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Subject:De-Latinization of English From:"Daniel E. Wise" <dewise -at- IX -dot- NETCOM -dot- COM> Date:Sat, 1 Jun 1996 22:34:55 -0700
Colleagues,
What is this nonsense about de-Latinizing the language? No way is that
possible. We can scrape away at the exterior by making data singular
and making the plural of formula formulas rather than formulae. We
can, in our ignorance, refer to a single graduate (male or female) as
an alumni. But we cannot escape the fact that so much of our language
is based on Latin and Latin derivatives. When the bulk of our language
is rooted in Basque, Urdu, and Swahili, THEN maybe we can truly
de-Latinize.
The regrettable problem is that so few today take Latin in school. I
am old enough so that "college preparatory" meant that you took 2 years
of Latin. Of course, it helped me with English and French, but
otherwise, it had no use whatsoever. ;->
Dan Wise
dewise -at- ix -dot- netcom -dot- com
My opinions are mine alone. No one else would want them.
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