Regarding the article on the resurgence of the Latin language in the curriculum of our schools (Metro, May 17), Mark LeBien wrote that Latin was “a language that died with the Roman Empire 1,500 years ago.”
In fact, the Latin language lived on past the Roman Empire. Martin Luther, the reformer of the 1500s, wrote in Latin–it was the universal language for scholarship and commerce of his day. Many of our physical medical terms are based in the Latin language. (Psychology and neurology seem based upon the Greek language, probably because the Greek language and culture was more abstract while the Roman culture and Latin language took a more concrete, everyday approach. Many theological terms in Latin were actually transliterated from the Greek language.)
Even until the middle of this century, the study and knowledge of Latin was considered a sign of higher education. Ironically, the Romans themselves felt that the Greek language was the language! Hence the New Testament, written in the Roman Empire by subjects of Rome, was written in Greek!
I studied Latin for three years in high school and three more in college. It was challenging, but it made subsequent study in Greek and Hebrew that much less stressful.
