Salvete Omnes!
Today, I’d like to draw attention to this blog’s title.
~Non Fui. Fui. Etiam Sum!~
It is based of epitaphs found on tombstones in Rome. However, they read, “Non Fui, Fui. Non Sum, Non Curo.” This translates as, “I was not, I was. I am not, I care not.” The words refer to the beliefs of life and death and the apathetic view to the world beyond. This is a very aetheist view of the world that by no means was shared by all of the Roman people.
This blog’s title is a play on that epitaph and translates as, “I was not, I was, (and) I (Latin) still am!”
Rather unfortunately, the Latin Language has been labeled as dead and buried…
*Now, I should clarify. Technically speaking, a dead language is one that no longer has native speakers. However, this is problematic because there are such things as extinct languages. Extinct languages have no speakers at all. Now, these two adjectives work when refering living organisms such as humans. A single Human can be dead, however it cannot not be extinct. Now, if all Humans died out then yes, Humanity would be extinct, but this is a rather depressing thought. However, when a language dies, all of it dies, not just a part of it. Therefore, if we must insist upon personifying languages, then rather let us define them in terms of employment, unemployment, and death. A language such as Latin then because it is still so widely used, but is not an official language and not used in the traditional manner of a language, should be considered unemployed. It is still active, just not as much as it could. And then languages such as English and German and so forth are employed, and others like coptic, dead.*
…However, it is still very much alive and widely used. So, I say for latin, “Hear the bell, and ‘Cura‘ (care!)!
