Re: Zerwick in Latin
Perry L. Stepp (plstepp@flash.net)
Sun, 20 Apr 1997 16:21:05 -0500
> The present ignorance of, and hostility to, Latin should not blind us to
> the fact that not too long ago, it was very much the language known by
all
> educated persons. To this day, one of the addresses at graduation
> eremonies at Harvard is in Latin. Here at Wellesley, every semester the
> students perform a play in classical Latin or in classical Greek, in
> alternation. (I was once roped into playing a part in Aristophanes
"Frogs,"
> as was Sir Hugh Lloyd-Jones, Regius Professor of Greek at Oxford.)
In the late 1920's, my grandmother delivered her high-school valedictory
address in Latin. This in a small town in southwest Missouri--a farming
community, no less--with a graduating class of around 50. And I complain
if I have to crack a dictionary!
PLStepp