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#123739 02/26/04 06:07 PM
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And [Latin]'s dead, even though it bloody well won't finally lie down!

I think of Latin as a very old friend, reports of whose death have been much exagerated. Words like bus for omnibus and orientate for orient don't really bother me that much. The reason I dragged Latin into it, is because there's usually some appeal made to the way the words would be formed in the language from which they are borrowed. &c., &c.

As for AwadTalker in Latin, hmm, not sure, but how about: AwadTalkitor? Nah, too strange a hybrid.


#123740 02/26/04 06:32 PM
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Well, if finding the correct declension for awadtalk, capfka, how about the Latin for ayleur?


#123741 02/26/04 09:17 PM
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Sounds pretty fourth to me, Max, from ayleus -us m professional bullshitter.

Latin is dead, jheem, even though the corpse keeps sitting up and asking for a drink during the funeral. If it's an old friend of yours, then I suggest you do the decent thing and nail the coffin lid down and let us get on with the inhumation.

A language which isn't spoken on a daily basis by anyone (except for a few nutcases in southern Europe who don't reproduce anyway, I guess), is dead, d-e-a-d. Genetically our language has inherited many of its traits as have lots of others, but that doesn't mean it hasn't shuffled of its mortal coil. Look at the blue tinge to the skin. Notice how it isn't breathing. Look at the garrotte around its neck (it had better still be there; it was the best piano-wire that money could buy).

Dead. Finito. Kaput.


#123742 02/26/04 09:30 PM
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You like playing around with Latin. You know more about the grammar than I do. OK, it's not spoken anymore (except among Catholic clerics as a lingua franca), but gee whiz! I'm glad we have it, like jheem said, it's an old friend. You vying for the position of assistant board curmudgeon or somethin'?


#123743 02/26/04 09:41 PM
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OK, it's been buried. You can rest easy now, no undeed argots'll be coming round to disturb you. Now, where was I? Oh, yes, the word orientate. Just got birthed a minute or two ago. It's an English word that anglophones of a certain temper seem to disdain. Well, well, well. Can't have everthing.


#123744 02/27/04 01:11 AM
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And now, back to verbing...
I was on the subway tonight and saw a poster for some menopause medication: "Trialed by doctors. Trusted by women." I certainly would have preferred "Tested by doctors." Then you'd get the (to my ear) very nice tested/trusted thing happening.


#123745 02/27/04 04:48 AM
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In reply to:

I was on the subway tonight and saw a poster


Am I the only one who on first reading this thought "Oh, who?" and "How did you recognise him/her?"?

Bingley



Bingley
#123746 02/27/04 09:43 AM
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Nope, ASp, I'm not being curmudgeonly, I'm simply being truthful and objective. I like the language and for a number of reasons. However we use and abuse Latin, on the whole, for its explanatory power in relation to English rather than for its own sake as a medium of communication. The language itself is now fixed in time; it cannot change "naturally" through usage and outside influences. In the end, knowledge of it will quietly melt and wither away with the inevitable effluxion of time ..


#123747 02/27/04 01:02 PM
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However we use and abuse Latin, on the whole, for its explanatory power in relation to English rather than for its own sake as a medium of communication.

I'd have to not agree with you. I was not trying to regulate the usage of or disparage the non-word-hood of orientate. I was just trying to show what the facts are in Latin, and what they are in English. Part of any explanation of a word's history, especially a loanword like orient, involves the language it was taken from. Once taken over though, it belongs to the borrowing language. I just pointed out that the word is different from others taken over from Latin, in that once it got into English it mutated in such a way that, while it appeared to be following the rules of Latin grammar, it was in fact breaking them. This is a common enough occurence, e.g., when people write virii instead of viruses. From a purely descriptive POV, both plurals exist in English, along with some others, and from a purely descriptive POV, no plural for the word virus exists in Latin. This has nothing to do with Latin's morbidity. It's just another amusing story in the history of English. I'm sorry if I seemed to imply that using orientate is somehow wrong. I don't think it is, nor would I try to explain its incorrect state by recourse to Latin grammar.

In the end, knowledge of it will quietly melt and wither away with the inevitable effluxion of time ..

Yes, as it will with all languages, English included, but that doesn't stop us from speaking it at the moment, or using it to explain things.


#123748 02/27/04 01:58 PM
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<<with the inevitable effluxion of time>>

Is a thing inevitable which is (already) ongoing? If latin is already 'efflucted,' is the memory of it an effluvium? Does anyone *use* 'effluvium' who isn't Faulkner?


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