Schools: Classics

Lord Elystan-Morgan Excerpts

Thursday 27th November 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Elystan-Morgan (CB)]

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]

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