The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-08-09
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS

ing to write, and particularly so if you
 took Latin in your college days, for you will have learned for yourself that Latin pronunciation has never been stabilized. My namesake spent three months in
 Florida during the winter. and to make school One of them being Latin. es- saved to help him, but soon found out
 that we were miles apart in the proper
 way of calling both common and proper names. soon found out that he was leaning on q broke reed in using me for jack" or pony"
 | Now, I never was fond of the Latin iai guage, although found great pleasure in Latin literature, and in my college days gave much more time to translat- ing than to studying the grammar, (which, according to my teacher, was bad form, and he showed his displeas- use by giving me pretty low marks. But in the full light of more than a quar- ter of 8 century l am glad that I filled my mind with Latin prose and poetry rather than with syntax.
 l am sure that my father was in ad- vance of his age in quite a few things, being a college bred man and graduate in medicine from the old Jefferson Med- ical School of Philadelphia, he was un- orthodox. both in his views of teaching the dead language, and in treating tuber- culosis; for he advised me when I went to the University of Alabahma and later to Vanderbilt University, to use transla. tions freely, and he was a fresh air en. thusiast in the cure of consumption long brethren in the practice.
 l was never cut out for Latinist in the sense of becoming a real scholar or authority in the language; but I am glad that l saturated myself in my college days with the history, life and literature of the Romans; and the only time in later life that L had cause to regret that had not given more time to gram matical construction was on taking up the study of Roman law during my stu dent life in Paris. I merely state this to show that it's difficult to draw hard and fast lines as to the studies one should make their majors during their appren- ticeship in preparatory as well as col lege days.
 Now, do not get alarmed for fear that l am going to try and tackle in serious manner the shifting in the pronunciation of Latin, even in modern times. All can hope or even propose is to give the difficult and disputed question a hop skip-and-jump treatment, thereby writing myself down as superficial student, which l am perfectly willing to let stand as fair and just accusation. I make this confession in order to appease the wrath of those who have given a life time to the study of Latin.
 But for fear that I will be misunder- stood. let me hasten to add that I am no foe, but a friend to the dead lan- guages, and think that every boy who strives to be cultured should at least have some knowledge of Latin, if for no other reason but to better understand English. l read sometime back the state ment of some scholar who said that a understand English as it was spoken in Shakespeare time. I remarked on this to my good friend, pr. A. J. Dickinson, who flashed it to me, that it was hard for him to get on to the delivery of the modern Englishman
 l have cited the above to show that if it is really a question as to whether English was pronounced in the days of good Queen Bess by the Elizabethans in way to be unintellgible to those of us who came on the scene some 300 years later, how in the name of all the Latin. ists in the world are we to approximate the pronunciation of the Romans who lived in the days of the Caesars, without trying to go back to the sixth or seventh century to the plain of Latium the ear Hest period of which we have any con- temporary records of the use of the Latin tongue?
 do not know whether I was taught the "round' or the flat system of pro- nurciation when. studied Latin, but I do know that it is no more like what is taught in the Birmingham public schools than is near beer like unto Anheuser- Busch. or any well-known brand which Is now on the forbidden list Mind you, this is not intimating that the subject is improperly taught under the vigilant su- perYlsion of my friend. Dr. Phillips, Tor have faith in his ability to adopt the best way; but. it is merely to show how wide is the divergence which sepa- rates father and son in their effort to communicate in Latin
 All this being true, I hope I may be excused for having doubted the claim or French savant. NJ Garaud, who some years back published a book in which he sought and professed to have settled the vexed question of the pro- rounciation of Latin by the ancient Rom ans. It was his contention that ''the | patios of Pamiers, in the department of l the Ariege, is nothing else than Latin exiled on the borders of the Ariege. It has been brought there with it's original pronunciation and accentuation. With l out the aid of any book the ear has suf- l heed to preserve it's first form and into l nation after eighteen centuries use The most delicate infections of the voice l have been kept. Thanks to the instinct of | harmony and the love of sorority. Latin | pf onunciation has been exactly transmit | ted to us"