At 08:50 AM 1/15/01, Christopher John Fynn wrote:
>Yes, and it was right into the early 20th Century. Even when I was in
>school a large percentage of English schoolboys _had_ to learn Latin (-
>and in many "public" [private] schools they still do). This included
>"spoken" Latin - though I'm sure the pronunciation taught was quite
>different than what it was in 55 BCE. Not all that long ago you couldn't
>get into many English universities without having studied some Latin.
>
>In English we still get plenty of scientific names and terms from Latin
>and Greek and many of these words eventually come into more common usage.
Just to expand upon this with data:
1. When I learned Latin in the U.S. in the 1960s, we were taught a
reconstructed Roman pronunciation.
2. In the United States, scientific names of organisms, Latin in form if
not actually Latin, are pronounced in a heavily anglicized manner, to the
extent that we often give individual training to students who will make
presentations at international meetings, so that they might be understood.
3. There are scholarly works outlining the pronunciation of Latin in
different parts of Europe during the Middle Ages and Renaissance, for use
by musicians who want to achieve historically informed performances of
vocal music from that era.
--
Curtis Clark http://www.csupomona.edu/~jcclark/
Biological Sciences Department Voice: (909) 869-4062
California State Polytechnic University FAX: (909) 869-4078
Pomona CA 91768-4032 USA [EMAIL PROTECTED]
