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The direct influence of Latin in Europe has decreased since Renaissance times but is still considerable, and indirectly both the language and its classical literature still affect many modern languages and literatures. The insistence of Renaissance scholars upon an exact classical purity, together with the rise of the European nation-states, contributed to the decline of Latin as an international cultural medium.
Latin vocabulary has entered English in two major waves: as religious vocabulary from Anglo-Saxon times until the Reformation, and as the vocabulary of science, scholarship, and the law from the Middle Ages onwards. In the 17th century the makers of English dictionaries deliberately converted Latin words into English, enlarging the already powerful French component of English vocabulary into the language of education and refinement, placing fraternity alongside brotherhood, comprehend beside understand, feline beside catlike, and so on. Many Latin tags are in regular use in English: habeas corpus (you may have the body), ipse dixit (he said it himself), non sequitur (it does not follow), and so on. English that consists of many Latin elements is Latinate and often has a grandiose and even pompous quality.
Today, with fewer students studying Latin in schools and universities, there is a tendency to make Latin words more conventionally English; for example, cactuses rather than cacti as the plural of cactus. This tendency is accompanied by some uncertainty about usage, for example whether words like data and media are singular or plural. They are technically plural and are so treated by scholars, writers, and editors.
Black reflects the African origins of the islanders. Red stands for the vigour of the people. White represents hope. Effective date: 27 February 1967.
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