FW: Earliest tsk-tsk?

[Frank Abate]

What Allen gives below is a really good one.  I know that Cicero expressed
sentiments about the downfall of correct use of Latin among the younger
crowd in his day (mid 1st cent. BC), but I don't have the citation at hand.
Perhaps a classicist on the list could help?

Frank Abate

-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU]On Behalf
Of A. Maberry
Sent: Thursday, May 24, 2001 12:30 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Earliest tsk-tsk?


how about the epitaph of the Roman poet Naevius (d. ca. 199 B.C.E.).

inmortales mortales si foret fas flere,
flerent diuae Camenae Naeuium poetam.
itaque postquam est Orcho traditus thesauro,
obliti sunt Romae loquier lingua Latina.

Allen
maberry at u.washington.edu

On Thu, 24 May 2001, Mai Kuha wrote:

> What might be the earliest documented cases of negative reactions to
> language change (for example, statements along the lines of "young
> people nowadays don't speak the language well")? I've heard that these
> sentiments were expressed in ancient Greece and Rome, but haven't found
> the actual quotes. Does anyone have such quotes handy? Thanks in advance.
>
> -Mai
> _____________________________________________
> Mai Kuha                  mkuha at bsuvc.bsu.edu
> Department of English     (765) 285-8410
> Ball State University
>