Las Vegas Sun: Latin language making a comeback

Monday, March 23, 2009

Campi (vulgo et Hispanice Las Vegas) est maxima metropolis Nivatae civitatis. Incolae 1,200,000 sunt, (circa annum 2001).


Here's another article on the increasing popularity of Latin, and this one is worth noting because of the newspaper's relatively large size: about 200,000, or about a fifth that of the New York Times. Not bad. Here's what it says:


Latin isn’t a dead language. It’s alive and kicking this weekend at the Nevada Junior Classical League Convention.

About 190 middle school and high school teens are testing their knowledge of ancient Roman and Greek language, mythology and art at The Meadows School, 8601 Scholar Lane, in Summerlin on Friday and Saturday.

Not only is Latin not dead, it’s making a comeback, said Sherry Jankowski, Meadows Latin teacher and league state chairwoman.

Some teachers believe that as the basis for western European languages and culture, the classics can help students understand their own language and history better, she said. Students who take Latin also often score higher on the verbal section of the SAT, she said.

(I think there must be a law somewhere that articles on Latin must mention the higher SAT scores)


Besides that it doesn't have any numbers and the rest of it is basically about how much fun this gathering is. As I wrote before, I think it would be interesting to see Latin revival advocates try to make use of the (relatively) high number of people that study the language in Clifton Park, New York, in order to create for the first time in a few centuries (outside the Vatican) a place where you're likely to find someone on the street that actually speaks the language, instead of having to arrange these meetings beforehand. Kind of like the Free State Project, but for Latin instead of a political movement. I'm sure students like the ones in this article would be interested in something like that.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

You know, you are probably right about there being a law somewhere that articles on Latin must mention the higher SAT scores. I have seen that in literally every article about it I have ever seen.

David Freiberg said...

You know, you are probably right about there being a law somewhere that articles on Latin must mention the higher SAT scores. I have seen that in literally every article about it I have ever seen.

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