# Does anyone learn Latin anymore?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-learn-latin-anymore/3537
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [September 18, 1999, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-learn-latin-anymore/3537 "1999-09-18T20:17:00Z")
**Posts on this page:** 14
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)
#### Post date: [September 23, 1999, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-learn-latin-anymore/3537/41 "1999-09-23T05:15:00Z")
No, the old “carborundum” gag isn’t Latin. Neither is:
_O sibile, si ergo,
Fortibus es in ero.
Nobile demis trux.
Sevatis enim? Cowsendux!_
* * *
John W. Kennedy
“Compact is becoming contract; man only earns and pays.”
– Charles Williams
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### Author:  [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)
#### Post date: [September 22, 1999, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-learn-latin-anymore/3537/42 "1999-09-22T18:47:00Z")
OldBroad wrote:
> [@](#):
>
> Denuone Latine loquebar? Me ineptum. Interdum modo elabitur.
> Was I speaking latin again? Silly me. Sometimes it just sort of slips out.
>
> Noli ludere alimento! memento Carthaginienses esurientes!
> Don’t play with your food. Remember the starving Carthaginians.
>
> Id in machinam schidarum scindendarum incedit.
> It fell into the shredder.
>
> Habesne “olyzam flictam?” Hae hae hae.
> Do you have “Flied Lice?” Ha ha ha
>
> Obesa cantavit.
> The fat lady has sung.
**All of these** quotes come from one of two books published by Henry Beard about a decade ago.
The books were called _Latin for All Occasions_ and _Latin for Even More Occasions_. I have both of these books at home, sitting next to my Latin dictionary and my copy of _Teach Yourself Latin_.
I just hate to see good works like these sentences go without citing their real author!
* * *
Visit the Internet Stellar Database at [www.stellar-database.com](http://www.stellar-database.com)
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### Author:  [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)
#### Post date: [September 22, 1999, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-learn-latin-anymore/3537/43 "1999-09-22T22:23:00Z")
I have mentioned in the MPSIMS forum that Bob Hope told the “Latin America” joke on Ronald Reagan, not Quayle, in 1983. I know–I still have an audio recording about that which I made off Hope’s Christmas special that year.
Being from Indiana myself, I also know that Quayle’s grandfather’s family owns the news media in central Indiana, which helped Danny Boy defeat the popular senator Birch Bayh in the 1980 U. S. Senatorial election in Indiana. ☹
* * *
“If you drive an automobile, please drive carefully–because I walk in my sleep.”–Victor Borge
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### Author:  [@jwg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jwg)
#### Post date: [September 23, 1999, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-learn-latin-anymore/3537/44 "1999-09-23T19:23:00Z")
Yes, they do. For the same reason people study Classical, Homeric, or Koine Greek.
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### Author:  [@Ennius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ennius)
#### Post date: [September 23, 1999, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-learn-latin-anymore/3537/45 "1999-09-23T19:51:00Z")
Boy, and I thought this was going to be a short, esoteric string of answers!
Oh well, just remember:
“Semper ubi sub ubi.” Hae hae hae, as Henry Beard would say.
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### Author:  [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)
#### Post date: [September 28, 1999, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-learn-latin-anymore/3537/46 "1999-09-28T19:52:00Z")
A TRS-80 game from about 1980 called “Galactic Revolution” used _Semper Ubi Sub Ubi_ as the motto for the DuBuque revolutionaries.
When I learned what the phrase actually meant, years later, it was a _big_ disapppointment. 🙂
* * *
Visit the Internet Stellar Database at [www.stellar-database.com](http://www.stellar-database.com)
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### Author:  [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2000, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-learn-latin-anymore/3537/47 "2000-09-17T21:11:59Z")
Stan Laurel was still alive–and lucid–when the organization “Sons of the Desert” was founded. John McCabe asked Stan what should be the mott; he suggested, “Why not let it be ‘Two Minds Without a Single Thought’?” This was duly translated into Latin and appears thus on the escutcheon of Sons of the Desert, thus:
DUAE RASAE TABULAE IN QUIBUS NIHIL SCRIPTUM EST
(I think the word for “two” should be in the subjective case singular, _Due._)
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### Author:  [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2000, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-learn-latin-anymore/3537/48 "2000-09-17T21:13:17Z")
Excuse me–_motto!_ ⭕o:o:o:o
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### Author:  [@waterj2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/waterj2)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2000, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-learn-latin-anymore/3537/49 "2000-09-17T21:29:19Z")
Well, at my high school, I had to take Latin from 7th through 11th grades. Of course, at a school called Boston Latin School, that’s to be expected. I graduated in 1996, and my diploma is written in Latin, which means I don’t know exactly what it says.
Anyways, I think that duae is correct, as it modifies tabulae rasae, which is plural. Also, that translates more or less to “two blank (writing) tablets on which nothing is written.”
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### Author:  [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2000, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-learn-latin-anymore/3537/50 "2000-09-17T21:38:50Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Anyways, I think that duae is correct, as it modifies tabulae rasae, which is plural. Also, that translates more or less to “two blank (writing) tablets on which nothing is written.”
Well, then, when would the “singular,” _due_, be used? Is it like _eins_ in German? 😕
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### Author:  [@waterj2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/waterj2)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2000, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-learn-latin-anymore/3537/51 "2000-09-17T21:47:40Z")
I have no idea under what circumstances one would use the singular form of “two”. It doesn’t seem particularly useful.
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### Author:  [@Gunslinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gunslinger)
#### Post date: [September 17, 2000, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-learn-latin-anymore/3537/52 "2000-09-17T22:32:15Z")
I took Latin for 2 years in high school (2 years of foreign language req’d, I took Latin 'cause you don’t have to speak it in class).
_Useful Latin phrase:_
Carpe cerevisi!
😃
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### Author:  [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2000, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-learn-latin-anymore/3537/53 "2000-09-18T01:20:24Z")
**Duae** is right. I do not believe there is a word _due_ in Latin. The numerals are generally indeclinable adjectives. Only _unus, duo,_ and _tres_ are declinable. There are not separate singular and plural forms except for _unus_, the plural of which can mean “only”. _Mille_ is an indeclinable adjective meaning “a thousand” but there is a separate, declinable, noun _milia_. The declension of _duo_ is
```auto
Nom.: duo, duae, duo
Gen.: duorum, duarum, duorum
Dat.: duobus, duabus, duobus
Acc.: duos, duas, duo
Abl.: duobus, duabus, duobus
```
As long as we’re on the subject, does anyone know of a Latin-language newspaper, magazine, or newsletter? I looked for one a few weeks ago and came up empty. I seem to recall that the National Junior Classical League used to put one out, but now I don’t see any mention of it on [their website](http://www.njcl.org/). Contrary to what others have said above, I can’t see much evidence that the Vatican is a hotbed of Latin speaking. They put out [_L’OSSERVATORE ROMANO_](http://www.vatican.va/news_services/or/home_eng.html) in many languages, but Latin is apparently not one of them. The closest thing I’ve come up with is a transcript of a news summary in Latin from [Radio Finland](http://www.yle.fi/fbc/latini/summary.html)
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### Author:  [@Maeglin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maeglin)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2000, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-learn-latin-anymore/3537/54 "2000-09-18T14:45:15Z")
I studied medieval history and classical literature in college, so I had healthy doses of Latin and Greek. My Latin is a lot better, though, as I endured the mandatory year-long survey class. 700 lines of a new text every week for a year.
I can’t think of any Latin language journals offhand, but I used to follow one or two. Inquire at alt.language.latin, soc.history.ancient, or alt.humanities.classics. I used to be really active on those boards, and I know there are many knowledgeable denizens there.
MR
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