Earliest tsk-tsk?

[Mai Kuha]

I think the gist of it is that the gods grieve because once Naevius went
and died, the Romans forgot how to speak Latin?

-Mai

On Fri, 25 May 2001, Baker, John wrote:

>         Do you think you could give a translation for those of us whose
> Latin is a little rusty?
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Mai Kuha [SMTP:mkuha at BSUVC.BSU.EDU]
> > Sent: Friday, May 25, 2001 10:52 AM
> > To:   ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> >
> > Very nice! Thanks. I was actually hoping for quotes that don't give away
> > which language the speaker is grieving for, but I can definitely use this
> > one.
> >
> > -Mai
> >
> > On Thu, 24 May 2001, A. Maberry wrote:
> >
> > > 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