Latin Speakers

[Tobias]

G'day everyone

 

A question struck me today when i was reading various topics on the site; roughly how many people in today's world can speak or write in latin fluently? I mean, the language has kind of died out - it's been relegated to higher education. But do any peoples still speak it natively or are taught it from birth? Or is just restricted to those of higher education? I'd appreciate some opinions on the subject

[Theodosius]

Hello Tobias,

 

I know for a fact that many Theological institutions teach it (unfortunately, my one did not at the time I was there).

 

A co-student of mine was taught Latin in the Ecclesiastical School of "Athoniada" (Αθωνιάδα), which is a high school, consisting of both a gymnaseum and lyceum.

[Andrew Dalby]

G'day everyone

 

A question struck me today when i was reading various topics on the site; roughly how many people in today's world can speak or write in latin fluently? I mean, the language has kind of died out - it's been relegated to higher education. But do any peoples still speak it natively or are taught it from birth? Or is just restricted to those of higher education? I'd appreciate some opinions on the subject

 

You'll kick yourself (or me) when you consider my answer. Languages are always changing, and so was/is Latin. All the people who learn Portuguese, Spanish, Catalan, French, Italian, Romanian (etc.) at their mothers'/carers' knees, are native speakers of Latin in its current modern dialects. It just happens that we still call modern Greek Greek; it just happens that we don't call any of the modern Latin dialects Latin.