On Latin

Google Translate now offers an exotic language in translation... Latin!

This language is now mostly dead... Only the ultra educated scholars can still speak fluently with this once-Europe-dominated language. Modern European languages are derived from it.. see this chart for instance . This is almost like HTML is derived from SGML.

Even the number of alphabets is not always the same... in the real old days, there was no W, Y and Z! and there was no lowercase!

Latin is not entirely obsolete... They are in your pennies: E pluribus unum. Mathematicians like Q.E.D at the end of their proof.

Some other Latin abbreviations lurking in English:
i.e. means "in other words"
e.g means "for example"

Also, is this a TYPO engraved in stone here in the Civic Opera Hovse in Chicago? No, it is intended, it just tries to be classic. There was... simply no W. (English speakers call this double-u, Spanish and French call it the double-v, which makes more sense. See, we don't even know what to call "w")

Why bother learning Latin? Pharmacy students wannabes flock to Latin classes in high school as they believe this will help their vocabulary. I wonder if that actually help them at all. I prefer learning languages that are still in wide use.

Languages are evolving... in a slower pace than a typical lifetime.