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Articles From The Classical Teacher Top 10 Reasons for Latin In this day of computers, and the triumph of science and technology, when there is so much to learn and so little time, why study a dead language? Why not study something practical and useful? Like Spanish, for instance. While we agree the study of Spanish is a very good thing, what I propose to show you here is that there is no subject most useful, more practical, and more valuable than Latin. #1 We all understand the importance of phonics, the systematic study of the English letters and their sounds. But phonics only covers half of our language, the English half, those good old concrete words that students learn to speak and read first. But then we stop, even though there is another half of English that has a whole new set of root words, spelling, and pronunciation patterns. English, you see, is a hybrid language, a marriage of two languages—English and Latin. The name English comes from the Angles who, along with the Saxons and other barbarians, invaded Britain after the fall of Rome in the 5th century. English is a Germanic language and, the Germans being barbarians, had mostly concrete, common, everyday words, the words children learn to speak and read first in primary school. But, beginning in 3rd grade, students start to encounter the Latin half of English. Latin words are bigger, harder, have more syllables, more abstract meanings, and different pronunciation and spelling patterns. How do we teach the Latin half of English in a systematic orderly way like we do phonics? We don’t. But we should. And the only truly systematic way to continue the study of the English language after phonics is to teach Latin—the foundation of the Latin half of English. #2
Here's the problem. The child has learned the English word for father, but then as he progresses through school he meets a whole new set of words: 3-5 syllable, difficult, abstract words that come from the Latin word for father, pater, patris (Figure 1). How do we prepare students for these words? We don’t. Do you know the meaning of paternalism, expatriate, and patronize? Here’s another example (Figure 2): The young student has learned the English word for death, but how does that prepare him for these abstract words that come from the Latin word for death, mors, mortis? How do we teach these Latin words masquerading as English? We don’t. Here are some Latin words that illustrate the Latin style of spelling and pronunciation: DEM o crat Look at the shifting accent on these three Latin words and the vowel o that changes its sound. In the first two words, the o has the schwa uh sound, but in the last word o is in the accented syllable, and you can now hear the short o sound. There is nothing like this in the English side of English. By the way, one way to help students spell these Latin words where the interior vowel is muffled is to try another form of the word. If you can’t remember what the muffled vowel is in dem uh crat, you can hear that the vowel is o in de moc ra cy.
Look at these noun and verb combinations of Latin words (Figure 3). When present, progress, record, and rebel are verbs, the stress is on the root and the vowel in the first syllable is long. But when these same words function as nouns, the stress shifts to the prefix, and the vowel in the first syllable is short. In the English style of spelling, the vowel in an open syllable is always long, but in a Latin word it can be long or short. More than half of English words are Latin and observe spelling and pronunciation rules different from the English words students learn in primary school. Is this not one of the reasons for the failure of many of our students to advance beyond a 4th or 5th grade reading level? They are no longer reading English; they are reading Latin! But there is more. There are many Latin words that come straight into English without any change, retaining their Latin endings and all. Why is the plural of memorandum, memoranda; datum, data; appendix, appendices; matrix, matrices; synopsis, synopses? Why is a male graduate an alumnus and female graduate an alumna? The student who has learned Latin will never have to wonder at these strange endings. They are common plural endings in Latin (Figure 4). You see, Latin is the next step after phonics. It continues the systematic study of English throughout elementary school, right when children need it, right when they are encountering thousands of new words and building their vocabulary and reading skills. Students who study Latin develop an interest in words. They learn something they had never thought of before. Words don’t just drop out of the sky—they come from some place; words have a history, sometimes a very long and interesting history. Many words are world travelers, traveling from Greece to Rome to France to England. Words are fascinating. So, Latin is the next step after phonics because it continues the study of the Latin half of English vocabulary in a systematic, orderly way. Skip the vocabulary courses. Learn Latin. It will teach your children the history of words, and happy is the man who knows the causes of things. #3 We live in an age dominated by science, so parents often ask, “Why study something useless and impractical like Latin? What we need is more science and math education." We think science is important too—so important that we strongly recommend Latin to these folks. And here’s why: All of the modern sciences began their development at the time of the Renaissance (about 500 years ago) when all educated people knew Latin and Greek. A new science means a whole new set of words, a whole new vocabulary. Think of all the new words that came with computer science. Think of all of the big words in biology, chemistry, astronomy, psychology, sociology, and economics. The first task in learning a new subject is to learn the vocabulary. Learning the vocabulary is half the battle. How will your child learn all of those big words in his science education? What preparation do we give our students to help them master the tremendous demands of learning the specialized vocabularies of the sciences he will study in high school and college? We don’t! But we can and should. Latin provides the root words for the specialized vocabularies of not one, not half, but all of the modern sciences. You see, new science terms have to come from somewhere. People don’t just make up new sounds and words out of nothing. They all came from the ancient classical languages, Latin and Greek. Think of Latin and Greek as a big quarry where scientists go to dig out new words. Even the word computer comes from the Latin word computo, to count, to sum up. Now what is the difficult part of learning a new science? What is the grammar of a science? The vocabulary. Learning the specialized vocabulary of each new science is half the battle. Let me illustrate ...
Here are a few science terms that come up even in elementary school (Figure 5). The vernal equinox is the one day of spring when day and night are equal. Vernal comes from the Latin word for spring, ver, veris. You know, like pasta primavera, spring pasta. Or the summer solstice, June 21, the one day of summer that has the longest day and the shortest night, when the sun is highest in the sky. Sol is Latin for sun. Or the three kinds of rocks that students learn in geology: igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic. The Latin word for fire is ignis, from which we get ignition and igneous rock, molten rock, made from fire. And sedimentary rock that is laid down in sediment comes from the Latin word sedeo sedere, to sit, to settle. And lastly, metamorphic rock, like marble and granite, is rock that has changed form under great pressure. Metamorphic comes from the Greek meta, to change, and morphe, form, through Latin, to change form. Do you watch your sodium intake? Ever wonder why the symbol of sodium is Na or the symbol of Iron is Fe? (Figure 6) Your child will see many of these symbols for common elements on package labeling today. There are about six elements which were known to the ancients, and their chemical symbols come from their Latin names. By the way, did you know that Argentina comes from Argentum because it was a land where great silver deposits were found? Happy is the man who knows the causes of things. We naturally want to know the reasons why. Most reasons are hidden in history and come to light through the study of Latin. The Latin student does not have to wonder why the plural of fungus is fungi or the plural of bacterium is bacteria. These are just the masculine and neuter endings of Latin nouns. He won’t have to struggle with biology terms. Trees that keep their leaves all winter are evergreen, an easy enough English word; but trees that lose their leaves are deciduous, a not so easy word—unless you know Latin.
The whole classification system of all living things, plants and animals, is based on Latin and Greek. Here are two examples: Acer saccahrum and Quercus alba. Saccharum, from which we get saccharin and saccharine, is sugar in Latin; alba, from which we derive albino, is white in Latin. And Quercus was the Roman name for oak (Figure 7). Even mathematical terms come from Latin. Integer means fresh, uninjured, whole in Latin, and thus, integers are whole numbers. Axios means worthy in Greek, and thus an axiom is a principle that all reasonable people accept even though it cannot be proven. Why? Because it is worthy of belief. An exponent is a number placed outside of the writing line, and a radical is the root of a number. The square root of 9 is 3. Radicals, remember those? (See Figure 8) There is something about actually knowing the root word that not only helps you remember a new term but also deepens your understanding of its meaning. Reasons 4-10 continued in |
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