Latin used in academia, wrong?

Yeshua   Wed Nov 19, 2008 10:16 pm GMT
Ok, so you know how the academics used Latin to write in for centuries after Latin died out? Well, does that mean their writing is full of mistakes and incorrect usage? How would they be able to write correctly if there were no native speakers around and none of them spoke it natively? Even the most educated people would be bound to screw up from time to time. How did they maintain standards?
Guest   Wed Nov 19, 2008 10:34 pm GMT
Latin spoken by academics (and the Church) was like Esperanto. How come people speak Esperanto correctly? The same can be applied to Latin.
Yeshua   Wed Nov 19, 2008 11:34 pm GMT
So they made no effort to remain true to classical Latin?
classical   Wed Nov 19, 2008 11:44 pm GMT
"So they made no effort to remain true to classical Latin?"

More or less. Still about 175 years ago, in large parts of Europe, you had to present a lecture in Latin to pass a doctor degree.
Of course, many students had better to do that losing their time with that impossibly complex Latin grammar. There were therefore in those universities a whole class of students in Latin who wrote (or optimized) the Latin translations for money.
Patrick   Sat Nov 29, 2008 4:51 am GMT
It can be studied in Academia.
Phillip   Mon Dec 15, 2008 7:53 am GMT
It is a good basis for languages like French and Spanish.
Leyla   Mon Dec 15, 2008 7:35 pm GMT
Academia means a gym.
G7   Tue Dec 16, 2008 5:08 am GMT
Phillip Mon Dec 15, 2008 7:53 am GMT
It is a good basis for languages like French and Spanish.

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Are French and Spanish also a good basis for Latin?
Victor   Wed Jan 07, 2009 1:48 am GMT
These days you need a PhD.