Do you think Latin & Greek are worth knowing in this day and age?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/04/02/nlatin02.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/04/02/ixhome.html

From the London "Daily Telegraph" Sat. 02 Apr 05

=>Dr Zamenhof was a Pole - and a polyglot as many of his fellow citizens.<=

Really?! Always thought he was german!But I looked it up,your right he was a pole.

Well, one thing is that while his surname looks awfully German, and not very Polish, is that there historically were a *lot* of people of German descent basically sprayed across much of eastern Europe, and also individuals who were ethnically native to various parts of eastern Europe, but who adopted either Hochdeutsch or Ostniederdeutsch as their own language, and at times took up German surnames as well, due to economic considerations and like. Furthermore, Poland was divided up by Prussia, Austria, and Russia, which only increased the likelihood of ethnically German individuals ending up in what is not Poland. Hence, it would be very likely that someone could end up with a German last name, even though they may be primarily ethnically Polish, in the given time period in which Zamenhof lived. However, though, one far less likely to see such individuals today in Poland, since pretty much the entire ethnic German population of eastern Europe was driven westward into Germany, with many being killed in the process, in the expulsions at the end of World War 2.

Ack, I mean "in what is now Poland", not "in what is not Poland".

Just heard the pope has died....

Has he ?

Paix à son âme.

<<Well, one thing is that while his surname looks awfully German, and not very Polish, is that there historically were a *lot* of people of German descent basically sprayed across much of eastern Europe, and also individuals who were ethnically native to various parts of eastern Europe, but who adopted either Hochdeutsch or Ostniederdeutsch as their own language, and at times took up German surnames as well, due to economic considerations and like.>>

I believe Zamenhof was Jewish (his name thus being Yiddish), not just a Pole who had taken a German surname.

Well, of course, mind you that Jews didn't necessarily simply take German surnames because of being Jewish for some reason or another, but because they were, to some extent or another ethnically German in the first place, but had moved from natively ethnically German areas into eastern Europe in general during the latter portion of the Middle Ages (and hence why various Middle High German features are present in Yiddish, as it basically split from the rest of Hochdeutsch around that point in time).