October-December 2008 |
Volume 13, Number 4 - Language |
|---|
Latin ... as I please
David Daintree* on just how alive a
so-called “dead language” really is.
I
am most grateful to the editor for asking me to write a regular column on the
Latin language for Oriens: I accepted with pleasure. Mr Scarrabelotti
even proposed a title for it: Frank Knopfelmacher, he
said, used to have a regular piece in Quadrant called “As I please”, and he asked me to call mine “Latin ... As I please.” So
I shall cheerfully oblige him.
We
have moved far beyond the self-confident era when an Anglican preacher could
say, and indeed did say in a Christmas sermon, that “the study of Greek
literature not only elevates above the vulgar herd, but can lead to positions
of considerable emolument, not only in this world, but the next.” What a
marvellously audacious piece of chauvinism that was! You can’t help admiring
the confidence of the man. And if Greek could do all that, in the early
nineteenth century, what might Latin not be capable of?
But
alas, that proud flood of linguistic (and political) imperialism has now
retreated and few of us would dare make even remotely similar claims. Nowadays,
if we are Latinists, we cringe before such studies as mathematics and physics,
readily conceding to those rampant young subjects all the wonderful
mind-expanding attributes that our forefathers cheerfully and ebulliently
claimed for Latin and Greek. We are left to languish on borrowed time.
And
yet ... and yet, there’s still something to be said for a classical education,
isn’t there? When you next hear a radio announcer present a song from Carmeena Burana,
don’t, whatever you do, miss the opportunity to point out to your friends, that
the i
is actually short, and that the stress should fall on the first syllable of Carmina. And when
an outraged environmentalist tells you that cats have almost decimated the bird
population, I dare you to reply, “Oh really, is that all? I thought the
situation was serious.” You’ll probably get a punch in the mouth, of course
(pacifists tend to be a bit prone to respond like that), but at least you’ll
have won the intellectual bout.
Of
course it can’t really do you a lot of good. They probably just won’t get it.
But here are a few more pieces of arcane stuff to keep you (if not your
friends) richly entertained. An atrium is a large light-filled open space,
right? Wrong. An atrium (from Latin ater, black) started life as a small room with a hole
in the roof which was blackened by the smoke from the kitchen fire built
directly underneath it. The atrium in an early Roman house probably had more in
common with an American Indian tepee than with a modern public room.
“Pristine”
is a nice word, isn’t it. Most of us think it means something like “perfect” or
just “excellent.” “The car was in pristine condition,” we might say. But it
actually means old, and therefore original. Your car may not be very good, but
it has neither deteriorated nor been improved. Pristinus in Latin has a
nostalgic connotation.
And
what naughty images does the word “nubile” conjure up for you? Lithe, sexy, curvaceous, perhaps? No, it just means
marriageable, from the verb nubere, to marry.
These
semantic inversions are very numerous, particularly in the Latin/ English
environment, since such a huge proportion of our English word stock is derived
from Latin, either directly, or through French. But even within the Latin
language weird changes occur. Early in our Latin studies we learn that a lucus is a grove
or thicket of trees, often a sacred wood with a religious significance. But the
root is luc-,
“light”, and a lucus
was originally an opening or clearing in the middle of the said grove or
thicket, a place where perhaps there might be an altar for sacrifice. So the
part has been taken to mean the whole, and in doing so the original meaning has
been completely subverted.
Finally, a quirky but supposedly true ending to this first column. A school principal in the US wanted to elevate the status of his institution by translating its motto into Latin. All staff agreed that this was a splendid idea, till it was discovered that the new version would be Audio, Video, Disco. They decided to stick with the pristine version.
*
Dr David Daintree is Rector of St John’s College,
University of Sydney, and Acting President of Sydney’s Campion College.
