• spauldo@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    5
    ·
    1 year ago

    If English had been a dead language for fifteen hundred years and was only used by people who talk about things only a tiny subset of the population understands?

    Yeah, it would seem pretty mystical.

    • MudMan@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      1 year ago

      But that’s my point, it hasn’t been, and it wasn’t.

      Again, Latin was mandatory in my high school for a year, optional for two more. In the 1990s. It’s still optional, I believe. My parents went to church in Latin as kids.

      So no, it doesn’t sound mystical outside the anglosphere, it sounds like crusy old priests, lawyers and boring lessons. Today.

      • spauldo@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        You are very much in the minority as someone who has studied Latin. Very few non-Catholic high schools even offer it, much less make it mandatory.

        And sure, Catholic mass was held in Latin back in the day. Personally, I suspect that’s a reason it’s associated with rituals and magic. What is a priest doing, if not invoking mystical powers beyond the understanding of man? What language would someone use to invoke the powers of Satan?

        Outside the anglosphere, I have no idea.