“Latin allows we lawyers, judges etc. to keep you in a constant state of confusion until the cell door slams shut behind you!”. (. a lawyer told me that.)

Absolutely YES. I went on to do other languages and the foundation of grammar and syntax was invaluable, even with non Latin based languages such as German, To this day, I often fall back on Latin when reading a menu in a European language I do not speak.

I also reckon there were transferrable skills when I started to program as again there is a grammar and a syntax,

Hard to say, it has been spoken continuously since Roman times but whether one of Jule's finest would recognise it, who can say? Then again, we know that the pronunciation and structure of English has changed over the centuries - ever heard Shakespeare as he would have heard it?

Ninthace - was it not ‘Gallia omnia divisia est in partes tres’ - much more difficult to translate grammatically under my very demanding Latin master [who was ex-RAF, “five horrid years” in India in WW II - we became great friends when he retired] - but of course Caesar did not have the benefit of Kennedy’s wisdom back then ... and I agree as to the later benefits of the tortures we endured at school, I still reach for my precious Gepp and Haig Latin dictionary now and then when I want to fix a meaning exactly.

Beags - thanks for your mention of ‘causas’ .. the proud motto of Sheffield University is “Rerum cognoscere causas” ... which is of course open to the most widespead abuse ... but my favorite translation remains as “to go and see her old man”.

Reverend mods, top marks for preserving these wildly offtopic remarks here - I had no idea how erudite was the community of my former fellow aviators - they are fun, and a bit of fun is most welcome now - thank you.

[but please please let us not get on to Chaucher! ]

[Oh, and hat-tip to albatross also for that very astute comment today]

Yes. Some people do. You can see this in the movie "The Passion of the Christ" which was done in the original languages with sub titles. (Mostly Aramaic and Latin, but I think some Hebrew was also spoken).
To be honest, the Latin sounded a lot like Italian to me.
Allegedly, among the Romance languages, Romanian is the closest to Latin of any of them, but how far it drifted I can't say.

Bloody hell ... it was still new then!

I don't speak Italian, but my degree is in classics. So when I go there I speak Latin with a world-war-two-film Italian accent. They love it. Use ut and the subjunctive and they swoon.

No, not in my version but if you don’t believe me
Caesar’s Gallic Wars

In my Defence, I was only 14 when I did my O-levels and mum had just had a fling with a centurion from the IXth Legion. Well he said it was the IXth. She said he was a proper gent, always took his caligae off in bed.

Depending on their status or status!

My Father & step Mother had Italian friends who would drive to London every summer in their ancient Beetle. My stepmother spoke fluent Italian and the women would chatter away merrily but my Father and the husband would converse in Latin.

Maybe go to Latin America?

Divisia?

Not in my #36
Non possum esse reus aliorum errorum

or words to that effect :ok:

Oh Lord - 'ut and the subjunctive'! One of the real horrors of Latin. Along with gerunds and gerundives, ablative absolutes, 'A, ab, absque, coram, de palam, cum, and ex or e...' and other grammatical tortures inflicted on me at prep school whilst I was covertly reading 'The Airfix Magazine'....

Bit of a swot then, most of us were making marble runs in our desks!

When I was introduced to Latin, mensa (table) was used to teach the endings for nouns of the first declension, which I remember to this day!

I found the vocative case mysterious. How often did Romans want to talk to a table?

Sometimes, when I have been teaching, it has felt like I was talking to a room full of tables.

At this point it would be respectful to remember the fate of the young lady who married a Latin scholar. When she asked him to Conjugate, he Declined.

How did she construe that?

What does an occasional table do when it is not being a table? Sorry for drift squared!

Mog