I started studying Latin in first grade. Given that we barely understood the concept of “other languages” at that age, we began by simply memorizing Latin prayers, such as the Pater Noster (Our Father), Ave Maria (Hail Mary), and the classic blessing before meals.
Our Latin teacher (Magistra, as we called her) managed to teach these prayers to six-year-olds with whiteboard drawings of homophones of Latin words. I remember learning the word “haec” from a sketch of a hiker on the board. Of course, we had no idea what the individual words meant, but we knew that when we strung them together, we were joining the earliest Christians in their method of prayer.
I stopped studying Latin at the end of high school, but my Latin education was far from over. In fact, Latin has proven useful for years beyond the courses I took. Here are a few reasons why.
Latin Makes Languages Simple
Latin was the first foreign language I ever studied, and despite being a dead language, I found it to be an illuminating way to approach language study, because Latin relies on only the most basic building blocks of grammar.
Classical Latin uses no modern punctuation, does not leave spaces between sentences or even words, and forgoes “unnecessary words,” such as pronouns and prepositions when they can be implicit in noun cases or verb conjugations. Although these hurdles can be initially difficult to overcome, particularly because there is rarely a one-to-one translation from Latin to English and vice versa, the straightforwardness of Latin makes it an excellent way to study grammar in its simplest form.
Latin Teaches English Grammar
The number of adults who don’t know how to use “who” and “whom” properly (or even “I” and “me”!) is shocking. Perhaps the study of Latin would help.
If that sounds counterintuitive, I know dozens of former Latin students who would attest that studying Latin is one of the most helpful ways to learn English grammar and style. Indeed, I learned the difference between “who” and “whom” when I studied noun cases in middle school Latin class. Although we don’t often discuss cases in English, “who” is nominative and “whom” is accusative and ablative. When I had the vocabulary to articulate the difference between the two, the different uses of the two words felt easy.
Latin Helps Teach Modern Foreign Languages
My foundation in Latin didn’t only help me in English class, however. As the mother of the five Romance languages (Spanish, Portuguese, French, Catalan, and Italian), Latin provides the building blocks for the study of many of the world’s major living languages today. Even English, as an amalgam of Anglo-Saxon and Norman French due to the Norman Conquest of 1066, can credit Latin for a significant amount of its vocabulary.
My familiarity with Latin roots aided me in the study of French throughout high school and college. And although I have never taken a Spanish class, I can read elementary Spanish with relative ease, since Spanish vocabulary is so similar to Latin and its grammar so similar to French.
Rome’s Influence Is Everywhere
The Roman Empire fell over a millennium ago, but its influence remains powerful in Western civilization. The American Capitol building, dollar bill, and many slogans in higher education all feature Latin phrases. Western art draws heavily from Roman mythology – think Botticelli’s painting “The Birth of Venus,” Caravaggio’s painting “Amor Vincit Omnia,” and Tennyson’s poem “Ulysses.” Appreciation of these great works requires a baseline understanding of Rome and its epics and gods.
While I will never speak Latin fluently, my familiarity with the language has granted me a better understanding of great art, music, religion, and language itself – blessings I would never have gleaned from the study of a modern, “living” language. Latin may officially be dead … but as these reasons show, it is very much alive.
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