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I'm sorry, I don't want to come across as harsh, but this is honestly ignorant as fuck.
I'm not gonna claim to know everything about the importance of studying dead languages, but I think I can safely say that it would probably be a really bad thing if we lost these languages to time if we didn't have people studying them.
We can lose hundreds if not THOUSANDS of years of story-telling history if these languages end up forgotten.
I can't put it into clear words right now because I'm busy or go int depth because I only have a common sense understanding, but I just wanted to address this. So if anybody on Tumblr who's more qualified to speak on this kind of matter wants to explain, then please take the floor for me.
- Many, many English words have Latin roots, so studying Latin can expand your English vocabulary to the point that you won't even need to check the dictionary meaning if you can recognize its Latin roots.
- Additionally, you can make up new words as needed by mashing together Dead Words.
- Lots of scientific jargon use Latin and Ancient Greek exactly because they're dead languages - the meaning of those words are set in stone. Studying those languages can help you understand and remember the extremely complex strings of words common in those topics.
- Latin is the Mother of Romance languages. Just studying Latin can make it easier to adapt to the grammar rules of the other Romance languages, or even help you Frankenstein out a meaning of a simple paragraph.
- All translation is a series of compromises. Even if Ye Olde Latin Text has been translated to English again and again and again, there WILL BE several points where the translator had to circumnavigate the translation to a phrase because the exact tone and concept is difficult to convey in English!!! (I am bilingual and this problem frustrates me to no end!!)
- And that's approaching this problem in good faith. We have a history of people outright lying about their translation credentials, deliberately translating a text "wrong" for their own benefit, or adding flourishes that drastically change the tone of the translation. Reviewing that 18th-century English translation of some 13th-century Latin book instead of just thoughtlessly reprinting it is vital to having a clear understanding of that book and placing it in its proper context.
- We have a LOT of untranslated archived material that have text written in dead languages, Latin included. Translating these provide us history.
And last but not the least:
Things do not have to be "useful" to have value.
also dead does not mean no longer in use, it means no longer CHANGING. No new words are being added to that dictionary. That’s all it means. Latin is only dead bc new words aren’t being added to its dictionary
to the people who hate on learning “dead” languages:
Nōn feminae? (translation: No bitches?)
I'm kind of glad to hear that everyone does this. Because it means it isn't colonizer bullshit, it's what everyone does. It's just people discovering new things. Everyone goes:
"Oh hey these people have their own style of [language A's word for thing. Say, what do you call it?"
"Oh it's [language B's word for thing]."
"Got it, it's [language B's word for thing] variety [language A's word for thing]"
added to which it is LITERALLY JUST LINGUISTIC SHORTHAND for
[item] the way [culture] makes it.
If you don’t want sliced bread, you want bread the way Eastern Indians make it you ask for Roti, not bread. Because Roti is bread THE WAY [EASTERN] INDIANS MAKE IT. Like fuck, it’s not that complicated a concept.
OF COURSE it’s not colonizer bullshit! It’s just linguistic shorthand!
[id: Tweet by iconawrites, which reads: "I love public libraries because they are built on the principle that books are so important and so necessary to human flourishing that access to them cannot depend on your income." end id.]
I was a grown ass adult before I realized the library was free. I went into the library and asked to join. When they gave me the form to fill out for a library card, I asked if they took credit cards and the librarian had to explain to me that the library was free. You did not pay to join it.
I cried.
ITS FREE?? YOU DONT EVEN HAVE TO PAY MONEY FOR THE CARD??? THATS AMAZING
I think some librsries might have you oay a small fee for the card but most dont.
Most don't charge for the card as long as it's your first one. There may be a $5 fee to replace it if you lose it.
Or not. Depends on the local library's funds. But their budget generally includes free cards for users.
Check nearby towns and cities too! There's a large city near me that charges a fee for non-residents, but since I work in the city I get to have a card with them for free!
Adding to this! Seattle Public Library is giving out free library cards to access their banned books collection for anyone in the United States between the ages of 13 and 26!
You can then access their digital collection via the phone app Libby and read banned books!
If you get a library card always see if there’s a digital collection too because you can rent audiobooks/ebooks and sometimes also tv shows and movies!
Senpai says you’re welcome
Reblogging again because I just realized that if I had this advice in high school I would’ve never made a tumblr account.
Also works for most of those news sites like WSJ or NYT that only let you read a little bit, or block adblockers. Also some disable the scroll bar but if you go to the right side of the console after hitting F12 and look for the CSS element “overflow” and change it from “hidden” to “visible” then you can continue scrolling for free. Might have to click around on different parts of the page to find it, but it should work.
There’s also a Firefox/Chrome extension called Behind The Overlay that does all that with one mouse click. Used it for years; what a time saver.
And if you encounter a true paywall, use Archive.Today to bypass it. Just paste the paywalled url into the blue “search archived snapshots” box near the bottom:


i think it’s important to spread awareness of flawed scientific practices. date your lineage findings, people! this is how mistakes are made
René Descartes never said “I think therefore I am.” Having been educated in Latin and English pronouns, his actual statement was, “She cogito on my ergo until I sum.”
Wizards! Stop scrolling!! This is your reminder to:
- Feed your homunculus
- Recast your wards
- Drain all your old potions into the sewer system
- Send that cursed demon tooth to the Wizard Council, their problem now
- Never blink, not even once, blinking is failure










