There was a time not too long ago when doctors wrote all of their prescriptions in Latin. If you wanted to be a pharmacist you had to be in continuing medical education to be able to read these Latin prescriptions. If you were a Roman Catholic you were required to learn Latin because all masses were said in Latin and the church demanded that you understand what was going on. But as the years wore on doctors stopped writing their prescriptions in Latin and pharmacists were relieved of the burden of learning Latin. Although it may still help the pharmacist to know a little Latin considering the illegible scribble that some doctors call handwriting.
The Catholic Church did change and it was not long before the strict discipline of having to know Latin to be a good Catholic was dropped in lieu of services done completely in English for anyone to be able to follow. So what happened? Why did people begin to abandon Latin in favor of English and other languages? Why is Latin commonly referred to today as a dead language?
Latin did not die so much as it evolved. In ancient times Latin was the language the Romans spoke and as the Romans went through conquering much of Europe and parts of Africa they introduced Latin into the languages of the locals. Over time Latin evolved into the modern versions of the romantic languages such as French and Italian and was a main foundation for many other languages down through the ages. Latin was kept alive by religion and medicine because within those professions there is a strong tie to their past and the Latin language is very prominent in the history of religion and medicine. Because of that doctors and priests clung to Latin as long as they could but as younger people came in that did not know Latin the language was bumped out of mainstream use and delegated to more specialized functions such as passages read from scripture or names of medications.
High schools were teaching Latin and allowing Latin to be learned as the fulfillment of the student’s language credit up until very recently. Some high schools still offer Latin but it is no longer as prominent as it used to be. Latin is sprinkled throughout the languages of the world and still remains a very important part of some of the vernacular used in various professions. Along with religion and medicine you will also find a lot of Latin being used in the practice of law. Once again the legal profession is attempting to stay with its Latin roots to make sure that new up and coming lawyers do not forget where the principle of law originated from.
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