It's not a dead language! Harry Potter!
On Thursday I bought three Latin books. 'Latin Matters' by Simon James, a lovely little green cloth bound book that includes lists of The Beatles songs translated into Latin (I want to hold your hand = tui manum tenere volo; a hard day's night = longi diei nox') and also lists all the Latin jokes in the Asterix comics.
I also bought the MUCH ruder and funnier 'X-treme Latin' by Henry Beard, where I'm learning:
- trash talk (You want a part of me? Bring it on! = Visne parten mei capere? Comminus agamus!);
- warning labels (Your head may explode = Fieri potest ut caput tuum displodatur);
- useful phrases for Script Frenzy (Replace all the love scenes with car chases and set it in the Hamptons instead of the Civil War = Substitute persecutiones curriles pro episodiis eroticis, et conloca dramatis actionem in Hamtunis in vicem temporis Belli Civilis Americani)
- and computer game phrases (Taste laser death, alien insect scum! = Oppetite mortem luminae amplificato simulata emissione radiorum, cimices extraterrestriales foedi!).
My absolutely favourite section is Latin for Trekkies and the one that made me laugh out loud in the shop was the section that teaches all the really obscure grammatical forms using a terribly rude verb for all the examples.
But the one that made my brain boggle most of all was "Harrius Potter et Philosophi Lapis". Yes, someone has translated the Harry Potter books into Latin. I don't expect ever to get through the whole thing - it's going to take a decade or two and several dictionaries. It will even be fun!