Is Latin a dead language? Twitter suggests it is alive and well

Almost without fail, whenever I mention to someone that I am currently studying Latin - because they've asked what classes I am taking - they ask one straightforward question: "Isn't Latin a dead language?" Maybe you've asked the question yourself.

The simple answer is, "No, Latin is not a dead language and, just like any other language, will not be  until no one alive can read, write, or speak in Latin." That day is a long way off.

I mention this today because of something Greg Burke, Senior Adviser for Communications at the Secretary of State of the Holy See, tweeted this afternoon:

Lingua Mortua? Nondum. @Pontifex #Latin over 250k followers Beats #Germany #Poland; could catch #France
— Greg Burke (@GregBurkeRome) May 27, 2014

The Latin version of the Pope's Twitter handle (@Pontifex_ln) has some 251,000 followers. That hardly seems like a dead language. More people follow the Pope in Latin than follow him in Arabic, German, or Polish. A dead language, indeed.

By comparison, here are the numbers for the other language version (as of 2:30 p.m. Rome time):

• Arabic (@Pontifex_ar): 129,000
• English (@Pontifex): 4,090,000
• French (@Pontifex_fr): 272,000
• German (@Pontifex_de): 191,000
• Italian (@Pontifex_it): 1,720,000
• Polish (@Pontifex_pl): 227,000
• Portuguese (@Pontifex_pt): 1,050,000
• Spanish (@Pontifex_es): 5,770,000

Twitter followers

I've never quite understood the point of Twitter, and to a great extant I still don't.  I have, however, discovered something of a use for it, though I'm not certain how useful it is.

For the past several weeks now I have been posting items of note - news, etc. - to my Twitter without bringing them to full attention on my blog.  It seems to have attracted several new "followers" in recent days, two of whom have brought some confusion to my thoughts.

The first of these followers hopped on board yesterday with the tag name ifollowHATE.  This person purports to "follow people that follow hate groups."  Why?  Because "Jesus taught us to love, why do some people insist on using his name to justify hate?"

Presumable this means that I am a person of hate who uses Jesus' name to spread my hateful message.  The odd thing is that I don't recall ever spreading, condoning, encouraging, or promoting hate through my blog, or through any other means, for that matter. 

The second of these followers hopped on board this morning: Jesus Christ.  Curiously, the Savior only has 22 followers, whereas I have 127.  This might not be good.

I'm not sure who has the audacity to speak as Jesus Christ himself via Twitter (thankfully he only seems to tweet verses from the Gospels), but I hope the Lord will - in his merciful humor - pardon such presumption.

I'm on Twitter

You may have heard that the Holy See now has a http://twitter.com/news_va_en.

Following the lead of the Holy See, I am also now on Twitter @Daren_J_Zehnle.

I can't yet say how often or well I'll tweet, but I'll do what I can and see how it goes.