I recently had the opportunity to interview Dr. Jane Cahill, a professor at The University of Winnipeg in the Classics department. As Dr. Cahill has taught a course about Ancient Greek and Latin in contemporary English, I knew she would make a good subject for an interview as she would have a greater depth of knowledge in words derived from Latin and Greek. Therefore an interview with Dr. Cahill would not only be educational for my readers, but for myself as well.
Q: How did you become interested in Languages? Why Latin and Greek?
A: To be truthful, I did not choose Latin and Greek. In 1961, in England where I grew up, all those who, at age 11, were considered likely to be able to go to University, started Latin whether they wanted to or not.
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Latin was the basis of French. French influenced English. That was the process.
Q: Why do you think it is that ancient Greek and Latin have had such a lasting impact on the English language?
A: New words do get added to languages. So when the English language came to North America, words like kayak, which is an Inuit word, were added. Languages grow more than they shrink. Also, we have many words that are called “learned borrowings” – more from Greek than Latin. Word like hysterectomy, which comes from Greek. Womb= hyster out = ec cutting=tomy. So a hysterectomy is the cutting out or removal of a woman’s womb. All doctors and many patients can understand the word. So any medical procedure that includes the suffix “tomy” involves cutting. If we use the word “appendectomy” we know immediately that we are cutting something out. Everybody can understand. It’s like a code. It means you don’t have to make up new words that would, essentially, be just sounds.
Also, our culture, as well as our language still owes a great deal to the Greeks and the Romans. The Greeks, for instance, invented theatre – the notion of sitting in an audience watching people pretend to do something. The word, “theatre”, is Greek. The idea was Greek
Rengakos, Antonios. Homertext und die Hellenistichen Dichter. Hermes. Einzelschriften, Heft 64. Stuttgart, F. Steiner, 1993.
The Ancient Greek contribution ranged by the 1900-133 BC, however its influence on the Western Literate Society lasts to this day. As the Greeks expanded their empire, they spread their ideas to other countries, while also borrowing from other cultures. During this period of time, the Greeks made many significant and long-lasting contribution to our modern culture in Philosophy, Art, Democracy, Drama, Math, and Science. These givings of important ideas, inventions, and structures have had an extraordinary influence on the surrounding environment, society, and in the future. The essential contribution of Greeks to the Western Civilization are Democracy, Art, and Philosophy.
Rengakos, Antonios. Homertext und die Hellenistichen Dichter. Hermes. Einzelschriften, Heft 64. Stuttgart, F. Steiner, 1993.
The ancient Greeks and Romans were perhaps two of the greatest civilizations of the ancient world. These two civilizations thrived in their ancient environments, which eventually led to a vast amount of prosperity within these two cultures. It is because of this prosperity that these ancient cultures were able to make a variety of advancements in literature, architecture, art and a variety of other fields. These two civilizations also produced some of the ancient world’s greatest writers, leaders, and philosophers. The cultures of ancient Greece and Rome made a number of contributions to western civilization in the form of advancements in literature, architecture, art, government, and philosophy.
Matz, David. Voices of Ancient Greece and Rome: Contemporary Accounts Of Daily Life. Santa Barbara, California: Greenwood, 2012. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 9 Oct. 2013.
In her Ted Talk, “The game that can give you ten extra years of life” Jane McGonigal explains how she created a game called “Jane the Concussion Slayer” to help her overcome a concussion that didn’t heal properly. McGonigal describes to her audience the different levels and power-ups she created to cope with the process of her concussion since she had an unhealed concussion that left symptoms like headaches, nausea, vertigo, memory loss, and mental fog. In addition to this, McGonigal had to avoid everything that triggered her symptoms such as: writing, video games, work, emails, exercise, alcohol, etc. In doing so, she believed it helped her tackle challenges with more creativity, determination, and optimism. McGonigal then concludes her speech
It is always important to look to the past in order to move towards the future. This was done in the formation of Western Society, and more specifically the formation of American society. The Greek culture served as a frame of reference for many aspects of Western life including government, architecture, math and the arts. Ancient Greek culture served as a very broad base for our society to be built upon.
Stevens, Benjamin. “Aeolism: Latin As A Dialect Of Greek.” The Classical Journal 102, no. 2 (2006/2007): 115-144. Accessed January 15, 2014. http://0-ehis.ebscohost.com.aupac.lib.athabascau.ca/eds/detail?sid=93bdf279-da95-4e41-ba5f-c252a0c40085%40sessionmgr198&vid=1&hid=107&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmU%3d#db=ofm&AN=505197203.
One of the great difficulties in teaching ancient languages like Latin is the general lack of a spoken component. Whereas modern language students can reinforce the grammatical material they learn in a book through oral drills and conversational practice, students of Latin are faced with the prospect of studying a complex, inflected language entirely through the written word. While students still manage to learn the grammar and vocabulary, they often lack an appreciation for Latin as a living, breathing means of communication. A sensitivity to the oral aspect of the language not only reinforces material learned through traditional means, but also opens a window into the sublime quality of Latin which can serve as motivation for further study.
"When in Rome, live as the Romans do; when elsewhere, live as they live elsewhere." Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be a Roman or Greek? Well, Ancient Greece and Rome have influenced American society throughout the Roman Republic, Greek architecture, and Greek Olympics. There are many interesting facts you should know about Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome! Did you know that the first Olympic Games were held in 776 B.C. at the Greek city of Olympia? Or that the Colosseum received millions of visitors every year, and is the most famous tourist attraction of Rome? You can learn many things about how American society has been influenced by the Ancient Romans and Greeks.
“The Greeks molded the mind of Western Civilization, if not the body and the culture” (PowerPoint #6). The Greeks had a very powerful impact on the entire world, making them a huge influence to Western culture. The Greeks showed their power over the world by their great intellect. Through their accomplishments in art, architecture, government, philosophy, education, and science they helped shape Western Civilization. They built strong and intricate buildings, allowing others to see throughout history the plan of the architecture used. The Greek government was one of the first to have a Democracy. Their ac...
The Greeks in the third B.C. introduced the Romans to Hellenic culture achievements. The Romans acquired from Greece knowledge of scientific thought, philosophy, medicine and geography. The Romans adopted the humanistic outlook of the Greeks and they came to value social aptitude and articulate and beautiful style and poetry.
One obvious reason is interaction with other languages. If one tribe of people trades with another, they will pick up specific words and phrases for trade objects,for example.
Languages are continually changing and developing, and these changes occur in many different ways and for a variety of reasons. Language change is detectable to some extent in all languages, and ‘similar paths of change’ can be recognised in numerous unrelated languages (Bybee, 2015, p. 139). Since users of language all over the world have ‘the same mental processes’ and ‘use communication for the same or very similar ends’ (Bybee, 2015, p. 1), similar changes occur on the same linguistic aspects, and in many cases these changes produce similar results in multiple languages. However, language change is limited by the function it performs. Languages must be learnt to such an extent which allows communication between the generation above and below one’s own (McMahon, 1994, p. 5). Hence language change is a gradual, lethargic process, as only small changes in
The Romans adoption of the Greek culture allowed for them to improve upon their own beliefs and make the Greek culture more profitable for the Roman Empire. This cultural exchange, then helped the Romans advance in their community to become one of the greatest empires of that time. We know the Romans for their beautiful art, their outstanding architecture, even for their form of government but none of this would have happened if it wasn’t for the adaptation of the Greek culture, because their art and their architecture was an establishment from the Greeks that the Romans took. If it wasn’t for the Romans taking up the culture from the Greeks then there would not have been a possibility for the Roman Empire to have even expand and spread to the point where other cultures would have also adopted to the customs of the Romans, or make the Roman empire well known. Because of this, Romans were now open to new ideas that expanded their way of thinking and allowed their empire to expand with great power. From the structure of their government, education, and even industrialization this cultural exchange with the Greeks allowed the Romans to create a successful development of their Empire.