Schools: Classics

Lord Elystan-Morgan Excerpts
Thursday 27th November 2014

(9 years, 9 months ago)

Lords Chamber
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Lord Elystan-Morgan Portrait Lord Elystan-Morgan (CB)
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My Lords, is the Minister aware that some decades ago there was an authoritative study into some 2,000 words in ordinary parlance in the English language? Of those, about 75% were directly derived from Latin. A similar study in Wales in relation to the Welsh language found the figure to be of the order of 85%. I congratulate the Minister, therefore, on the approach that the Government are taking in looking at Latin not just as something belonging to a classical and distinguished past but as a building block from which so many modern languages are derived.

Lord Nash Portrait Lord Nash
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I agree entirely with the noble Lord. I could not have put it better myself.