Why Latin Says So Much, In So Little Space...

You know I'll bet I am not the only person who's wondered about this all my life.

People sometimes wonder why Latin seems to say so much, in so few words. But actually there is a logical explanation for that. Latin has no a, an or the. And they rarely use prepositions or pronouns. Their words, though, just tend to be longer than English words. And they pronounce every vowel, you know.

Also Latin speakers rarely ever used the verb to be. If two nouns were next to each other, the meaning was understood by most literate speakers of Latin. A teacher I had at U of M in 1988 brought up an interesting point. When African Americans don't use the verb to be, it's considered nonstandard.

 

I always loved this inscription on the bottom of a can of dog food. The funny part is that after several years, no one ever bothered to translate it.


Canem tuum carnibus carnibus ne occidas. Faciamus vobis