Harrius Potter

When I tell people I am taking Latin, I usually get one of two responses depending who I'm talking to. The response from the older generation (i.e. parents/grandparents) is something like, "Oh...why?" or "Isn't that a dead language?" or "Why on God's earth would you take that?!" The response from the younger generation (i.e. people my age-ish) is surprisingly different. People are actually impressed. Of course my brother Chad is not included in this, as he is unimpressed with anything I do, ever:

Anyways, a common comment I receive is, "Soon you can read Harry Potter in Latin!" And herein I think is where Latin becomes cool again. Harry Potter. It goes without saying that the Harry Potter books were some of the most popular books of the last 50 years. There aren't many popular modern books that incorporate Latin as part of the story as much as the Harry Potter books. There are very interesting posts on the Hogwarts Professor and Greek Geek blogs that explore the Latin used. Obviously a lot of the Latin is not great, with words made up and mixing in other languages. A debate has arisen online: Is it a terrible thing that the books use "Dog Latin", or is just the fact they use Latin, bad or not, a good thing? I have to agree with the latter, because to even spark an interest in the language is a good thing. If someone becomes interested in Latin, they will want to research more into it, perhaps even learn it, and in that case they will (hopefully) learn proper form and words. And learning to speak Latin like Hermione Granger is not a terrible thing.

Myself, I'm taking Latin partially because it's strongly recommended for my major (Medieval and Renaissance Studies). The other reason is from reading historical fiction. In the books I read (which generally take place in late Medieval-early Renaissance Europe), Latin is a language frequently mentioned as being a language spoken at court and in the church. As I read these novels, I'm often on Google researching characters and events as I go. I love language in general, and learning Latin is an extension of this Google research on a larger scale. Hopefully with more prestige?

Nope, he's still not impressed.

Interpretationem

A friend of mine (and fellow book lover) posted this really great quote on Facebook today:

I was really excited that it was Cicero since I'm turning into a Latin nerd (as a side note I looked like I actually knew my stuff when Cicero came up in my MARS seminar last week). However, being the Latin nerd I am slowing turning into, id mei animo nocet to see a Cicero quote in English (thanks Wheelock!). So I scoured the internet (looked at the first 10 results on Google), and then thought, Hey, I've learned most of these words, I can probably do a bad translation of this. As such, here is my translation (though I've substituted locus instead of "room" as I had trouble finding a satisfactory word for "room", and "place" still gets the message across):

I read a quote recently in Les Miserables that was very interesting to me because Hugo described is as being written in "barbarous" (or "dog") Latin. Hugo was discussing a superstition in the region of Montfermeil that the devil had chosen the forest as his hiding place for his treasureand would bury it at night and the one who came upon his treasure would meet certain death. Tryphon, a Norman monk/sorceror, was said to have written the following about the superstition: 

"Fodit, et in fossa thesauros condit opaca,
As, nummas, lapides, cadaver, simulacra, nihilque."

My basic understanding of this quote is "he digs, and finds treasure in the dark ditch, coins, corpse, phantoms, and nothing."). Even to me this seems like terrible Latin, and makes me appreciate Wheelock that much more. Ugh.

Finally, I have to share this, as someone obsessed with all things British (esp Corrie):

Initium

Welcome to my Latin blog, which is, I like to think is aptly titled as I can't guarantee everything will be enlightening.

I will say however that I am currently reading Victor Hugo's Les Miserables (sorry, laptop does not permit accents) as part of my 50 Book Pledge for 2014, and there are a lot of Latin phrases thrown about, especially from the Bishop of D- (Monseigneur Bienvenu). It has been a neat experience to encounter 3 languages in a novel and to actually understand them all somewhat. Obviously many of the Latin phrases are used in a religious context, as the Bishop is a man of the cloth and Latin was the language of the church. His Latin remarks were usually either pieces of scripture (Sinite parvulos - "Let the children [come to me]") or said in moments of contemplation (Vermis sum - "I am a worm"). I'm looking forward to the rest of the novel and understanding more as I learn more Latin.

On a final note: