| Although hundreds of individuals teach Latin for a living, | | | | Latin, like an enterprise that loses customers, went |
| few of them spend time explaining why it became a | | | | bankrupt. The decline of the ancient language must |
| dead language. If you read about its history, facts are | | | | have begun before the barbarian invasions. Most likely, |
| presented as self-evident and no general lessons are | | | | Latin would have decayed even if the Roman Empire |
| drawn. | | | | had lasted another century. |
| The official version of the story is that, when the | | | | Insolvent companies that blame their difficulties on the |
| Roman Empire was conquered in the 5th century, | | | | market show blindness to the real cause of their |
| barbarian words polluted the purity of ancient speech. | | | | financial demise. If competitors have stayed in business |
| Foreign influences changed the manner of writing Latin, | | | | and thrived, why did a specific company go bankrupt? |
| did away with its grammar, and distorted its | | | | Why did Latin wane into oblivion despite all efforts to |
| pronunciation. | | | | keep it alive? |
| During the Middle Ages, clerics and lawyers tried to | | | | Lovers of ancient languages will seldom give you the |
| maintain the old language alive, overall with little | | | | answer to that question: Latin was highly inefficient. |
| success. The quality of written Latin deteriorated at | | | | Left to its own devices, it was unable to maintain itself. |
| the same speed as it was taught to younger | | | | Its grammar was calling for simplification. It was too |
| generations. The spoken word, undisturbed by | | | | difficult to learn and brought little value to the table. |
| grammatical constraints, became approximative and | | | | Four major languages of our age, Italian, French, |
| vague. | | | | Spanish, and Portuguese, are derived from Latin. All |
| By the end of the 16th century, the great language of | | | | four have shed the overcomplicated structure that |
| antiquity was clinically death, although a few volumes | | | | made Latin so inefficient. The cost of maintenance |
| were still written and published in Latin in the 17th | | | | became to heavy and the old construction fell apart. |
| century. Those relics symbolize man's reluctance to | | | | Like a bankrupt company, Latin collapsed under the |
| acknowledge tidal changes that disrupt established | | | | weight of its liabilities. |
| patterns of thought. | | | | The ancient language built sentences by adding affixes |
| The expulsion of Latin to the realm of the dead | | | | to adjective and names depending on their |
| becomes an intriguing question when we compare it | | | | grammatical role, gender, and number. In order to |
| with other achievements of the time, such as the laws | | | | create a correct sentence, each name and adjective |
| of Ancient Rome. In contrast to language, the principles | | | | had to be combined with the right affix. Latin had many |
| of Roman law have survived the passage of time and | | | | different affixes, which varied from name to name and |
| can be found today in the civil code of numerous | | | | case to case. In contrast, modern Spanish just adds "s" |
| European and South American countries. | | | | for most plurals. |
| While Latin was dead and buried centuries ago, ancient | | | | Speaking correct Latin required extensive training that |
| Roman law still permeates our culture and institutions. | | | | few could afford in the Middle Ages. Even with our |
| The logic of modern contracts replicates the | | | | most advanced learning methods, languages that |
| arguments of ancient jurisprudence; our court | | | | continue to use numerous affixes for names and |
| procedures follow the steps conceived by Roman | | | | adjectives demand great efforts of foreigners who |
| magistrates; our conception of marriage and | | | | wish to learn them. |
| inheritance is derived from ancient family law. | | | | Trying to maintain Latin alive was the quintessential |
| Causality is the weak point in the official story of the | | | | dead-end project. Relatively few people were willing to |
| disappearance of Latin. If ancient language was | | | | devote resources to the undertaking; its cost far |
| polluted by barbarian influences, so was Roman law. If | | | | exceeded the capital available. The project was |
| grammar and pronunciation lost their original purity, so | | | | doomed from the start; those who believed that it |
| did Roman law. Nevertheless, legal principles survived | | | | could succeed were massively unrealistic. |
| and Latin is no longer alive. | | | | The ancient language did not die the glorious death of |
| A closer look at the facts reveals that Latin did not | | | | a heroic medieval knight; it perished from starvation |
| actually die, but was displaced. It was not destroyed or | | | | and neglect. Its structural inefficiency rendered it unable |
| dismantled, but abandoned. Nobody took active steps | | | | to compete. History broke it down and scattered the |
| to eliminate it from the minds of citizens. People just | | | | remnants. The clock stopped at a time when it could |
| stopped using it, like a car that is too old to be worth | | | | not be repaired. |
| repairing. | | | | Has the lesson been learned? Have we grown |
| Financiers know that there is a world of difference | | | | capable of recognizing and avoiding dead-end |
| between a company that is taken over and one that | | | | projects? Anyone willing to recognize mistakes can |
| goes bankrupt. The official story is that Latin was | | | | acquire the necessary knowledge and perspective. |
| merged or transformed into medieval languages. While | | | | Latin is a dead language and rightly so. The next time |
| this aspect is indisputable, it misses an important part of | | | | that someone asks you to participate in a project, |
| the picture. | | | | make sure that is has a future. |
| The truth must include the acknowledgement that | | | | |