Why Latin?
Written By Deidre Cairns
Every year that I teach Latin, I begin the class with the question, “Why Latin?” I have to answer for the students because they have no clue. I fascinate them with facts like, 80% of all English vocabulary come from Greek or Latin and Latin is a gateway to all the romance languages. I have even taped a dollar bill to the board and told the students that I would give it to the student who could tell me what “e pluribus unum” means. That usually generates some excitement. However, every year, without fail, we will get half-way through the school year, and some student who thinks himself to be terribly clever, will raise his hand and ask, “Why do we even learn Latin anyway? Isn’t it a dead language?” I sigh and contemplate whether to give the answers from the beginning of the year or just throw the book at him. In reading about this more, I realize that my answers from the beginning of the year aren’t enough. Yes, it is true that Latin helps with English vocabulary and may boost your SAT score and it would certainly make learning another Latin-based language easier. But it is more than that. It is so much deeper and broader. Latin is a torch that illuminates western tradition, which has influenced the thinking and ways of over half the globe. Through the study of Latin, we learn more of this tradition through the literature and culture which is revealed. Latin, through its intellectual rigor and precision, teaches the learner how to think and write in a clearer and more concise way. Latin has a legacy of producing some of the best scholars and thinkers in history and it helps native English speakers to understand our language better.
Latin language teaches an English speaker a lot about English. W.H. Auden said, “Anybody who has spent many hours in his youth translating into and out of two languages so syntactically and rhetorically different from his own, learns something about his mother tongue which I do not think can be learned any other way.” Thus, this process teaches the student to choose the word that communicates the exact meaning for which he is striving. It is when we compare the two, we understand their differences and similarities. It would be like a child calling a butterfly a bird, because it can fly, until it is able to compare the two side-by-side. Latin aids in learning grammar. As a teacher of both Latin and grammar, I can use the two languages to explain and compare. For instance, students need to know how a direct object works in English to be able to identify that a Latin word needs to take the accusative case. A student translating Latin also learns a lot about his own language as he tries to find the right English word. N.M. Gwynne said in Gwynne’s Latin, “By considering various English words available for you to use for the translation of each Latin word in the sentence, and choosing carefully the ones for your translation, you are forcing yourself to gain a clearer, fuller and more knowledgeable insights into your own language.” A student of Latin will also find that she can understand an English word that she may not have encountered before, by breaking the word apart and translating the Latin roots. Douglas Wilson gives this example in his book Repairing the Ruins: “The Latin word sisto means I stand, or I stop. From it we derive consist (stand together), desist (to stop), insist (to stand upon), exist (to stand out), and persist (to stand through). The Latin word panis means bread. From it we get companion (one who shares your bread), accompany (same thought), and pantry (a place to keep bread).”
The Latin prepositions are especially helpful to know, as they make-up most prefixes in English. For example, per in Latin means through and spectare means to see. Therefore, a student of Latin would be able to understand perspective originally meant to see through something. Sub in the Latin ablative means under and mare means ocean, so a submarine is under the ocean. The examples of Latin prepositions being used as English prefixes are legion, so that I would say that they comprise one of the most valuable things for students to learn. And just like having the right key unlocks the door, when students learn these prepositions and other Latin words that are derivatives of English words, a whole new world opens to the student. Words become building blocks that can be broken apart and moved around. This in turn creates more thoughtful writers and communicators. In her book, Climbing Parnassus, Tracy Lee Simons says, “If people have family trees, so have words, and tracing their branches through time and place reveals the complexity of their characters.” Learning any foreign language can teach a native English speaker much about his own language by comparison. However, Latin is more beneficial since it has influenced our English vocabulary so much. It provides a way to unlock the mystery of so many words.
Latin is not an easy language to learn. N.M. Gwynne said, “No modern language comes close to approaching Latin in difficulty. It is the very difficulty of Latin that, however apparently off-putting, is an important part of what makes it such a valuable preparation for life.” The process to translating a Latin word or sentence takes many steps. And if a student makes an error in any of these steps, she will get the wrong translation. Latin teaches mental discipline and helps to form the mind. The patience and observation which it takes to translate in Latin also sows other academic virtues like attention to detail, diligence and the capacity to analyze, deduce and problem solve. These virtues are somewhat lost in the current culture which can find any fact by asking Siri or Alexa. It becomes harder and harder to get students to focus on a task until it is resolved. Latin provides a tool to flex that mental muscle, which leads to stronger brains. T.S. Eliot observed the efforts in the early twentieth century to throw Latin away and embrace the modern. He said, “I do not wish to be accused of inventing a new heresy to the effect that salvation depends upon getting a first in classics. But the culture of Europe {and, by extension, America} cannot preserve its intellectual vigour unless a high standard of Latin and Greek scholarship is maintained amongst its teachers.” J.R.R. Tolkien, who has written some of most popular and well-acclaimed books of our century in the Lord of the Rings series, felt that learning Latin and Greek were of the upmost importance to a proper education. C.S. Lewis is also a great writer of the previous century, who credits Latin with his success. “Hardly any lawful price would seem to me too high for what I have gained by being made to learn Greek and Latin.” Lewis created the Narnia series of books for children as well as writing many Christian apologetic books. The discipline and attention to detail helped these writers to create books and stories that have captivated readers for almost a hundred years. Millions of people do Sudoku puzzles every day to try and keep their mental discipline sharp, however, number puzzles or crossword puzzles cannot replace the discipline, attention to detail and precise word choice that Latin teaches to those who have undertaken it. Latin also has the benefit of teaching its learner more about Western traditions.
As the Roman Empire spread, so did its language, traditions, and literature. When Rome embraced Christianity as its state religion, Latin became the language of Christianity as well for over one thousand years. Even after the fall of the Roman Empire, Christianity and the western traditions continued to spread through colonialism. The poems, plays and mythology coming out of Greek and Rome have intrigued adults and children alike for centuries. The Greek and Roman gods have led astronomers to name the planets in our solar system after them. The cultural references are ubiquitous from opening Pandora’s box or protecting Achille’s heel. Columbia President Nicholas Murray Butler said, “When we turn aside from the study of Greek and Latin…we not only give up the study of the embryology of civilization, but we lose the great advantage which follows from intimate association with some of the highest forms of intellectual and aesthetic achievement.” Latin and Greek were at the beginning of Greek and Roman culture which spread to the west and continues to influence even in modern age. To be able to read the great works of Homer or even Jerome’s Latin Vulgate, would shed so much light on the intentions and nuances of meaning that the author intended. It is truly something for which to strive. N.M Gwynne stated, “Secondly, no modern language has a literature that comes close to deserving to be revered as the writings of Latin author after Latin author have deservedly been revered throughout the centuries since they were written.” Certainly, those things that have passed the test of time should be evaluated before being tossed aside for something new and modern. In speaking about generations of educated men and women, Tracy Lee Simmons states in his book, Climbing Parnassus, “They were strengthening their intellectual and aesthetic muscles while learning the glorious minutiae of literary pieces deemed to be those works most worth knowing for a thinking sentient citizen of the West.” These tried-and-true staples of “literary pieces” held the test of time and were deemed as worth reading.
This tried-and-true legacy of teaching the classics of western tradition and teaching the ancient languages, produced generations of educated men and women. The Pilgrims who came to America highly valued education. They helped to start The Boston Latin school, which is the oldest school in America, founded in 1635. It was founded to aid in the study of Greek and Latin, since that was deemed as vital to the Pilgrims. An example of the rigor of this school is described in Climbing Parnassus, “By the first decade of the eighteenth century, Boston Latin had boys reading the orations and letters of Cicero, and Latin testament, Virgil, Horace, and Juvenal, and the best were converting the Psalms into Latin verse. When they took up the Aeneid, they would translate passages aloud, write them out, and then translate them back into Latin-in different tenses.” This same education was given to the boys who grew up to be our founding fathers. Alexander Hamilton topped off his classical training at King’s College, James Madison kept a commonplace book in which he translated phrases into Latin and John Adams was schooled in Greek and Latin. These men all played a pivotal part in framing our constitution and establishing the government of the United States of America. Gwynne reminds us, “The long period of Classics-only education at schools which started gradually to come to an end only in the middle of the nineteenth century was the period of Britain’s peak of success in most fields of human endeavour.” So, Latin proved successful in educating the British as well. When educators moved away from studying the Classics and Latin, there was a noticeable decline in the quality of writing. Since there is such noticeable success when Latin is taught, and such a decline when it is not, then surely this proves its importance in the curriculum.
This is what I would like to say to my students when they interrupt my lesson and ask, “Why are we learning Latin? Isn’t it a dead language?” What they are essentially asking is, “What is this good for? How am I going to use this?” I believe that students have the right and should ask that question. After all, they need motivation. (I should also add that I have had students ask that in every subject from math to grammar as well.) However, I do not think they would like the deeper reasons why I think they should learn Latin. They want utilitarian reasons (and even those are not enough for some). The fact that Latin helps in better understanding English is a compelling reason to learn Latin. It is one of the things that makes Latin more useful in understanding English than Chinese. And learning Latin vocabulary and prefixes do provide a key for unlocking unseen English words. The “useful” argument is not enough though. There is so much more. Emerson once wrote, “Let us not forget, that the adoption of the test ‘what is it good for’ would abolish the rose and exalt in triumph the cabbage.” Learning Latin is more than useful, it is beautiful. The complexity of it trains and forms the brain to focus, analyze and concentrate. This provides the training ground for logical thinkers and precise writers. It builds intellectual rigor and mental muscle. Latin also educates those from the West about their history and heritage. Language does not stand on its own, but rather is built around culture and tradition. To know a country’s language is to know something about its values and culture. Learning Latin opens the door to learning the stories and history of ancient Rome. And once a student can read Latin, he can read the Roman classics in their native language. Our modern progressive era wants to tinker with everything and make everything “scientific”. However, it would have been better to leave well enough alone when it came to Latin and the learning of the Classics. Time has proved its effectiveness in creating great thinkers using these tools. From our founding fathers to great writers like C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, Latin is credited with developing their skills and thinking. Even if a student never picked up a Latin reader again, studying Latin would have done its job in forming her brain and thinking as well as providing the tools to learn other things. As Gwynne says, “Primarily (education) is about developing our mind, character and taste so that, once the education is complete, we can pick up effortlessly and quickly whatever knowledge and skills we wish to, whether for practical use or for enjoyment at any point in our lives.” Basically, to sum it up in words my young students can understand, I should just say, “You learn Latin because, like broccoli, it is good for you!”