Re: Latin in the future?

Peter Knutsen <peter@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

What I'm thinking about with Latin is to posit that if one has
insufficiently advanced technology, it is possible to make a
semi-sentient computer that can understand and speak Latin, but not
English. In that way, Latin becomes a useful second language or trade
language for many computer technicians (and also a convenient away of
intimidating most people away from getting seriously into computers,
beyond basic non-Latin-requiring usage).

On a scale from 0 to 10, how preposterous is it to say that Latin is a
simpler and more accurate language than English?

10, sorry.

I'd think that a computer language would be a much more useful trade
language for computer technicians: humans do much better at
understanding computerese than computers do at understanding humanese.

(Anglish being almost
completely similar to present day English, due to cultural inertia
caused by lots of recorded media surviving the interregnums[1].)

Er, that's a 10 too. Possibly 11, given that you've admitted with its
very name that Sound Change Happens. Fortunately, as long as you never
draw attention to the fact I won't notice, since I'll assume that you're
translating everything into present-day English.

(People don't change their language use because they've forgotten how to
speak the old way; they change it because the new way is /cooler/. If
you want Anglish to be pretty much English, then you need to somehow
convince unbroken centuries of children and teenagers that the 21st
century is the coolest thing ever.

Unless Anglish is only a second language, taught in schools as a lingua
franca or scholarly language. I could believe that.)

[1] Which reminds me, what's the correct plural of interregnum. (In
Latin if it matters.)

interregna, I expect.

Zeborah
("b'llum, b'llum, b'llum, b'lli, b'lli, b'llo" -- yes, I know it's not
pronounced that way, but then one gets "b'lah, b'lah, b'lah"...)
--
Gravity is no joke.
http://www.geocities.com/zeborahnz/
rasfc FAQ: http://www.lshelby.com/rasfcFAQ.html
.

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