[B-Greek] dead languages
nebarry
nebarry at verizon.net
Thu Mar 10 09:04:54 EST 2011
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ed Walkwitz" <edwalkwitz at yahoo.com>
To: <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Wednesday, March 09, 2011 9:26 AM
Subject: [B-Greek] dead languages
>Came across this from Thomas Paine:
>The study, therefore, of the Greek language (and in the same manner for the
Latin) was no other than the drudgery business of a linguist...As there is now
nothing new to be learned from the dead languages, all the useful books being
already translated, the languages are become useless, and the time expended in
teaching and in learning them is wasted...It would therefore be advantageous to
the state of learning to abolish the study of the dead languages...
>Thomas Paine in, "The Age of Reason." He goes on to describe how the study of
dead languages in schools is a plot by Christians to suppress science. I, of
course, do not agree with Thomas Paine. But I was amused enough by this quote
that I thot I'd post it for yall's amusement. Note to Mark Lightman if you're
reading this: You realize that Paine wrote before the invention of cell phones.
Otherwise he would have realized how useful a knowledge of ancient Greek is.
LOL and all that. I wonder if this is the source of all the popular "Latin is a dead language" and so forth?
One of my 8th graders came up with this one: "Latin is like a zombie. It's dead, but it's a live, and it eats your brains." Just substitute ancient Greek...
At our Philadelphia Classical Society competition, a student submitted an entry in the "poster" division with "Sola bona lingua quae mortua lingua," "The only good language is a dead language..." :)
N.E. Barry Hofstetter
Classics and Bible @ TAA
http://www.theamericanacademy.net
More information about the B-Greek
mailing list