Description

Latin Language and World Cultures

Book Review

K. Satchidanandan – A trend-setting work of rare and profound scholarship that . examines its subject in its full interdisciplinary range and “- epistemic potential. The book not only establishes Latin to have been the one language ensuring the continuity of European literature across countries and ages, but proves how the language of sciences including medicine, of theology and Christian literature, of law and administration too are indebted to Latin for their terms and concepts. Most of the Western literary genres too were originally invented or properly defined by Latin writing practices pursued by masters like Virgil, Cicero, Ovid, Seneca, Horace and Terence. Indo-European languages including Sanskrit have shared with Latin many of its phonemic and syntactical structures. The book shows how Latin has also impacted music, children’s writing, cartoons and many contemporary forms of popular culture. This well-edited collection of carefully written papers provides a rare insight into the relevance of Latin in contemporary cultural practices across the world. Pioneering and comprehensive.

Shashi Tharoor … a truly profitable reading for anyone interested in the nature and history of the contribution that language makes to the development and progress of each group of humankind. r. The work throws light on relatively little-known but immensely significant topics such as the usage and contribution of Latin in the fields of science, law, administration in current and daily applications across almost all the nations on the globe and even in works of modern popular culture such as comics and films. This aspect of the study alone, should make it profitable reading to the interested and educated reader-both specialist and the lay, alike.