[MR] Vatican Offers Volumes of Help to Latin Lovers

[Jeanne Papanastasiou]

http://news.excite.com/odd/article/id/326113|oddlyenough|05-15-2003::10:06|r
euters.html

May 15, 9:49 am ET

By Philip Pullella
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Vatican's Latin lovers -- that is, those who
love the language -- are issuing a new dictionary on how to say contemporary
words like doping, FBI and videophone the way Julius Caesar might have.

It may never become a "liber maxime divenditus" -- a best seller -- if only
for the steep cost of 100 euros ($116).

But the release of the book this week is one of those esoteric, niche events
that has put talk in literary circles into overdrive. Or as the language of
ancient Rome would put it, "instrumentum velocitati multiplicandae."

The Italian-Latin dictionary, called "Lexicon Recentis Latinitas" was put
together to join two earlier volumes, A-L and M-Z, which had been released
in past years but sold out.

It offers students of Latin, still the Catholic Church's official language,
a way of speaking or writing about things that did not exist when ancient
Rome ruled the world.

So, FBI is "officium foederatum vestigatorium" and Interpol is "publicae
securitatis custos internationalis."

Television correspondents embedded with U.S. military in Iraq might be
amused to know that they had filed stories via a "telephonium albo
televisifico coniunctum," or videotelephone.

Sports fans can learn how to say doping in Latin, "usus agonisticus
medicamenti stupecfactivi," and commuters are advised that "tempus maximae
frequentiae" means rush hour.

Father Reginald Foster, who translates Pope John Paul's documents from Latin
to English, says such dictionaries may be fun and useful but much more is
needed to revive the language.

"What we really need is more training in Latin," Foster, a leading Latin
professor, told Reuters by phone on Wednesday.

"But maybe these things will help increase interest in the language because
there are a million things that did not exist then, especially the political
jargon," he said.

Foster offers the Latin version of a phrase that came into the news after
the dictionary was printed: President Bush's "road map" for Middle East
peace.

He would write it as "tabella viarum ad pacem" or "tablet of the road for
peace." That road will likely be a long one. Even a "puer explorator" -- boy
scout -- knows that.

Soffya Appollonia Tudja
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