Latin as epilanguage

[gallienus1]

An interesting article from Science Daily about the use until recent times, of Latin as an epilanguage to help translate texts in non European languages.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/03/170327083256.htm

Steve

[Bill W4]

Interesting; the only advice I gave my son when he went to college was "take Latin 101".  He has indirectly thanked me on occasion.

[curtislclay]

I would have thought that Latin was used in translations from exotic languages because Latin was the normal scientific language of the era, understood by all educated Europeans in addition to their many different native tongues.

Another advantage may have been that Latin can be very concise, packing a lot of meaning into relatively few words.