Absit iniuria verbis
The BBC reports that several local councils have banned their staff from using Latin words and phrases in either speech or writing, for being confusing, elitist and discriminatory. This is a great opportunity for those of us who really didn’t give an airbourne copulation about Manuelgate to get incensed about something that really matters. The venerable Mary Beard calls it “the linguistic equivalent of ethnic cleansing”.
Parliaments may desire the limitation of arcane vocabulary, and such would be a laudible aspiration: I cannot accept that a democracy can be such if it is incomprehensible to its citizens. But no one is capable of prohibiting Latin influence on a Brittanic idiom: it would be necessary to dismantle the entire edifice of the language (from Old French langage (12c.), from Vulgar Latin *linguaticum, from Latin lingua “tongue,” also “speech, language”) itself. Even the word “council” comes ultimately from Latin concilium.
There are some scanty specifics in the BBC’s version of the story. Bournemouth Council have given staff a list of 18 Latin phrases which they’re advised not to use. “Other local councils” (who, BBC? who?)
have banned “QED” and “ad hoc”, while other typical Latin terms include “bona fide”, “ad lib” and “quid pro quo”.
(emphasis mine) We see what you did there.
I suspect this of being a bit of a Winterval story: a delicious, irresistable mix of Loony Local Council, simplification, overstatement and Political Correctness Gone Mad. Who needs accuracy when you have a recipe this good. I’ll be looking forward to what Clarkson has to say on the matter: The Sun defends the right to speak Latin. Oh, yes please.
Still, it does make way for the most ridiculous pronouncement I’ve ever seen from the Plain English Campaign:
the ban might stop people confusing the Latin abbreviation e.g. with the word “egg”.
November 4th, 2008 at 5:36 pm
Try telling that to Whirly when next he poaches his examples.