By Rabita Aziz (January 18, 2004)

Carpe Diem. This two-word phrase is one of the most well known in the world, and yet is a part of a famous language that is spoken only in thousands of classrooms throughout the world as a foreign language. 

The classical language of Latin is the source for many widely spoken languages in the world, and has influenced many others. English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian, are only some of the languages influenced by Latin. Although now it is not spoken in any country as a national language, it still has great influence on the languages of the world.
 

Ask any Latin student how learning a "dead" language can possibly help them in modern life, and they’ll tell you that it has helped plenty. They will tell you that the SAT Verbal was much easier for them than for other students because of Latin. A great many of the words we use today come from Latin roots. There are hundreds of different Latin roots, which are put together to create words. For example, the root gen- means people. The Spanish word for people is gente. Another example: the Latin root cide- means killing. The root sui- means self. Put those two together, and get suicide, or self killing. Put the root gen- in front of cide- and get genocide, or the killing of people. Don’t worry, all Latin words are not as morbid as these. A less morbid example is the root fem- meaning woman. We get the English word female from this root, as well as the Spanish word, feminina, and the French word for woman, femme.

Latin teacher Ms. Cathy Caridi questions her  Latin II team about geography. (Photo by Rabita Aziz)

The first Latin Certamen which took place at Queen Anne’s school in Prince George’s County in November was a bit larger than the latest certamen. Both the Latin 1 and Latin 2 classes attended and did respectively well in the Annual Capital Certamen. This was also the first-ever Latin competition for Latin 1 students, who came in fifth out of 25 Washington D.C. area schools in attendance. Latin 2 students also excelled in seventh place. There were only eight students who represented Mason in the Certamen, with five in Latin 2, and three students in Latin 1. 

The competitions are basically set up like an It’s Academic competition. There are four rounds, with each round involving three teams per room. Teams would switch rooms between rounds. Each round involved 20 "toss-up" questions, which could be answered by anyone for 10 points each. The team that answered the toss-up question had a chance to answer two five-point follow-up questions. At the end of the round, the team with the highest score won. Questions concerned Latin grammar, vocabulary, Roman culture, and mythology. One mythology question was, "Who is the the goddess of war?" The answer is Minerva. Another question was, How would you say ‘angry horse’ in Latin? The answer to that is equus iratus. 

When asked about the revival of Latin at Mason, Latin teacher Cathy Caridi said, "Absolutely, Latin has made a big comeback. Latin not only helps with foreign languages and English, but it helps students think logically also." Latin 1 student, junior Alex Douglas agrees. "It encouraged us to study Latin not only as an academic subject, but also as an enjoyable hobby."