Tag Archives: Finland

In their program Nuntii Latin [Latin News] the Finnish Broadcasting Corporation (YLE) on September 11 aired this item on shortwave radio and on the Internet: “Angela Merkel, cancellaria foederalis Germnaniae, et Gordon Brown, princeps minister Britanniae, conventum de rebus Afghanistaniae iam hoc anno instituendum esse censent.”

The [Latin news] program has run for nearly twenty years. “It started as a local joke and has become a major contribution to the world culture,” said Olli Albo, the director of YLE’s Radio One.

So if you browse on your shortwave radio and hear Latin it may not be the Vatican Radio, probably your first guess, but the Finns.

As a matter of fact, Finland used to be a centre of Latin studies.

Until not so very long ago Latin was lingua franca among educated people everywhere. In the First World War, in Russian captivity under incredible conditions in Siberia after losing his right arm, the pianist Paul Wittgenstein kept his sanity by reading Cicero in Latin.

It used to be a neutral language that belonged to one and all.

1846 was the last year when it was spoken in the Hungarian parliament – a good compromise solution. The Habsburg masters would not tolerate Hungarian and the Hungarian nationalists would not tolerate German. The nationalists prevailed. Nationalism killed Latin there – and everywhere.

But internationalism is unlikely to be the primary reason for the revival of Latin on Canadian campuses. But what is?

Across the country enrolment in Latin courses at the university level has gone up. Why? Could this be only because of the Hollywood blockbusters The Gladiators and Troy? Or to the television series Rome?

Prof. Jonathan Edmondson, chairman of the history department at York University in Toronto and president of the Classical Association of Canada, says that Latin has shed its slightly fusty image. There is an awareness, he says, that there are new ways of presenting Latin that are more interesting than the old methods.

Maybe the internal logic of the language and the beauty of its sound exert their special charm. Maybe for young people mastering its grammar is fun for its own sake. Latin is also useful. Its grammar is good for learning English grammar, which is not always well taught in the schools. It certainly makes learning romance languages easier. And medical students may find it easier to remember the names of parts of the body and of drugs.

Maybe it is once again a status symbol.

In Quebec, Latin has special significance. The first history of Canada, the Historia Canadensis (1664), was written in Latin, as were seminal Jesuit texts. Any graduate of a classical college used to be able to speak Latin fluently, and perhaps still does. This year the University of Montreal’s introductory Latin class was so popular that not all students got in. The enrolment swelled to sixty.

The tattoo just below Angelina Jolie’s navel is written in Latin.