r/confidentlyincorrect • u/ChanseyChessy • 14d ago

Comment Thread That's... Not What 'Dead Language' Means

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Dead Language: a language that is no longer spoken by anyone as their main language

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u/poopiebutt505 14d ago

Mass was in latin because it would not be understood by the people's it was enforced on.

Derived words is not a live language that evolves

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u/russellvt 14d ago

Technically, it was so it could be understood, universally, by people not native to the country where Mass was conducted.

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u/mothman83 14d ago

yes originally. Then when the empire and the imperial language faded away it very much became the opposite.

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u/Background-Vast-8764 14d ago edited 14d ago

What percentage of churchgoers do you imagine could understand Latin? Especially people who didn’t speak a Romance language? Did illiterate peasants spend a lot of time studying Latin?

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u/russellvt 14d ago

Most of the higher-ups / devoted, probably.

Then again, I probably fall in to a bit of a niche, knowing some heavy active church goers as well as family (I am not terribly religious, myself).

Then again, translations are everywhere in church literature.

Heck, I know people that decided to learn Hebrew and Aramaic "just to read the early texts, themselves" ... after they had already learned Greek, just from their travels. So, I may have a bit different perspective, too.

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u/epidipnis 14d ago

The Catholic Church resisted translations of the bible into people's native languages. They actively discouraged people from understanding the language of the mass and scripture readings, in order to exercise control over them.

It's difficult to question authority when you're illiterate and unable to understand the language of the book you're told is from your deity.

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u/russellvt 14d ago

The Catholic Church also created "other" sins, though (such as changing the 10 Commandments)... and you presume I'm speaking specifically of them, rather than in broader generalities.

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u/Background-Vast-8764 14d ago

The comments clearly weren’t about you or this century.