Monday, October 20, 2014

When in Brazil, do as the Romans...?

The Romans were conquerors.  They conquered and educated and as a result influenced many languages creating the “Romance” languages.  


Taking High School Spanish, I didn’t think that this would have much of an influence on me.  Little did I know that I would be called to serve a mission in Brazil speaking Portuguese and the Roman influence would be much more prevalent in my life.  

It is amazing to see how one culture can spread across oceans and influence countries that were not originally conquered by them.  I now spend half of my time speaking a "Romance" language.  Who would have thought?

3 comments:

  1. Wow, shows how much I know. I of course am familiar with and have heard of the term "romance" languages, but I never realized that the Romans had anything to do with that until your post, and today's lecture. Great post. I wonder if your study in our class over the next few months will influence your knowledge of portuguese and how to use it, as we study the Romans influence on rhetoric.

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  2. I am definitely intrigued as to how the very use of language helps ancient Rome continue to influence us today. I wonder if the Roman influence is stronger in countries that speak Romance languages vs. those who do not? Probably! But whether or not this is correlation or causation remains to be seen. Great post!

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  3. You make a good point--I hadn't considered that the Roman influence actually affected countries that weren't even conquered nor considered part of the Roman Empire so long ago. It makes me think about how my choices now will influence people I don't even know in the future!

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