July 13, 2019
by Sharon Moran
I previously wrote about how Cryptobellum got it’s name. If Cryptobellum were an actual Latin word, here is what its’ declension would look like:
| cryptobellum | cryptobella |
| cryptobellī | cryptobellōrum |
| cryptobellō | cryptobellīs |
| cryptobellum | cryptobella |
| cryptobellō | cryptobellīs |
| cryptobellum | cryptobella |
While we’re at it, the Latin word for coin is nummus, and here is the corresponding declension:
| nummus | numnī |
| numnī | numnōrum |
| numnō | numnīs |
| numnum | numnōs |
| numnō | numnīs |
In case you’re wondering, I had to enlist the help of my daughter, a rising senior who will be taking AP Latin in the fall. My high school didn’t offer Latin, and the little exposure I had to Latin grammar in a class titled Classics in Language and Literature has been long since forgotten. Plus, the spare time I had while being a stay-at-home mom for a decade was spent self-studying computer languages: Java, Perl, JavaScript, among others. Still, I’m a strong proponent of learning a “dead language” and liberal arts overall. We don’t need more comp sci majors, we need more liberal arts majors, particularly Philosophy. Technological advances are rapidly changing the nature of work, and a liberal arts education prepares students for jobs that don’t yet exist, but will emerge during the course of their careers.
