Botetourt High School - Post Yearbook (Gloucester, VA)

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The DUAL word “facio,” meaning “to make” or “to do.” The different forms of this one word combined with prepositions and other words give us hundreds of English words whose meaning is readily shown by their derivation. Some very common derivatives of “facio” are man¬ ufacture, factor, factory, beneficent, malefactor, satisfaction, efficient, etc. By having a knowledge of Latin one knows the meanings of these words without having to consult a dictionary. A knowledge of Latin is a help in the spelling of many English words. It would not be possible for anyone with a fair knowledge of Latin to go amiss in either the spelling or the meaning of “emi¬ grant” or “immigrant.” It is a great help in spelling such words as culpable separate, and calendar. Latin is valuable in vocational study. It satisfies the needs of a commercial education more than any other foreign language. Sten¬ ographers, salesmen, business men, doctors, all need Latin. Such men need a vocabulary at their command. Vocabulary holds the key to success for men in the fierce competition of the commercial world today. Latin furnishes pre-vocationa l training for every profession or occupation in which technical terms are used or knowledge of good Eng.ish is necessary. Latin is a live factor in Mental Insurance. A youth should be trained to observe accurately, record correctly, compare, group, and infer justly and express cogently the results of his mental operation. Latin will give this training. It develops carefully the reasoning and thinking powers of a person’s mind. Latin is exceedingly helpful in cultivating a language, sense, equally useful in learning any second foreign language. It is very valuable in the study of Spanish and French, for they have been called the “daughters of Latin.” We should study Latin for its cultural values. Latin literature opens up a great world of knowledge which offers unequalled oppor¬ tunities for culture. In all the world’s history there is no more wonderful or interesting people than the Romans. For centuries they practically ruled the world and their influence among the great nations even today is impossible to estimate. It is in the Latin literature that the life of this people is revealed to us. To know what our world is today we must know what it was in former times. This is the value to us of the Romans and their language and their literature. Just as the English language has absorbed a large part of the Latin language, so has English liter¬ ature of the last four centuries borrowed freely from the Latin literature. Mathew Arnold has said that in education it is above all things necessary that a man acquaint himself with the best that has been thought in the world; and we know that much of the best that has been thought in the world is to be found in Roman and Greek literature. 30

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The DUAL WHY STUDY LATIN? Miss Geraldine Rowe Latin has long been spoken of as a dead language. While it is true that Latin as it was spoken by the Romans and by the learned people of the Middle Ages is not heard today, so it is equally true that the English of Alfred the Great and of Chaucer does not live in the speech of the twentieth century. However, Latin is not a dead language. It still lives today in slightly changed forms. These changes are due to the influence of time, location, the character of the native stock upon which it was grafted and various other circum¬ stances. The Latin language and literature are living roots out of which our own language and literature grow. The old and the new are inseparable; each is a part of the other. As the centuries have gone by, Latin has gradually changed and become diversified into the dialects known as the Romance Lan¬ guages, namely, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and Roumanian. In its various modern forms, Latin is used as the official language by nearly two hundred millions of people. A practical subject increases the mental and intellectual efficiency of boys and girls, regardless of their occupation in life. Latin is a practical language because through English we use it every day. The study of Latin is a help to the understanding of English grammar. The importance of the correct use of one’s native tongue should not be underestimated. It is the mark which distinguishes culture from lack of it. Latin compels one to study English. By working out carefully the structure of a Latin sentence, one gains better knowledge of the structure of an English sentence. Latin has increased immensely the English vocabulary. Out of a hundred thousand words in English, sixty thousand are said to be of Latin origin. H ow did the English language get these Latin words? In 1500, the beginning of the modern English period, throughout most of the countries of Europe had swept what is known as the “revival of learning” and scholars had with great enthusiasm taken up the study of ancient languages, especially Latin. England shared in the revival and great activity in writing began. The writers soon found the resources of English too meager for their needs and with the rich mine of Latin so conveniently at hand, they began to borrow words to help out. The result is that our language today is largely Latin. Even the French words in our language are derived from Latin. Latin is the source of many scientific terms and many modern inven¬ tions have names coined from Latin and Greek. Latin helps one to acquire and remember the meanings of a very large number of English words. From one Latin word there is a great number of derivatives. Take as an example the Latin 29

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Botetourt High School