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Latin Urbs Mille Artificiorum

Not done Latin for over 55 years, so not certain now about the tenses (word endings), but that is about correct
 
artificiorum relates to crafts or arts and I guess 'trade' falls well within those parameters. It will be interesting to see the other inscriptions when they are done.
 
Stupid question alert! Why write it in Latin when a significant part of the population has never studied Latin? Or am I missing something? Viv.
 
Probably because most of the present government went to public school, almost the last refuge of the language . They would consider it impressive and a thing of beauty, in the same way as a young modern teenager might consider an peculiar piercing as desirable and attractive, whatever anyone else might think.
 
Yes Mike. Even in the 1960s only a quarter of schools had it on the curriculum. And I'll bet most of those were independent schools, with some grammar schools thrown in. Well the inscriptions will give people something to Google. Let's hope they get the message. Viv.
 
I did a year of Latin at Moseley Grammar School in 1947, but then dropped it in favour of other subjects. At that time it was essential if you were planning a career in pharmacology or medicine, and certainly for something like archaeology. But it was a tradition to put inscriptions on many buildings in Latin - do we have to discontinue every tradition in favour of political correctness?

Maurice
 
Maurice
I don't think it was just political correctness that caused the decay of the use of Latin, but the necessities of modern life. Latin and Greek were taught because of a misconceived thought that the study of it "improved the mind". Up till around the 1960s it was a prerequisite for entrance to Oxford and Cambridge Universities, which was ridiculous, and a remnant of when university education was only for the church and those who would never have to do anything useful with their lives. Unfortunately it has now been replaced as an "essential" totem in modern life by the MBA, which emphasises personal gain, lack of care of the community and an absence of morals.
 
Having said that, Mike, a knowledge of Latin was a useful adjunct to the learning many modern languages. It is amazing how many English words have their roots in either Greek or Latin and I find that I can roughly translate many Greek passages into a roughly comprehendable English just by knowing some of these roots. When we used to board foreign students on English language courses, we were forbidden from boarding more than one of the same nationality at any one time. They omitted to mention that most Spanish and Italian students could understand each other just by the use of similar roots.

Maurice
 
I would not argue with that , but would not consider it a good reason to teach it over other more useful subjects, which often seem to miss out in the curriculum
 
Personally I consider Latin a 'dead' language, no doubt many will disagree with me, I decided French seemed to be a widely spoken language and therefore far more useful to learn and have made numerous visits to France on painting holidays and its nice to be able to converse (with a struggle) with the locals. Cannot conceive what I could gain by knowing Latin . Eric
 
It is a long, long time since I had Latin lessons foisted upon me, in common with thousands of my generation in grammar schools throughout the country. I didn't know then the official reasons for Latin to be included in the curriculum and equally I don't know now what current proponents of the study of this language would say. But I did develop my own opinions, which are these.

The general effect of learning Latin was that it helped to train the mind. There were rules to be learned and applied, structures and ideas to be absorbed, facts to be understood and remembered. There was an intellectual discipline about the whole thing. Perhaps in this it was a bit like maths. I didn't enjoy it much - it was difficult and hard work, but then perhaps that was the point.

And in learning all this, a glimmer of understanding started to develop as to how European languages, not least our own, work. The structure of sentences and the function of individual words within them; much as we have within today's English but now largely hidden and barely understood (e.g. the difference between the "me" in "he gave me a book" and "he hit me with it"; or why "he likes you and me" is correct and "he likes you and I" isn't). This can all be drummed into children in English lessons but it's so much more obvious if you have a bit of Latin (or German).

As has been mentioned, English is littered with words which have evolved from Latin. A few of the borrowings are direct but the vast majority come via Norman French, the language of the educated elite after 1066. Every single word in this Latin inscription has links to modern English:
Urbs - town - urban, urbane, suburb
Mille - one thousand - millimetre, millennium and dozens of others
Artificiorum - created objects - article, artifice, artificial, artefact

Sufficient almost to work out its meaning even if you know nothing of Latin.

I won't comment on the thinking behind the use of a dead language in the middle of a city few of whose population have ever been taught it (but I should be interested to know). It might seem a bit daft. But I suppose you could argue that the words are deliberately less than immediately accessible; and therefore require a bit of effort from enquiring minds to find out what it is all about. Should suit all of us - who surely wouldn't be here in this Forum if we didn't have brains which work in that sort of way!

Chris
 
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I took Latin for a few years in grammar school. The translation is close enough to the spirit of the phrase to work. Even in English "trades" implies business rather than manufacturing nowadays. Artficiorum refers to the craft rather than the object.
The good thing about learning latin is that it's a mechanical language so some of the time is spent in analysing case and person and that sort of thing. Since the texts for translation were generally poetry you also got a lot on rhyme schemes and how to analyse them. None of these were really covered in English.
 
cookie273uk said:
Personally I consider Latin a 'dead' language, no doubt many will disagree with me, I decided French seemed to be a widely spoken language and therefore far more useful to learn and have made numerous visits to France on painting holidays and its nice to be able to converse (with a struggle) with the locals. Cannot conceive what I could gain by knowing Latin . Eric
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You can use it to impress Gina Lollobrigida on a date, Cookie. I gather she was once a renowned classical sculptor. You can be looking deep into her fuller figure and mistakenly say "I love your beautiful ruins here in Rome".
 
I did Latin at Erdington Grammar, I love Latin phrases, they look much grander than the same phrase in English and as Chris says make us use our brains a bit more

Articiorum- the plural of Artificium
Artificium - a trade or profession.
 
I only did Latin for a year - then dropped it for other subjects. However, knowledge of Latin words certainly helped my knowledge of English and also enables me to recognise meanings of words in other languages. That includes the quote in the last post!
 
It does, Janice, and Latin words are found in a good many English derivatives. It is the basis of all Romance languages.
Latin is only dead to those who do not use it. The official language of the Roman Church is still Latin and many services are still in Latin, particularly in monastic (conventual) places. The medical profession has many Latin names and is based on Classical rather than the Vulgar version. A good example is Caesar. Often pronounced as Kaysar in classical and chaysar in the vulgar form.
 
I did Latin at school - even passed 'O' level. However I've yet to find anyone who speaks it fluently - even the Gladiators outside the Colosseum can't!
 
Radiorails said:
It does, Janice, and Latin words are found in a good many English The official language of the Roman Church is still Latin form.
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A basic knowledge garnered at grammar school (Only studied for a year) has helped me in my Family History research especially as many church documents such as baptismal, marriage and interment notices are written in Latin or the names on these documents are latinised e.g. Jacobus for James.
 
I could have added that when I researched some family history at St Chad's the records were in Latin. So I found Bernardus who was filiam of Carolus amongst other entries.
 
I only had a mainly technical education so had to use Google translate ... it gave me a hint of what it meant ...:rolleyes:
Quite interesting to hear Google speak latin when the loudspeaker button is clicked.
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GT struggled translating the latin in #17 ... is it correct ?
 
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oldMohawk said:
I only had a mainly technical education so had to use Google translate ... it gave me a hint of what it meant ...:rolleyes:
Quite interesting to hear Google speak latin when the loudspeaker button is clicked.
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GT struggled translating the latin in #17 ... is it correct ?
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I think the phrase in #17 is what they call dog Latin ?? It would annoy the purists.
 
As a press ganged RC altar boy I knew the whole mass in latin (parrot fashion) no wonder I rebelled against religion at an early age, mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.
 
Vivienne14 said:
Stupid question alert! Why write it in Latin when a significant part of the population has never studied Latin? Or am I missing something? Viv.
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Viv I can't comment on nowadays , but because Rome conquered nearly all the globe it became a global language henceforth that is why the catholic church always celebrated mass in Latin. It was the international language way back then so everybody understood the mass , when I used to be an altar boy late 50's I had to respond to the priest in Latin
 
Going to Bishop Veseys at the time when the Head was a classicist, Latin and Greek were high on the curriculum and a lot of the Latin tutorial books we read, were written by the Head, in addition to the standard text books, there were also stories of strange prehistoric going one in the area of Oxford where had been born and retired to. I love words and know how much we owe to all those languages brought from the Continent including latin How many parts was Gaul divided into, was it not tres.
Bob
 
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