LOL! I don't think they'd have buried someone and built a cairn on the edge of a railway bed crossing Lake Champlain. Anyway, if they had, Irene would have tumbled it all down.
I occurred to me to wonder about the etymology of "dean".... It seems it comes from Latin decanus, a leader of ten (soldiers or monks). So a centurion would have ten decani reporting to him...
Good grief! I took Latin in high school (they only offered a dead language for your "foreign language" course), and it still never dawned on me that "centurion" might have a literal meaning! I am also a fan of run-on sentences.
Ah, Susan, lol! I didn't take it till college. They promised me it would help my English vocabulary. Too late. It seldom did. My English vocabulary did, however, often help me find the meaning in Latin, grin.
In addition to my two years of high school Latin I had two years of college German, four quarters of college Russian, and probably the equivalent of a semester of Korean as extension courses while I was stationed there. I found the Latin particularly valuable because it came first. That's where I learned not to expect other language structures to mimic English. Made the other languages much easier. And Korean was interesting because it is written in an alphabet totally unrelated to those that originated in the Mediterranean.
Yes, very good about Larry'ss recognition, listener.
I took four years of Spanish in high school; the most inspiring teacher was in second year, in which I earned a "D." A few years ago I had the opportunity to thank her. Spanish nearly ruined me for the year of German I took to fulfill the language requirement for my college major (Chemistry). I felt a lack of education for never having studied Latin, so when Naomi wanted to study it in middle school, I studied along with her. Latin might be the more difficult of the three for a native English speaker, but it is close enough to the Indoeuropean root language that I think no related language is likely to hold any terrors for one who has a passing knowledge of it. The things that had disappeared from German and were preserved in Spanish were there; likewise the things that had disappeared from Spanish and been preserved in German. It's actually a very regular and consistent language.
Doubtless a cairn left by Viking explorers on their way to Minnesota! But Howard Dean remains our dean nowabouts. [grin]
ReplyDelete--Alan
LOL! I don't think they'd have buried someone and built a cairn on the edge of a railway bed crossing Lake Champlain. Anyway, if they had, Irene would have tumbled it all down.
DeleteI occurred to me to wonder about the etymology of "dean".... It seems it comes from Latin decanus, a leader of ten (soldiers or monks). So a centurion would have ten decani reporting to him...
ReplyDelete--Alan
Good grief! I took Latin in high school (they only offered a dead language for your "foreign language" course), and it still never dawned on me that "centurion" might have a literal meaning! I am also a fan of run-on sentences.
DeleteAh, Susan, lol! I didn't take it till college. They promised me it would help my English vocabulary. Too late. It seldom did. My English vocabulary did, however, often help me find the meaning in Latin, grin.
DeleteI took Latin in high school. The alternative was Spanish. Or if you wanted/needed four years of foreign language you could take two years of each.
DeleteI figured it would help with my scientific vocabulary. And to some extent it did.
I took two years of German, a half semester of French, and taught myself some Koine Greek.
DeleteI think I've appreciated the German most. At least I can recognize all the letters and it sounds just the way you'd expect it to. Ha!
Sooo, sitting down? We heard today that there will be an informal Celebration of Life for Larry (my brother- in- law) on December 20th.
DeleteIn addition to my two years of high school Latin I had two years of college German, four quarters of college Russian, and probably the equivalent of a semester of Korean as extension courses while I was stationed there. I found the Latin particularly valuable because it came first. That's where I learned not to expect other language structures to mimic English. Made the other languages much easier. And Korean was interesting because it is written in an alphabet totally unrelated to those that originated in the Mediterranean.
Deletelistener ~~ glad to hear you will get to celebrate Larry's life after all.
DeleteYes, very good about Larry'ss recognition, listener.
ReplyDeleteI took four years of Spanish in high school; the most inspiring teacher was in second year, in which I earned a "D." A few years ago I had the opportunity to thank her. Spanish nearly ruined me for the year of German I took to fulfill the language requirement for my college major (Chemistry). I felt a lack of education for never having studied Latin, so when Naomi wanted to study it in middle school, I studied along with her. Latin might be the more difficult of the three for a native English speaker, but it is close enough to the Indoeuropean root language that I think no related language is likely to hold any terrors for one who has a passing knowledge of it. The things that had disappeared from German and were preserved in Spanish were there; likewise the things that had disappeared from Spanish and been preserved in German. It's actually a very regular and consistent language.
--Alan