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Vermont Does Not Know What Latin Is
Public Slate:If someone were to ask certain conservative Vermonters “What’s a motto with you?” they might respond by saying, “Go home, you foreigner.” Right now, certain citizens of the state of Vermont are angry about a suggested change to the state’s motto and proving that they do not know what Latin is in the process. A shocking display of xenophobia is going on at the WCAX Facebook page over a story about giving the state a Latin motto as many commentators apparently thinking that Latin is the language of Latinos.
The background to this story starts with a middle school student who was studying Latin in school. She wrote to state Senator Joe Benning about her idea for a new state motto in the ancient language of the Romans. Her new motto was “Stella quarta decima fulgeat,” which translates into English as “May the 14th star shine brightly.” The suggestion refers to Vermont’s place as the 14th state to enter the union and mirrors the many Latin mottos which the United States enjoys, including the national motto “E Pluribus Unum” which appears on the nation’s money. It famously means, “Out of many, one.”
WCAX, a news station based out of the city of Burlington, posted a quick report on the proposed change on their Facebook page, linking to their story. The station was probably not expecting to receive the volume of outraged comments from Vermonters who were angry about the change. They really were not expecting the comments to be outraged about Latinos.
The blog Vermont Political Observer broke the story about the furor. People were mad not because of the change in motto, but because they believed that Latin was the language of Latinos. In an uneducated and xenophobic series of Facebook comments, Vermonters had varying reasons to be outraged, including English as a national language and illegal aliens taking over their area. Overall, none of these angry Facebookers had any idea that Latin was the dead language spoken by the Romans since the time before Christ and from which English actually derives much of its vocabulary.
The background to this story starts with a middle school student who was studying Latin in school. She wrote to state Senator Joe Benning about her idea for a new state motto in the ancient language of the Romans. Her new motto was “Stella quarta decima fulgeat,” which translates into English as “May the 14th star shine brightly.” The suggestion refers to Vermont’s place as the 14th state to enter the union and mirrors the many Latin mottos which the United States enjoys, including the national motto “E Pluribus Unum” which appears on the nation’s money. It famously means, “Out of many, one.”
WCAX, a news station based out of the city of Burlington, posted a quick report on the proposed change on their Facebook page, linking to their story. The station was probably not expecting to receive the volume of outraged comments from Vermonters who were angry about the change. They really were not expecting the comments to be outraged about Latinos.
The blog Vermont Political Observer broke the story about the furor. People were mad not because of the change in motto, but because they believed that Latin was the language of Latinos. In an uneducated and xenophobic series of Facebook comments, Vermonters had varying reasons to be outraged, including English as a national language and illegal aliens taking over their area. Overall, none of these angry Facebookers had any idea that Latin was the dead language spoken by the Romans since the time before Christ and from which English actually derives much of its vocabulary.
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