Hi all
I suggest to don’t consider “Latin” an ancient language for the simple reason that is still “officially” used as “lingua franca” in some institutions like the catholic church.
I can assure that in several catholic schools and universities and in the “formal” communication the latin is written, read and spoken (yes, spoken).
When Benedict XVI resigned, he did his announcement only in latin:
https://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2013/02/urgent-pope-announces-resignation-on.html
I think that we must consider a language “ancient” only when is not used in “formal” linguistic registers and doesn’t have an evolution, so it’s basically “frozen”:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Register_(sociolinguistics)
But if an institution like the catholic church continues to keep it updated to translate “new words”, is not ancient anymore.
Latin must be kept updated in order to write something like that https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encyclical and to have it as the “official language” of the legal codes of the Vatican (https://www.vatican.va/latin/latin_codex.html).
So this discussion may not have a sense for Latin exactly because Latin users may consider it a form of “discrimination” of a minority of users 😉 while Wikiverse should be inclusive.
Kind regards
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Ilario Valdelli
Education Program Manager and Community liaison
Wikimedia CH
Verein zur Förderung Freien Wissens
Association pour l’avancement des connaissances libre
Associazione per il sostegno alla conoscenza libera
Switzerland - 8008 Zürich
Tel: +41764821371