#latinlanguage Archivi - Waldo The Platypus

Where we talk about a…Zombie language?

by The Luluest – translated by Juniper

Today Waldo will take a little stroll in the history and use of a dead language. Defunct, deceased, extinct. Are we really sure about that, though? Waldo is actually going to take Latin by the arm to discover what it is, how it was born, how it died…or, better yet, how it got zombified.

Zombie icons created by Freepik – Flaticon

Dead as a doornail?

Why do we doubt the death of Latin? Well, first of all, what does it mean to be dead for a language? Languages are like living organisms: they are born when populations use them, they grow up with their writing systems, and they die when all their speakers are dead as well, and when no one is able to write them down anymore. Therefore, a language dies when its oral form disappears, and when the written one is no longer fruible by anyone.

Sorry, what? Don’t we study Latin today? Isn’t it still written and spoken?

It would actually seem improper to define it as a dead language; and that’s why a lot of people prefer to call it a classical language. That’s because Latin, and Greek as well, sustain a double function: a cultural one, as both give access to those cultures that were the cradle of the European civilization, and a functional one, as they still represent the syntactic, grammatical, and lessical base for most of the other Indo-European languages.

Classical, almost vintage

So, not a dead language, but a classical language. It hasn’t always been “classical”, though: Latin, just like other languages, went through various eras and phases. As usual, let’s start from the beginning.

Obviously, there is no precise birth date for this language. We only know it derives from a mixture of Greek, Etrurian, Sannitic, and Osco-Umbrian, which got mixed all up between the 8th and the 3rd Century b.C. to form what was to become Latin, and to be used as lingua franca in the territories conquered by the Romans, and in which Roman laws were to be applied and needed to be understandable by everyone. Up to the 1st Century b.C. we can talk of “archaic Latin”.

Later on, with the Republic first, and the gain of power of Caesar later, Latin entered its Golden Age, the one of which we know most of the authors from (now tell me that you do not know Cicero, Ovid, or Horace…). Step by step, it began its descent towards the “Post-Augustinian” period, the age of the emperors, till the 2nd Century a.D.. Then it reached its “late” phase, (or “low” version), which ended at the end of the 8th Century a.D., shortly after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire.

After 1000 years of Roman domain, Latin had become the first “universal language”in history, and that meant it was a language used in every corner of the Empire, principally for administrative goals, but that did not correspond to the language spoken locally.

It kept this status also in the Middle Ages. That’s because on the one hand it was considered the literary language, and was therefore used in high society, while on the other hand it was adopted as the official language by the Church, because of this special “status” that guaranteed an easier understanding of the evangelical message basically everywhere (or at least almost everywhere).

Then, Latin got less and less recognizable, to the point that in the 15th Century (casually close to the fall of the Eastern Roman Empire in 1453) someone started to use the term “Neo Latin” to indicate the language derived from Latin, used during the Italian Renaissance, and by all cultural circles from then on.

In that same period of time, the main European languages were starting to settle, together with the territorial borders in which they were spoken, till finally during the Ancien Regime (17th Century) Latin gained the reputation of “dead language”. Even if the Church continued to use it, and still does so nowadays.

Used and abused

Waldo agrees with this idea of Latin as a “classical language”, and so our stroll leads us to meet a few expressions, old and new, which are still used (or even created) today.

Conditio sine qua non

A lot of legal terminology comes from Latin. As we saw, Romans were great fans of imposing their laws in their conquered lands, and so they did with this first expression that indicates a necessary condition to deliver an action. It is used today in criminal law to determine the causal link between a type of behavior and the actual delivery of an action (long story short).

Do ut des

This expression too belongs to the legal area, but it is applied to interpersonal relationships as well. Originally, it referred to a type of Roman contract, according to which the conduct of an activity was to be remunerated with the transfer of a property to the person conducting the activity. Now it is used to clarify that every action must be remunerated with another of equal value. Clean bills – lasting love, to sum it up.

Qui pro quo

This expression is often used as a synonym of “do ut des” (mostly because it is used so by the anglophones), but it actually means something else…and that is ironically appropriate, seeing its actual meaning. It means taking the wrong end of the stick, or barking up the wrong tree. Come on! Romans too got confused, and they were the first to coin a phrase to clarify that they got something wrong.

De gustibus…

This is a shortened version of four different possibilities (that no one usually remembers):

De gustibus non est disputandum
De gustibus non disputandum est
De gustibus et coloribus non est disputandum
De gustibus non disputandum

All of them mean that tastes are not to be questioned, as they are personal, everyone has their own, and no one can judge.

The origin of the phrase is to be attributed to Caesar himself: Plutarch states he said so when he wrote his biography as he described an episode in which the great commander dismissed his generals, who were disappointed in him because he seasoned asparagus with oil instead of butter. No kidding, I swear. This is history. You know, when little things lasta long time…

Deo gratias

We could not avoid quoting something ecclesiastical, as this is the only field in which Latin is still proactively used, could we?

So, in case you didn’t know, here is a very appreciated way to salute friars, nuns, priests, and other members of the Catholic clergy. Indeed, even if the original verb agimus has been omitted, the phrase keeps its original meaning of “We give thanks to God”. It is traditionally used to answer the closing sentences in the mass liturgy, (Ite, missa est or Benedicamus Domino), but it can be used as a greeting, and it is usually very welcomed.

P.S.: You can answer in the same way when someone greets you like this.

Almost new

On the other hand, Latin also has modern applications! Here are a couple of recent examples.

Sic gorgiamus allos subjectatos nunc

As every old family does, the notorious Addams family has its own Latin motto: “Sic gorgiamus allos subjectatos nunc”. In the movie from 1991 it is translated as “We gladly feast upon those who would subdue us”, even if the Latin version is quite shoddy…but in the end…who cares, when we talk about a Hollywood cult, influencing generations?

Ad mentula canis

This one is definitively a little bit more libertine, but it gorgeously expresses how Latin could be used today.

The origin is recent and uncertain, but this colorful expression highlights whatever is done approximately, roughly, with as little effort as possible…is there a better way to ennoble this widespread and annoying concept, if not by adding an touch of Latin (or Latinism)?

Undercover zombie

Detective icons created by Freepik – Flaticon

So here we are, at the end of this wee stroll in the middle of Latin to find out more about this language, which looks like a zombie, whereas actually it is…sort of undercover!