Why Learn Latin

It is said that Mark Twain, when asked to address rumors that the famous author had passed away, proclaimed, “Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated,” and the Latin language, very much alive today, might respond similarly to the mistaken belief that the tongue of the ancient Romans met its demise long ago, particularly since the words “report” and “exaggerate” are ultimately derived from Latin.

When choosing to learn an additional language, it may seem reasonable to pick one that is widely spoken, such as Spanish or French, for pragmatic reasons, but Latin, if personified, might argue that it itself would be a more reasonable, and even more pragmatic, choice. Latin, unfortunately, can’t argue for itself, so I will take the position of its defender in the remainder of this article, and outline a number of reasons to begin a study of this supposedly “dead” language.

Latin Vocabulary as a Foundation for Modern Languages

Latin is an Italic language that was originally spoken in the area around Rome, but, as the power of Rome increased, the language spread throughout Italy during the Roman Republic (509 BCE – 27 BCE) and continued to increase its international presence during the expansion of the Roman Empire, which flourished for an additional five centuries. The language’s lengthy history means that its roots spread extensively and are genetically present in many modern languages:

Latin gave birth to languages such as Italian, French, and Spanish, which, as a group, are called Romance languages because of the Latin (Roman) influence on their development. It is estimated that over 90% of the vocabulary from these languages is derived directly from Latin. Learning Latin, therefore, creates a strong foundation from which you can more easily acquire these commonly spoken languages, and become truly multilingual in the process.

Although English is technically considered a Germanic language, a large majority of its vocabulary is derived from Latin. Because of the wide-spread dominance and lasting influence of the Roman Empire, which had contact with Britain as early as the 1^st century BCE, Latin eventually came to serve as a common international denominator, or lingua franca, for commerce, science, medicine, education, literature, and religion. Through the intermediary of French, moreover, Latin began to exert an even stronger influence on the development of the English language, particularly from the time of the Norman conquest in 1066 CE.
Given the above, it is understandable that current students of Latin have been found to outperform all other students, including those who have studied other languages, on the verbal portion of standardized tests such as the SAT and GRE (Educational Testing Service, 2012). A general knowledge of Latin provides the tools necessary to define unfamiliar polysyllabic words, and to analyze technical and scientific vocabulary by breaking these complex words into their component parts, which are overwhelmingly based on Latin.

The Benefits of Studying Latin Grammar and Syntax

Latin is a highly inflected language, which means that it relies heavily on the form of words, rather than word order, to create meaning
in a sentence. Latin nouns, for example, change their form based on a grammatical system that has seven separate cases, so a thorough knowledge of Latin grammar is necessary to render an accurate translation into English. This aspect of Latin has far-reaching benefits for the student who masters the language’s nuances:

Unlike Latin, English has largely lost its inflectional component – though it can still be felt when deciding, for example, whether to use the (increasingly rare) form “whom” in a sentence – and consequently the study of English grammar can seem like an abstract exercise. Terms like gerunds, participles, and indirect objects, which were coined by grammarians who themselves were steeped in Latin learning, become much more concrete when studying them through the lens of a highly inflected language like Latin.

After studying Latin grammar, you will find it easier to learn modern languages that retain a robust inflectional system, such as Russian and German.

Because of the relatively free form of word order in a sentence, Latin has been described as a puzzle that a translator needs to solve. Many have compared this process to solving a mathematical problem, and claim that, for this reason, the study of Latin greatly enhances logical and analytical thinking skills.

Expand Your Language Abilities While Reading Influential Literature

By studying Latin, you will not only sharpen your language skills but also read unfiltered works of literature, politics, history, philosophy, and mythology that have profoundly influenced the intellectual development of the western world. Here are just a few examples of works that a student of Latin, engaging directly with ancient authors and developing their own translations and interpretations of their works, will eventually be able to read in the original language:

Ovid’s Metamorphoses is an encyclopedic collection of myths that have been reworked for millennia and continue to shape modern art and literature. Beginning with the creation of mankind and ending with the contemporary period of the author, this work depicts the lives of the Roman gods and their interactions with mankind. These stories, which the author renders with acute psychological insight, introduce the reader to characters such as Cupid, Narcissus, Pygmalion, Daedalus, Orpheus, and many others who have become familiar names in a variety of modern contexts

In many ways, the Roman political system, which in its early years evolved from a monarchy to a republic, served as model for the government of the United States. The historians Sallust and Livy, who, along with their Greek forerunners, largely defined the early genre of historiography, chronicle many of the most salient events in Roman history and present them as individually compelling stories. The speeches of the statesman Cicero give us a first-hand account of the political intrigues that figured in the eventual fall of the republic.

Julius Caesar wrote commentaries on his own military campaigns in Gaul, and his unadorned writing style often makes him a good choice for students who are in the early stages of their Latin development.

The ongoing influence of the Latin language and cultural contributions of these Roman authors, among others, provide evidence that Latin is not dead, nor even on life support, and your engagement with the subject will reveal and sustain its continuing relevance.