From: Anne Lambert
Message: 12693
Date: 2002-03-15
>From: "altamix" <altamix@...>_________________________________________________________________
>Reply-To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com
>To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
>Subject: [tied] countries, languages , XX! centuries
>Date: Wed, 13 Mar 2002 14:40:07 +0100
>
>Yesterday i visited my Father in law. He is a normaly peasant in north of
>Germany.
>We have spooked about this and this and during our speach, i changed the
>programm on CNN to hear some news.
>He begun to laugh and he asked me if i understand something from this "
>komische englische Sprache" -meaning funny english language..
>That made me to think about.
>And hard
>We life in 21 century. And the possiblities to learn a language are more
>diverses as in the time of roman empire.
>We have schools, internet,teachers, a very daily conntact with the
>langauge, and the communities we live in, they use as usually this
>language.
>This was not the same in 100 CE.
>Definitely not.
>Today, are millions people who speak english,but are too millions of people
>who dont do it.
>Like my daddy.
>That make me to think that is very hard to learn a language as "population"
>from an ocupation force.
>How you will like to learn latin the peasants who are living in the plains
>and making agriculture?
>Do you will have a roman legionar to be daily with him to learn it?
>Do you ever heard about schools made by romans to learn the conquered
>population the latin language?
>I did not heard about.
>And i can hardly imagine a legionar teaching latin a peasant somewhere. Not
>because he doesnt want it. But in the most of the cases, even the legionars
>werent not able
>to speak latin more as some sentences.Because few of them were from latium.
>We just need to take alook at the ethnic appartenence of the soldiers. Do
>not forget that the cohortes used their own language and their own weapons
>. Just the centurions and the officers from these cohortes have had to know
>latin..
>Please, dont missunderstand me. I have nothing against latin language.
>But even this one is died. Today is spooken just in Vatican.
>What we learn about?
>A langauge dies when the folk which spoked it dies.
>The latins were few. Very few. Even in 1000 years they have had not the
>posibility D e m o g r a p h i c a ly to impune themselfs somewhere.
>Italian as word , they have been there in the same time as latium. And they
>were known in the Roman Empire as "italians" Evene the Legion XIX Italica
>is known to be.
>So, it is really hard to accept this latinisation, phenomen which even in
>Italia did not to constrange the people to use the same language unitary.
>They use even today many dialects and someone from Napoli could hard
>understand someone from Milano if they do not use the Hochitalian -literary
>or classic italian.
>
>Sure, the folks got a lot of words from latin language.. Every folk. Even
>until today. But from this point to completly adopt a foreign langauge,
>forgetting your own language is a big way. I hardly can imagine a
>indigenous woman from the teritorry occupied from romans that she is
>singing to her child " pater nostrum" with a hand making food and with
>another hand learning from an abacus latin language.. the more you think
>about, the more hilar become the idea....Or is there someone who tell to
>his lover " I love you" in english instead of his own language? ( both
>belonging to the same folk).Maybe once in year.Maybe in joke. Maybe as
>funny. But i do not use to tell to my wife
>"I love you. " I just say "Ich liebe dich." It has an another deepness. It
>has soemthing which make me to feel what i say and her to fell, not to hear
>, what i say.
>
>
>I did specialy this "human aspect" to his points because as scientists, we
>in very much cases forget it and we are not searching for molecules in an
>element, we are searching about relationships in languages, implicitely
>relationships among peoples.
>Best regards
>
>A. Moeller