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The Other Latin

The Other Latin Y FRIEND AND MENTOR, the Sinologist Arthur Cooper, left unfinished what would have been his magnum opus. Its title, Chinese: The Other Greek, meant first that the only Western language with a structure comparable to Chinese in concreteness is Greek, and second that “the influence of written Chinese as a medium for thought, in poetry and philosophy, occupies a position in East Asian civilization like that of Greek in the West.” 1 In this sense Chinese can also be called “the other Latin,” since for centuries after the fall of Rome the West wrote Latin, even when speaking dialects that were to evolve into the Romance languages. For works of history, philosophy, theology, or science, meant for a small international public, this practice continued long after the development of the modern languages, not only where the vernacular was Romance, but also where it was Celtic, Germanic, Slavonic, or not even Indo-European.2 As for the Romance languages, Dante felt obliged to justify resorting to vulgaris eloquentia, and Petrarch attached more importance to his Latin works than to the Canzoniere. Dante, indeed, attributed the origin of Italian poetry to one poet’s wish to get his message across to a lady http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Comparative Literature Duke University Press

The Other Latin

RECKERT, STEPHEN
Comparative Literature , Volume 60 (1) – Jan 1, 2008
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Publisher
Duke University Press
Copyright
Copyright 2008 by University of Oregon
ISSN
0010-4124
eISSN
1945-8517
DOI
10.1215/-60-1-58
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Abstract

Y FRIEND AND MENTOR, the Sinologist Arthur Cooper, left unfinished what would have been his magnum opus. Its title, Chinese: The Other Greek, meant first that the only Western language with a structure comparable to Chinese in concreteness is Greek, and second that “the influence of written Chinese as a medium for thought, in poetry and philosophy, occupies a position in East Asian civilization like that of Greek in the West.” 1 In this sense Chinese can also be called “the other Latin,” since for centuries after the fall of Rome the West wrote Latin, even when speaking dialects that were to evolve into the Romance languages. For works of history, philosophy, theology, or science, meant for a small international public, this practice continued long after the development of the modern languages, not only where the vernacular was Romance, but also where it was Celtic, Germanic, Slavonic, or not even Indo-European.2 As for the Romance languages, Dante felt obliged to justify resorting to vulgaris eloquentia, and Petrarch attached more importance to his Latin works than to the Canzoniere. Dante, indeed, attributed the origin of Italian poetry to one poet’s wish to get his message across to a lady

Journal

Comparative Literature – Duke University Press

Published: Jan 1, 2008

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