dimanche 29 juillet 2012

Losing his Latin*

Playing at Pacman last night, I listened to a podcast in relation with the declining teaching of Latin in France's academic. Remi Brague was one of the two guests and as a serious French intellectual he has got interesting and witty things to say. As we know, English becomes a Lingua Franca. According to Brague and what I understood, English is divided by two main influences the Saxon and the Norman. Normans invaded the island in 1000. They spoke a kind of French, which was a argotic latin. This influence is now more and more present, because of the American way of speak, itself largely influencely by the Spanish-Speaking immigration. Spanish could be considered as the purest heirs of Latin. I should admit this theory seduces me a lot. I notice there are lot of "French" world in English. recently, Entrepreneurship (A quasi-French word for business initiative, You - So sarcastic).

*Perdre son latin is a French turn of phrase could be translated by Can not make head nor tail of it. I know Losing his Latin doesn't mean anything.

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