We all believe that Latin is a dead language; that no one speaks it anymore, and that no one even teaches it anymore. This is wrong. As I hope to show, we all speak Latin even as we talk English. I am not referring to etymologies here, I am referring to real, whole Latin words and even phrases that we incorporate into the English we use every day. Most interestingly, we are not even aware that we are speaking Latin when we do so. So that is why I say –and I will prove it to you! — that indeed you
do speak Latin!

Peter Conroy is Professor Emeritus at the University of Illinois-Chicago where he taught French language and literature for 34 years and served two terms as department chairman. He has written four books of literary criticism, translated another about French history, published over forty articles in professional journals, and presented many papers at scholarly conferences in the US and Europe. He is a Friend of UUFDC and resides with his wife, Beverly Ann, in Fish Creek during the summer. Since his retirement he has taken up golf as well as writing essays and short stories.