languages

From: Merle K. Peirce <at258_at_osfn.org>
Date: Thu Mar 9 19:58:17 2000

Ah yes, I remember we used to look at each other and say "he knows" with
a knowing smirk. We also used to mutter "volve" as a pejorative.

On Thu, 9 Mar 2000, Ethan Dicks wrote:

>
>
> --- "Merle K. Peirce" <at258_at_osfn.org> wrote:
> > I do recall, though, that studying Latin did make things seem much
> > easier to me, if only because the language forced organised thought.
>
> Ditto on the Latin - 4 years in High School. I think in my case, since
> I had no decent formal training in English (my native language), learning
> Latin grammar produced an understanding of English grammar. I do know
> that learning Latin made it easier to learn Greek. I had an idea of
> what sorts of phrases and subordinate clauses exist, and so knew to ask
> how these concepts translated to Greek ("cum clauses", for example, or
> the many uses of infinitives)
>
> > ...I learned the Church Latin pronunciation, which annoys everyone else, to
> > my gratification...
>
> Ack! Heretic! :-) My Latin teacher told us a story of when _he_ went
> to out High School in the 1960's - they learned Church Latin and it was
> a supreme effort of will not to laugh when conjugating the present tense
> of the verb "scio", to know.
>
> For the confused reader at home, it goes... "scio, scis, scit, scimus,
> scistis, sciunt" and in Classical Latin C's are hard, giving us "skeeo,
> skiss, skit...". Church Latin uses a soft C here, resulting in "sheeo,
> shiss...". Try *that* in a room full of sophmores.
>
> -ethan
>
> P.S. - if I've messed up the full conjugation, my apologies; it's off the
> top of my head, 18 years later. The nugget of the story, however, is accurate.
>
>
> -ethan
>
>
> =====
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> vanish, please note my new public address: erd_at_iname.com
>
> The original webpage address is still going away. The
> permanent home is: http://penguincentral.com/
>
> See http://ohio.voyager.net/ for details.
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M. K. Peirce
Rhode Island Computer Museum, Inc.
215 Shady Lea Road,
North Kingstown, RI 02852

"Casta est qui nemo rogavit."
              
              - Ovid
Received on Thu Mar 09 2000 - 19:58:17 GMT

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