LEND ME YOUR EAR: LATIN ENRICHES ENGLISH LANGUAGE

At a dinner meeting some years ago, a gentleman relayed a note to me suggesting a column on the proper use of "alumni." I had heard the error. The guest speaker had called a recipient of an award "an alumni."

My response was titled "If you're an alumni, you're plural." Dated July 12, 1984, a faded copy turned up recently when I dropped a pencil into the heating valve of my alleged workroom. The discovery reminded me that I had planned, but never followed through with, a column on the many Latin expressions that permeate our language. The belated follow-up is at last at hand.

The English language is classified as Germanic, yet Latin has frequented the original from the very beginning. But because Latin had not been in common usage for many years, efforts to eliminate it from our schools succeeded in part. Knowledgeable educators, however, have seen the error of their ways, and a number of our public schools are restoring it to their curricula today.

Classes in advanced Latin were so small when I was in high school, third-year Cicero and fourth-year Virgil had to be alternated year by year. Our class studied Latin poetry before difficult prose. Even so, Cape Central High's only Latin teacher saw that we memorized the motto of the state of Missouri in first-year Latin: "Salus populi suprema lex esto" -- "The safety of the people shall be the supreme law." These days, too many of our young people are having to learn the meaning in juvenile court.

As observing citizens know, the motto of the United States of America, E PLURIBUS UNUM, is engraved in Latin on every coin. Translated literally, it means "One out of many," but denotes a single nation made up of many states. On the other side of every coin, IN GOD WE TRUST appears in English caps. To our knowledge, no attempts have been made to remove it. This may be because people in general understand money is to be spent, not questioned.

Perhaps few readers or writers think about how much Latin they use regularly. Abbreviations abound. For example, "i.e.," meaning "that is," is short for "id est." The printed page gives us "etc." for "et cetera," which too many speakers pronounce "EK cetera." We find "vs." or simply "v" for "versus"; "e.g." for "exempli gratia," meaning "for instance"; and "et al" for "et alii, et aliae, et alia," meaning "and the others" whether masculine, feminine or neuter, and the list goes on and on.

Among the unabbreviated, some of the most commonly known and used are "in re" or simply "re," "sic," "ergo," "via," "vita," "verbatim," "ad infinitum," "ad nauseam," "per se," "per annum," and readers can supply "per" ad infinitum along with movements "pro" and "anti," forever prevalent among rabble rousers and marchers.

In Britain, youngsters were once brought up on "Viva Rex" and "Viva Regina" -- "Long live the king," and "Long live the queen" -- though this ancient custom may be unraveling today for reasons we need not dwell on. In the United States, "Four more years!" may be too long in any language, but our Pledge of Allegiance is sufficient unto the day.

In a book we Latinists treasure, AMO, AMAS, AMAT AND MORE, by Eugene Ehrlich and William S. Buckley Jr., the authors adjure political leaders to take heed to "vox populi vox Dei" -- "the voice of the people is the voice of God" ... "because the wishes of the people are irresistible."

Most institutions of higher learning graduate top-ranking students "With Praise" in Latin: Cum Laude, Magna Cum Laude, and Summa Cum Laude. Southeast Missouri State University was State Teachers College in my day, and dished out no praise. Was this because teaching was considered slave labor and paid accordingly?

Gentle readers, take heart. Teachers are paid better these days, and perhaps some day every graduate of every college and university in this great land of ours will be proud to call himself "an alumnus."

~Aileen Lorberg is a language columnist for the Southeast Missourian.