"And who would deny that [when Romance languages were just barely beginning to emerge] for those with scholarly aspirations Latin was more a native tongue than the vernacular? This goes much deeper for specific intellectual activities and needs. As long as the mother tongue has not yet grown to fit these needs, the language in which endeavors of the spirit first announced themselves to people still undergoing development remains their partial mother tongue" (57).
The above cite from Friedrich Schleiermacher's article (translated from German by Susan Bernofsky) in The Translation Studies Reader (Ed. Lawrence Venuti) provides me with the following points to ponder further in the next few days:
Can we now consider English to be that "partial mother tongue" to many of the world's citizens - those with intellectual as well as other needs?
Could this somewhat quaint and perhaps ignorant or at least unevolved or old-fashioned view of Schleiermacher explain some things about my written works? Is this part of my personal and academic expression problematic?
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