanwords from German  English as a global language Print Thread Switch to Threaded Mode Show Likes Link Copied to Clipboard View Profile Private Message Follow User Forum Posts Like Summary View Profile Private Message Website Follow User Forum Posts Like Summary Forum Statistics Forums16 Topics13,913 Posts229,316 Members9,182 Most Online3,341 Dec 9th, 2011 Newest Members Ineffable, ddrinnan, TRIALNERRA, befuddledmind, KILL_YOUR_SUV 9,182 Registered Users Who's Online Now 0 members (), 569 guests, and 0 robots. Key: Admin, Global Mod, Mod Top Posters(30 Days) wofahulicodoc 30 A C Bowden 13 LukeJavan8 1 ddrinnan 1 Top Posters wwh 13,858 Faldage 13,803 Jackie 11,613 tsuwm 10,542 wofahulicodoc 10,533 LukeJavan8 9,916 Buffalo Shrdlu 7,210 AnnaStrophic 6,511 Wordwind 6,296 of troy 5,400

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