"classics" questions

[ein_suender]

1). Does "classics" always mean Greek and Latin only? Could it mean any other "classical" language like classical Chinese

Comments

just a small remark

[dormidondt]

Talking about 'the world's lingua franca' you partly answer your own question No. 1: looks like your world does not include Chinese, Indian, etc. civilisations. Then why should the languages spoken there some time ago be considered classics in Western Universities? : )

Re: just a small remark

[ein_suender]

Because I said so! ;)

[chalepa_ta_kala]

I've seen some programs (e.g. the University of California at Davis) that include Hebrew in their Classics coursework.

[lilitaly]

Biblical or Modern Hebrew?

[yadfothgildloc]

Biblical in the Classics Departments.

Modern is under its own department, or Modern Foreign Languages.

[lovelies]

Because they're Romance languages. And the area in which Koine was spoken as a lingua franca was more to the East, where established empires and languages were already old hat, so it had less of a chance in assuming the position of the vernacular of the people. It was more the language of the administration and scholars than of the people.

[ein_suender]

Weren't the cultures where the Romance languages were spoken (Gauls, Celts) etc "old hat"? I'm not quite sure I understand what "old hat" is supposed to mean...

[lovelies]

At the time of the Alexandrian empire I'd see them as having been more 'tribal' cultures, whereas Egypt, India, the Mesopotamian area were old and established areas of 'high' culture. And I may be way off, but I don't think the Celtic people had records of written history... at least to the extent many of the cultures in the Koine area of influence had.

[unchatenfrance]

Greek is not a Romance language.

[koffie_addict]

1. isn't 'classics' generally the name for the Greek and Roman era/art/literature/language/whatever.. i think it would create confusion if you include other classical languages, because people think it to be Greek and Roman. so i would use 'classical languages' rather than 'classics' when you want to include more languages

2. shit happens.. (what i meant to say was: not everything happens exactly in the same way. circumstances may vary in many ways, and even if the context would exactly be the same the outcome could be different)
that said, maybe it's because the Roman Empire included france, italy, spain, etc.. while the Greek never really invaded large amounts of land for a long period in time?

[yo_yomama]

2. Alexander the Great?

[koffie_addict]

that's why i said long period of time.. after alexander died, the empire kinda feel apart right?

[yo_yomama]

It broke into three under his three best generals, and those three were eventually picked up by the Romans.

But they held together for hundreds of years, and (Koine) Greek was the major lingua franca even under Roman rule. Romans who spoke Latin probably spoke Greek as well.

[hobbitblue]

2) If you look at a map showing the Roman empire and its extents, and consider it lasted for a thousand years and had a habit of colonising, romanising and changing the places it conquered, it makes sense that Latin and latin-derived languages are more widespread than Greek... had the Greeks had as large and influential an empire or the Roman impact been lesser, it might have been a different story.