Wednesday 7 April 2010

L is for language...............or Lizzie?

LATIN

Ok Now whilst I  think that the teacher is being very good to us all and gives each one of us an A+ each week I really do not think that we are being stretched so I have decided to do just that .
Now we are in this together folks I am not a latin scholar and I have googled all this I mean come on who in this day and age needs Latin?
French maybe German possibly American even ( well the understanding of the differences so as not to be embarrased and go into a stationary shop and ask for a rubber whoa hang on before you think I am being rude here in this civilised school I meant an erasure) but Latin who on earth needs Latin?

This was Gaywood Park School when I went.

I am one of those people who finds language fascinating I have never studied it aoart from the compulasary French at secondary school sorry in American that translates to High school

Then I really could not see the point of learning to speak French I lived in England I never went out of England, well I had been to France and they spoke gobbledy gook but AJ could communicate so that was ok. So French lessons were a complete waste of time to me as was typing . Any way back to my French lessons being the class idiot at times ( kids if your reading this do as I say not as I did)  I used to fill my mouth woth polo mints give one crunch there rendering my mouth useless for speach of any kind and proceed into the classroom where the french Madam would be stood waiting , after two three minutes I would be asked a question which obviously I could not answer and would then be ordered to empty the contents of my mouth into the metal waste bin now here comes the best bit, I leant that if I put a lot of force ( use to listen in science ) into expelling  (and english) the contents of my mouth  it would ricochet of the sides of the bin making the most horrendous noise ever.










Resulting in class uproar mission accomplished .
This became standard practice in the end there was a small group of us that would take it in turns to have a mouthfull of polo mints.
We did not do it every lesson but poor madam never knew when the attack would come and I have to say that was the only bad thing I did at school .
Any way I got side tracked back to latin hey you wake up.
Bill Bryson has written a book comparing language and I can't for the life of me remember what it is called if any one can help would appreciate it might read again..
I sometimes look at a foreign word and think oh that is similar to an english word or vice vera do you?
No  Ok I am strange then

Some latin everyday words


beer -bibere (= to drink)


box -buxus (= boxwood)

candle -candela

cheese- caseus

mile -mille passus (= 1,000 paces)

peas- pisum

sack- saccus (= large bag)

salary- salarium (= salt ration)

sock -soccus (= slipper)

street -strata (uia) (= paved way)

wall -uallum (= palisaded earthwork)

wine- uinum

caster/cester/chester (as in Lancaster, Gloucester, Chester) -castra (= camp, fort)


 Latin/English word Meaning of original Latin word


agenda                                     teacher
album                                       lentil
arena                                        more
camera                                     thing to be referred
curriculum                                 rule/method
data                                         things to be discussed
doctor                                      sand
exit                                           empty thing
formula                                    spoke
fungus                                      less
index                                      take!
innuendo                               arched roof
lens                                       he/she goes out
media                                   things given
minus                                    mushroom
plus                                      sign/title
rabies                                   things in the middle
radius                                  race course
recipe                                  by hinting
referendum                           fury
vacuum                                blank white stone tablet (on which notices could be written)

Ok here is a little quiz now please don't spit your polos in the bin I am trying to make it interesting. Can you match up the word in Black to the one in red  take your time good luck . Answers at the end
Ok this has probably been my most boring Alphabet Thursday sorry so now onto Lizzy

Lizzie

Lizzie or Elizabeth Victoria Marie to give her her full name is my 2nd daughter she finally decided to pop into the world( well actually I was induced as her father was starting a new job 2 weeks later) at 3pm on December 24th 1986. weighing 10lb 15oz.the next day her safe arrival was announced in church as being bigger than the rectors turkey.

Any Liz was handed to me and we both lifted her leg to see what she was and I went Oh no ( or similar) it's a girl that emotion of not having a boy lasted 20 seconds and I have to say I have never looked back . Those who have followed my blog will know that I have four fab children all different all loving but of them all in their teens Liz is the one who argued the most. She had the worst terrible two's as well.
But know I would not want to change anything about her .
She has turned into a beautiful talented loving and caring adult ( as have the other three) she is a Paediatric nurse working on a liver unit in Leeds.
Liz lives with James and they are about to buy their first home together so it is all exciting.


Liz and I at a fake that concert

                                            
 Liz and James at Chris and James engagement party


Christophers 21st Last year


This was taken at spheering last year.



Tree top adventure

Summer 2009


I think what all these photos show is that Liz nearly always has a smile on her face she likes an adventure is very tidy and organised and not good at just sitting around doing nothing.She is always tidying up here when she visits .

Thank you God for giving me Lizzies to love and for her to love me as she does.
Last but not least


Oh before I go here are the answers to the Latin quiz I set you

Latin/English word Meaning of original Latin word


agenda -things to be discussed

album- blank white stone tablet (on which notices could be written)

arena -sand

camera- arched roof

curriculum- race course

data -things given

doctor- teacher

exit -he/she goes out

formula- rule/method

fungus- mushroom

innuendo- by hinting

lens- lentil

media- things in the middle

minus- less

plus- more

rabies- fury

radius -spoke

recipe -take!

referendum- thing to be referred

vacuum -empty thing



33 comments:

H said...

Love the Latin quiz. I could work out quite a few :)

Nadeen said...

Methinks Latin is still important in some fashion. If you don't know the definition to a lot of words (like me), breaking then apart helps and the Latin root for things probably helps too. Latin as a high school course died out before I got there but somehow I think those who studied it understand our language much better. Thanks for the lesson and the 'game'. I love games, word games.

Betty said...

That Latin quiz was tough. Some were kind of obvious and others I wouldn't get in a million years.

Love Lizzie's smile!

Christy said...

Your daughter is beautiful!
I love Latin - 4 years in high school and then I taught it to my kids when I homeschooled. BUT I still couldn't get all the answers right!

mrs. c said...

I took French in school because we did not have Latin! i love all the tought you put into your post and you were 1st as well!

Debbiedoos said...

Beautiful family you have!~ I admire people when they speak several languages, I have German friends, Spanish, Italian, and it amazes me that they taught themselves the American language...this was a great post!

Viki said...

The only Latin I ever heard was in Church but I don't remember it now. My son took Latin in college but I don't know how much he remembers. Your daughter has a beautiful smile.

Linda @ A La Carte said...

Fun post about Latin! Enjoyed the quiz. Your daughter is lovely! Great L post today!

Brenda said...

I took 1 1/2 years of Latin in High School. Sorry to say i did not enjoy it that is why I dropped the 2nd semester my Sr. year. I always wanted to take German or French. I have an Elizabeth also she is my oldest daughter. She goes by Liz also.

Jo said...

I actually enjoyed the latin quiz ... some of them i couldnt even come close to guessing the correct answer but it was fun trying!

Kat said...

Loved the Latin quiz. I took Latin for 3 years in high school - why I have no idea, so most of them came back to me. Which is surprising, since I spent most of the class trying to stay awake! Your daughter is adorable. Love the story of the church announcement - how funny. Oh and Bill Bryson has written two books on language - The Dictionary of Troublesome Words and The Mother Tongue. They are both great, but not nearly as fun as In a Sunburned Country :) Kathy

Unknown said...

Your daughter sounds very very special.

Prairiemaid said...

lens- lentil ~ Really?!

Interesting post and lovely daughter! And no, it was not boring at all.;-)

RNSANE said...

I never took Latin, took four years of Spanish - we were the first 3rd, then the first 4th year Spanish class in my high school
( four of us ). I'm glad I did it, though. It was a great help since I ended up in CA as an RN and used my Spanish all the time! Even got bilingual pay from the city of San Francisco because of my fluency!

People Who Know Me Would Say: said...

Lizzie is gorgeous.

I learned so much Latin, I think I'm ready to go to a 1960's Catholic Mass!

Fun Post!

GardenOfDaisies said...

LOL! You little minty mouthed troublemaker! ;-)
I had to chuckle at "American" as a language. But you really are right, because it is different in so many ways from the English across the pond.
I think understanding some basic Latin is very important, seeing as how half our language comes from a Latin root. Latin was not offered at my school, but I did learn Portuguese, which is Latin based. (So is Spanish, French and Italian.) It helped me immensely with English vocabulary, and on those dreaded college entrance exams (ACT and SAT) Anyone wanting to become a doctor, attorney, botanist, biologist, etc should be learning some Latin.

Monica said...

I took Spanish in High school and can't remember much at all! Loved the story about the Polo mints! Cracked me up! Love Lizzie's smile - She's beautiful!

Steph said...

I liked word origins too, but got tickled by the way some of the words matched up before putting them right. (My favorite was recipe... by hinting and don't show Mrs.M that agenda... teacher thing.) Liz is just lovely. I really like Polo mints. Our equivalent in the states are called Lifesavers.

Rocky Mountain Woman said...

Love Latin words and love the way you're mind works.

Your daughter is darling...

laterg8r said...

the latin quiz was fun :D

Amy said...

Thanks for teaching me something new... I loved the photos too.

Happy Thursday..

Tina said...

I'm a self-professed word-nerd and I LOVED this post. I also love quizzes and I did ok on yours, I think because I'm bilingual, though Swedish is not Latin. It wasn't offered at either of my high schools, so I had three mostly useless years of Spanish. I can tell you your jacket is red in Spanish, if you like, though ;-) Your daughter sounds like a wonderful person, and her smile looks contagious!

Jenny said...

Holy samoly girl. Look at all your comments!

Hooray for you!

This was a great post.

Don't the kids in spelling bees still study Latin for roots of words?


Lovely post!

Happy L day!

A+

Julie Kwiatkowski Schuler said...

Lizzie is pretty. Latin is hard. I have been lax in my conjugations.

Unknown said...

Try teaching Latin (home school) when you, yourself, was not brought up on Latin...Thank God for CD's. Very full L post!

veterankindergartenteacher said...

Your daughter Lizzie is beautiful. The latin test was too hard teach! I think I need some remediation. My daughter took latin in high school so I will see if I can talk her into some sessions. This is my first time participating in alphabet Thursday! What fun!

MrsJenB said...

Your daughter is beautiful!

The Latin quiz was fun. I knew a lot of girls in high school who took AP Latin and it fascinated me, but I was having enough trouble with French!! Haha

Mary Beth @ Live. Laugh. Make Something said...

weeeeeeee! I feel so smart! I took French in High School (in the 70's, mind you). I never used it until I went to Honduras 2 years ago on a mission trip with my church. I was in charge of leading crafts with each age group every day. ...which is fine, except I don't know one syllable of Spanish (except for saying Burrito at Taco Bell). As I was using my own made up sign language to communicate instructions, I realized that I was speaking choppy French to them for colors, numbers, nouns, etc. At first I was sooooo embarrassed... but then it dawned on me that they couldn't understand me anyway. sooooo funny! I get so tired of being the entertainment everywhere I go. It slap wears me out... I hopped over from Alphabe-Thursday and am so happy that I did. Please accept my invitation to drop in at my place one day this week when you get a moment. I have become a follower and hope you will do the same. until later...

Pat @ Mille Fiori Favoriti said...

Tracy I love to learn new things so I really enjoyed your "L" post today for Alphabe Thursday!

I actually had two years of Latin when I was in High School and I like it because we didn't have to speak it, just read and write it. I still remember how to conjugate the verbs
I enjoyed the matching quiz ..I got them all!

Pat


Your daughter Lizzie is beautiful! She has the nicest smile.

Unknown said...

what a fun post! i took latin in high school...but the quiz still stumped me in a few places!

Pondside said...

A very pretty daughter!
I had to study Latin in school, at a time when most Canadian schools had abandoned the practice. I'm glad I did because it has helped me to understand/learn other languages.
Thanks for the fun game!

Unknown said...

I love quiz's...I think priests still use latin...Dont they?

mub said...

Most people speak British English here and I can say for CERTAIN that it is a completely different language than American *L*

I think learning Latin for the roots of words and so on is really interesting. I think I'm stretching myself trying to learn Dutch though so I'm going to hold off on adding something else that I can't actually use in my everyday life *L*