The Role of the Latin and Greek Languages

Preface

Textbook “Latin and Fundamentals of Medical Terminology” is designed to be a comprehensive textbook covering the entire curriculum for medical students in this subject. The course “Latin and Fundamentals of Medical Terminology” is a two-semester course that introduces students to the Latin and Greek medical terms that are commonly used in Medicine. The aim of the two-semester course is to achieve an active command of basic grammatical phenomena and rules with a special stress on the system of the language and on the specific character of medical terminology, and that to the extent that enables an active use of Latin and Greek medical terms and promote further own work with them.

The textbook consists of three basic parts:

1. Anatomical Terminology: The primary rank is occupied by anatomical nomenclature whose international version remains Latin in the full extent. All of the anatomical nomenclatures produced so far have used Latin as their base. The first official Latin anatomical nomenclature was introduced at a congress of the Anatomische Gesellschaft in Basle in 1895, the last edition, called Terminologia Anatomica, was introduced by the International Anatomical Nomenclature Committee and published in 1998. Latin as a dead language does not develop and does not belong to any country or nation. It has a number of advantages that classical languages offer, its constancy, international character and neutrality.

2. Clinical Terminology: Learning clinical terminology you should realize that it is in many ways like learning a foreign language. Like a foreign language, medical terms often sound strange and confusing. As a result of being unable to understand the words, they will have very little meaning to you. But it is wrong to assume that only highly educated people can use and understand them. Medical terms sound like a foreign language because the vast majority of them have Greek and Latin origin. So, for example, the word "gastrectomy" is of a Greek origin and means “the total removal of a stomach”. “Gastrectomy” comes from the Greek word "gaster" which means "stomach" and the Greek word "ectome", which means "cut out". The main reason of using these words is that medical terms provide one word that describes something that would otherwise take many words to say. For example, it is quicker to say "gastrectomy" than to say "the total removal of a stomach ". You will be able to learn medical terms by understanding the origins of these words in Latin and Greek.

3. Pharmaceutical Terminology: In pharmaceutical terminology Latin has, for the time being, remained a functioning means of international communication, guaranteed by the European Pharmacopoeia (1996) and by the corpus of International Non-proprietary Names (1992, 1996), even though in the future an ever stronger competition of national languages should be taken into account. But even though national languages have been favored in prescriptions in some countries, in many countries Latin has continued to be preferred and the standard international nomenclature of drugs is based on the Latin version. The Latin version of the pharmacopoeia has been used in Germany, Switzerland, Japan, China, etc.

The Role of the Latin and Greek Languages

Greek and Roman cultures are the foundations of western culture - its literature, ideas, art, politics, and conceptions of the individual. Greek myth is still a shared fund of images and narratives that express human experience. Latin is the major source of English vocabulary, and Greek provides scientific language in many fields. Greek and Roman cultures help us to understand the relationship between western culture and other cultural systems and place ourselves better in the world.

The study of Latin and Greek culture provides students with a better understanding of the roots of their own culture, which has been so strongly influenced by Roman and Greek art, Medicine, law, and religion. The pursuit of Latin and Greek language skills not only provides the broadening experience which comes from learning how to think and express oneself in another language, but can also be great aid to building vocabulary and language skills in English. Latin and Greek literature and mythology introduce you to classical authors whose excellence is beyond question and whose works and genres have influenced Western literature down to our own day.

• Greek is the language of Homer, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Diogenes, Plutarch and the Bible.
• Latin is the language of Plautus, Terence, Cicero, Vergil, Horace, Ovid, St. Augustine and St.Francis of Assisi.

· After the Roman conquest of Britain under Emperor Claudius, the native Picts' Celtic language first became infused with Latin, then merged with the new invaders' Germanic (Anglo-Saxon) dialects, and finally became English. Thus, Greek and Latin can be great aids to building vocabulary and language skills in English

As the Romans conquered the then known world, Latin became the universal language of Italy and the provinces. Many centuries after the fall of Rome, Latin still ruled supreme. To this very day, Latin is the language of the Catholic Church, and during the formative period of the western European languages it was incorporated in every one of them. The Latin language has been around for more than 2500 years, and throughout the years has played a leading role in various fields. Not only was Latin the language of the Romans in antiquity, but at a later stage it also became the language of administrators, the Catholic Church, scholars and artists. Even now the Latin language is present in a prominent way, especially in Medicine.

Science is of international nature. The development of technical languages in the individual branches of science is connected with frequent borrowing of foreign language lexical material which is mostly of Latin or Greek origin. Greek and Latin represent the traditional language material to be used in medical terminology.

English medical terminology developed from medieval Latin terminology, which had absorbed a developed Greek terminology. Greek medicine migrated to Rome at an early date, and many Latin terms crept into its terminology. Only a few medical terms came from the oldest developmental period of the English language (from Anglo-Saxon). Latin was the language of science up to the beginning of the 18^th Century, so all medical texts were written in Latin.

Contents

LESSON 1

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PHONETICS: READING AND PRONUNCIATION

In this lesson you will:

· Become familiar with the Roman alphabet.

· Learn to pronounce Latin vowels and consonants.

· Learn to pronounce Latin diphthongs and digraphs.

· Learn to read Latin words and word combinations.

This lesson is divided into the following sections:

I. Roman alphabet.

II. Pronunciation of vowels and diphthongs.

III. Pronunciation of consonants and digraphs.

IV. Pronunciation of letter combinations.

V. Exercises.

VI. Vocabulary

We cannot be sure exactly how the ancient Romans pronounced the alphabet and words. We should use the so-called Roman Pronunciation of Latin, which aims to represent approximately the pronunciation of classical times. The English pronunciation should be used in Roman names occurring in English (as, Julĭus Caesar); and in familiar quotations, as, e plurĭbus unum; viva voce; vice versa; a fortiōri; veni, vidi, vici, etc.

I. ROMAN ALPHABET

The Roman alphabet contains 25 letters: six vowels and nineteen consonants. The English language also uses the Roman alphabet with the additional letter W. You should learn the Roman alphabet that follows:

Date: 2016-03-03; view: 1845