Mary Anne Marks: "Cor Harvardianum, Cor Nostrum"

[ilovecupcakesyesido]

so anyone hear that voicecrack... i know its at the end and most people probably didnt even watch this whole thing.

[TokkiDiary]

Who the heck delivers salutatory in Latin? I'd be bored to death.. Graduation is already boring as it is..Time for Harvard to put up a hologram subtitles because apparently, their valedictorians love to bore people with language nobody speaks..

[martinkun167]

Lord help me...I can't listen to her Anglicized latin accent any longer!

[PianoFreak0127]

@XKS99, first of all it is ENGLISH not AMERICAN, just as SPANISH is not MEXICAN. Second of all english IS NOT the new latin. It is deeply rooted and comprised of latin, but is also formed from Anglo-Saxon German. Thirdly, as for the accent, I think it is more important to focus on the well written speach than nit pick over the finite details

[PianoFreak0127]

@Terrendously. Latin is not a dead language. It may not live on the tongues of all, but it lives in our hearts and minds. A dead language would have NO people that speak it, and no literature written in it. For the literature is the word of the language.

[phr4nk3rd00d13]

@PianoFreak0127 there seems to be a confusion between extinct languages and dead languages. latin is, for all intents and purposes, a dead language. a dead language is a language which has no remaining native speakers who use the language for most mundane, everyday purposes. dead languages can still live on, being used for specialised purposes. latin is a perfect example of this. i'm not saying latin is stupid, useless, or whatever. i love latin. but it is a dead language.

[Pollux6721]

She says salwethey instead of salvete. All "e"-s are "e" as in Italian and as in the English word Fred. Not Freyd. Hospites et familiares, not hospitheys at familiareys etc. And all "a"-s are "a", as in the word "car", not as in "care".

[phr4nk3rd00d13]

@Pollux6721 i agree that her pronunciation is inauthentic, but your pronunciation recommendations are also a bit off; they're just approximations. to nitpick, in reconstructed latin, 'e' represents [e], the high-mid front unrounded vowel. but italian 'e' can represent this sound and [ɛ], low-mid front unrounded vowel, also. and english 'e' in fred represents [ɛ]... and a in car isn't IPA [a], open front unrounded vowel, but r-coloured [ɑ]. and agreed, the aspiration is incorrect.

[terrendously]

FREAKS!!!!!!!!!!!! what an arrogant and useless waste of time. next time make the speech in English, or Spanish or Chinese but please not in a dead language. why not ancient Greek while we are at it?

[thesinenobilitate]

@terrendously Gaining knowledge is never a waste of time.

[phr4nk3rd00d13]

@terrendously why not ancient greek, thanks? there is value in studying languages, just for the hell of it, for some. and there is value in studying certain dead languages for all, even. latin is a prime example of this. romance languages are all directly derived from vulgar latin ("vulgar" as in "popular," "common").. latin word roots are quite prevalent in a number of non-romance languages too, like english. latin is a very crucial component of much jargon.. medical terms, etc.

[brandenstone]

Subtitles would be nice for those who cannot understand Latin.

[brandenstone]

Her arm motions are weird, yet it is still pretty common for people to do so during a speech. Her pronunciation sounds rather awkward. I can't complain too much about it considering that native speakers haven't been around for a long time. Italian is probably the best thing to base it off of since in reality we'll never know exactly how they really spoke.

[sweentnhot0104]

I don't understand why she makes those weird motions.... I encounter the same situation with everyone else. You may just speak fluently and still be "speaking" latin

[matt85237]

Did you know this brilliant, attractive Harvard graduate is a Roman Catholic nun? or technically a postulant.  She joined the convent soon after graduation. I ask you to consider; maybe she's not crazy but the world is.

[skanemermaid]

Virgo in aeternum!

[EdwardACS]

She could have said it all normally, but she didn't so... it was really not nice. (:

[NYYROCK]

she became a nun

[Sumqt]

i love mary anne marks

[adenauermartins1]

She has a very bad american accent, only the people who speaks languages like : Italian, Spanish and portuguese speak Latin with a beautiful accent.

[XKS99]

@adenauermartins1

It s right that she have an American accent since American is the new Latin.

[studentquestor]

@adenauermartins1 these languages are in a family of languages that are based on Latin. Especially Italian.

[physphilmusic]

I HATE the AMERICAN ACCENT for LATIN! It makes the whole thing sound pretentious

[TheOnlyFreshFlesh]

whats-the-point?

btw, her accent is horrible

[FunnyGeese]

Do all Harvard valedictorians have to give their speech in Latin? It sounds like they made her, and she used a online translator and memorized what it said. LOL

[golfingfiend09]

@FunnyGeese just to answer this, I think its the salutatory address, and its a tradition at Harvard...I don't go there, but this isn't the first time I've heard something like this. I do agree that it sounds like a translator, but then again its not an epic poem which is meant to be sung and actually sounds interesting. It's whatever, the fact that she can remember the entire speech in latin is astounding

[FunnyGeese]

@golfingfiend09 The thing is that... She didn't even sound like she knew what she was saying at all. Latin does not sound like this!

[golfingfiend09]

@FunnyGeese I wouldn't go as far to say she didn't know what she was talking about, she graduated from Harvard College. And believe me I know what Latin sounds like, I took three years of it, and heard it in a few Classics Lectures, and at Oxford's Commencement and Yale's Commencement. So maybe its a personal opinion, but its tough knowing the exact dialect of a language that existed 1000s of years ago...lest you are a native Roman, and subject of the Empire...Alea iacta est!

[golfingfiend09]

@FunnyGeese ok fine you win....I don't have time for this. If you know what latin sounds like, a language that has been sparsely used since its creation, more power to you.

[FunnyGeese]

@golfingfiend09 Lol... Rosetta Stone and real niggas use it.

[RedRiverGolf]

Harvard optimus universitas est!!!!

[disamjisa]

I will never watch another Harvard latin salutory address on youtube again. It brings out envious no-hopers who think criticising someone for having an accent when they speak a language which isn't native to them somehow makes them look more intelligent.

[Salieri325]

All the while I was hoping that the pimp in the top hat would stand up and assassinate her for her poor pronunciation, false personality, and terrible accent… but he just kept smiling…

[atreyyu1]

why wouldn't they make even the slightest attempt to eliminate the American accent?!

proffeso-RAYZ-kway!... give me a break.

[drew976431]

what a nerd

[drew976431]

Nerd



[loeuvre]

bad bad bad accent.

[skanemermaid]

Margaret, from 'Dennis the Menace', graduates summa cum laude.

[skanemermaid]

Cunting linguistus!

[TheDurtyDeed]

Owned, with reason.

[drbelitz]

I like the example of the genius who went to harvard and now holds the most powerful position in the world, yet has never had a job. He doesn't even understand that you don't fix massive debt with more massive debt. My cousin who is mentally challenged could run the country better than this so called "genius". he is an idiot.

[TheDurtyDeed]

@drbelitz Well, there go those pesky facts again. Obama had jobs before he was elected. Public office, as well, is also considered a job, am I right? JFK never had a job before he entered politics, save a stint in the Navy, but I was in the Army, and it's as much as a "job" as public service. Does having a job before you're a President make you more legitimate? Yes we have major debt, thanks also to GW Bush, but there are many people suffering so that's motive.

[TheDurtyDeed]

@drbelitz I wouldn't wish Obama's position on anyone, it's not as easy as you think it is.  I also don't like Obama at all. He is a yuppy who is letting industry lobbyist walk all over him, which is funny since he was so outspoken about it. Now that he is in, he doesn't talk about lobbyist anymore because they have his balls. Those are real events. This whole mess about communism is just false. It's ad hominem attacks like that that cloud the real arguments.

[drbelitz]

I find it interesting that people who claim to be educated criticise those who believe in god, when most of the greatest good is done by those who believe in God. how many athiests do you know that would give their entire lives to helping the sick and dying in calcutta when no one else would? I know of none. :)

[TheDurtyDeed]

@drbelitz Religion is not the only prerequisite to being moral and being a good person. And it is sometimes far worse. Take all the crusades and inquisitions and European infighting from the 16-18 centuries, and then the more contemporary Ted Haggarts of the world, rich clergy who exploit their followers and do drugs and male hookers on the side. The precursor of morality with religion is a false notion and is shallow argument

[drbelitz]

I find it interesting that people who vlaim to be educated criticise those who believe in god, when most of the greatest good is done by those who believe in God. how many athiests do you know that would give their entire lives to helping the sick and dying in calcutta when no one else would? I know of none. :)

[TheDurtyDeed]

@drbelitz I like how you deleted that comment about scientist saying evolution is a fact, because atheists and scientist the world over have established evolution as a fact, the proof is EVERYWHERE. Glad you made that correction. In regard to doing good and all, could a morally just person with no internal religion do the same good works as Mother Teresa? Of course they could, there's nothing that impairs an atheist from doing great good for people, the religion aspect is immaterial.

[williamqprice]

I think she is answering her call to become a religious, but I don't understand why she gave her speech in Latin. Is there a translation available anywhere?

[drbelitz]

i wonder if wonderboy in the white house who went to harvard and wants everyone to learn spanish so he can welcome illegals into america freely, knows one word of Latin. He is a poser and a communist pig.

[TheDurtyDeed]

@drbelitz He is a lawyer, I bet you he knows gobs more latin than you do. BTW he is not a communist. Could you point to proof that he is communist?

[drbelitz]

@TheDurtyDeed if he is truly a lawyer, then where are all of his cases? where did he ever hold a real job? name me a friend/associate from his past that was not connected to communism. thx :)

[TheDurtyDeed]

@drbelitz Wow, your ignorance is astounding. He did some cases, but you must realize many lawyers never argue in a court room, he worked in a law firm with 20 other lawyers who also did not participate by arguing in court. His main job was a professor of constitutional law at U of Chic, so he couldn't be working in court everyday.

[drbelitz]

@TheDurtyDeed as i stated, he never had a real job nor ran a business, nor even governed anything. he has no experience which qualifies him for the presidency and he is proving it. look at the state of the nation and the economy and now the unemployment level is truly above 10% when he promised it would never get to 8%. this guy talks and talks, but his actions have spoken clearly. he is an islam loving, christian hating communist with all communist friends who hate this nation.

[TheDurtyDeed]

@drbelitz FACTS DUDE, FACTS. He worked at a private law firm for at least 4 years, maybe more, I'm not sure. That's a job. You clock in, you work, you go home, you get paid a check. That's a fucking job dude. JFK didn't even do that. And he was a better president.

[TheDurtyDeed]

@drbelitz BTW, you said " he is an islam loving, christian hating communist with all communist friends who hate this nation." There is no proof that he is a muslim, hates christians, or as I outline before, that he is a communist. And you know what, so what if he was Muslim? Why would that be bad? I for one would prefer an Atheist president, I would rather my leaders use logic and reason rather than put blind faith in the fairy tales of ancient Hebrews.

[TheDurtyDeed]

@drbelitz With regard to Communism, i don't know him personally, so that question is a bit rhetorical. But you made the claim he is a communist, without any proof, so the burden of proof is on you to support that claim. He never stated he was a communist, he's not even a socialist, he is simply a progressive that you don't like. He was a professor of constitutional law for crying out loud, where does that fit with communism? I argue with facts and logic, you use emotion and false claims

[drbelitz]

@TheDurtyDeed name something he has imposed on this nation that isn't communist in nature? spending into oblivion until it is irreversable so that the nation will fall? that not communist? government overriding the people on the healthcare bill and threatening senators in order to get votes as he did with ben nelson. thats not communist? i could go on and on. marxist at the least. this guy is a puppet for this progressive agnda.

[TheDurtyDeed]

@drbelitz That's not communist, it's just risky. Wait, do know what communism really is? You're using alot of definitions, so I don't think you quite grasp what real communism is. Hey, he is a politician and he definitely a progressive, but he is not a socialist, and he not a communist. for one, being a political bully is not communist, every President does that. OMG, do you remember Dick Cheney and Karl Rove? They were bullies as well.

[ozarkmac]

She kind of looks like the church lady at a younger age.

[drbelitz]

@ozarkmac Why don't you give us some of that twinge of intelligence you are hiding somewhere?

[ozarkmac]

Convent - noun - Place for women to go when they couldnt get laid on any planet in the universe at any time.

[drbelitz]

@ozarkmac A place for women to go who choose something much greater in life than "getting laid" and choose to be closer to their creator and serve others for life. more than you could ever aspire to.

[TheDurtyDeed]

@drbelitz closer to a creator? Jesus, why is that still a virtue? There is no Intellegent creator, Nature is the creator.

[drbelitz]

@TheDurtyDeed Thats an interesting thought(nature is the creator). What is nature? where does it get its intelligence and can you prove that it has intelligence?

[TheDurtyDeed]

@drbelitz Why is that an interesting thought? It's a scientific fact. There is no conscious (intelligent) creator, Nature formed us through billions of years of evolution. If there is "God," then who created God? It's a myth, this genius woman is throwing her reason and knowledge into the dumpster by becoming a nun (which she is apparently doing right now).

[drbelitz]

@TheDurtyDeed If you had an iota of intelligence in that tiny brain of yours, you would know that not one single athiest of our time, or scientist has ever claimed that what you are saying is a scientific fact, ever. In fact, the greatest minds of our time have announced that time had a beginning, so therefore something/someone had to bring time and space about. what was it? where did the time and space and matter derive from?

[TheDurtyDeed]

@drbelitz Oh on the contrary, just about any biological scientist, cosmologist, or anyone who has past a masters in science will undeniably claim evolution is fact. It's a fact, god what more do you need? Read ANY objective book cosmology and biology and evolution is claimed as a fact, because there is a MOUNTAIN of evidence, gene flow, mutation, fossil records, it's all there. For fuck's sake, read a goddamn book every once in a while.

[drbelitz]

@TheDurtyDeed can you please prove to me, tangibly that you have an intillect and consciousness? prove it scientifically on paper and show me the evidence of it that I can actually see with my own two eyes. you cannot, therefore you believe in something that you can't see nor prove tangibly. sounds like you are in the same boat as me, except that the vast majority of the world agrees with me and has since before the education system ever came into existence. the catholic church gave us college

[TheDurtyDeed]

@drbelitz Well I get you where you are going with that, but let's looks at this objectively. Yes, our consciousness is an enigma to a degree, but we do observe it, and in a scientific method way, we have objectively observed our consciousness externally. However, claiming there is a god and claiming to KNOW the creation story as if you were there is done without a shred of proof. We can observe consciousness, but we still don't understand it. We can't observe gods at all, so it's unknowable

[croissantanyone]

Hey liberals, this is what an educate person looks like. Strange she graduated from Harvard.

[shysterlicious]

Smart lady. More like you we need (of men, too).

[les1l]

coitus interruptus !

[blah0492]

what's the point of this? i bet 10% of her audience understands what she's saying.

[TopherBrink]

@blah0492 - All Harvard students have to take Latin. This salutatory speech is given in Latin every year. And Ms. Marks is speaking quite slowly. So I think that a large majority of her audience were probably able to understand most of the speech. Could all of them understand all of her speech? Surely not... but not all the Catholic bishops at Vatican II could understand all the Latin speeches either!

[blah0492]

@TopherBrink oh ok. then excuse my ignorance

[ammazzamoro]

Good on her for joining the convent. The world needs prayers. I also give her lauds for the whole Latin speech. The only negative thing I can think of is the unnerving anti-Catholic, non-historical pronounciation that's been ingloriously imposed upon us.

[TopherBrink]

@ammazzamoro - I hate this pronunciation too, and much prefer ecclesiastical Latin. But prior to the Germanic invasions, this is how Latin really did sound. The German invasions led to the W-sounds being replaced by V-sounds, and various other changes.

[ammazzamoro]

@TopherBrink

I wonder how true that is. I do have a gut feeling that tells me there was many different Latin variations. There must be several denominators; Barbarians included. I've learnt my pronounciation as a result of spending my teens with Portuguese folks, studying Spanish at university, buffered by my Italian. From what I understand applying a Portuguese stress to Latin works wonders. My Spanish sounds like I'm from Argentina (so I am told) since I apply Italian stresses to it.

[dreed007]

Congratulations and God bless you.

[gfie03]

The beautiful Havard grad is entering the convent this fall - August 28, 2010.

Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist

[PeterKuriakose]

English, por favor!

[VictorLepanto]

If it were up to me, I'd teach Latin to every American student from Kindergarten up. After all Roman babies learned Latin from their cribs. It is simply a language like any other. Except for this, it is foundation for all of Western Civilisation. We as English speakers are part of that civilisation. We need Latin to understan ourselves. It would also open the door to all the other Latin based languages.

[PeterKuriakose]

@VictorLepanto Sir Winston Churchil toileted Latin to better himself at English.

[ammazzamoro]

@PeterKuriakose

Gosh! The toilet. What did Latin ever do to you?

[angelwdirtyface]

@VictorLepanto ....... really you serious? english is germanic anglo-saxon...not latin based :| ....

[VictorLepanto]

@angelwdirtyface: This doesn't in any way diminish the fact that Western Civilisation is based on the fusion of the Greek & Latin world. Britain was part of the Roman Empire. It was further influenced by centuries of a Latin speaking Church. The very fact of your user name, angel is a Latin origin word. It is nearly impossible to speak English w/o using Latin terms.

[Ripplenator]

@angelwdirtyface: At least half of English derives from Latin.

[fearawen]

Yay Mary Anne! Bona est! My Latin's just extant enough to pick out some of the words and get a little bit of the gist. I know you talked a lot about the library. :-)

[rumpranger65]

EW!! I like ecclesiastical pronunciation better. Say "sapiensia" not "sapientia"! lol

Still, this is something great. Wonderful job!

[basherte1]

Just wonderful!

(Magister Mayer, are you listening?)

[Saucy1998]

El tuto!

[PhoenixLament87]

Optimum est!

[tburriss]

Splendid. Well done and thank you.

[tvo1688]

Why does one have to know Latin to be considered latin? The greeks and the chinese and egyptians and babylonians were the fathers of modern thought and intellect long before the Romans.

[Ripplenator]

This is awesome! All colleges and universities should expose students to a modicum of Latin. How can one be considered educated yet not know even know a few Latin phrases?

[angelwdirtyface]

@Ripplenator what does that have to do with anything? I can't find the correlation between the latin knowledge and intelligence, please explain it to me...

[Ripplenator]

@angelwdirtyface: Although there is a correlation between the ability to learn another language and intelligence, there is no correlation per se between Latin & intelligence. There is in terms of "education." Originally, all universities taught in Latin. To be educated necessitated understanding the language.

[VictorLepanto]

@Ripplenator: It still requires knowing Latin. The culture which existed in Latin is still in Latin. We simply can't throw centuries of Western civilisation down the Orwellian memory hole. But we are doing just that. We have lost the capacity to understand where we came from.

[Ripplenator]

@VictorLepanto: Agreed! Non tam preclarum est scire Latine quam turpe nescire.

[TheEcumenator]

honestly if a priest ever pronounced latin this way, the church would excommunicate him!

[zzzdude8]

Goddamn nerds can't learn English right.

[4902STEVEN]

@zzzdude8 Ad infernum tecum!