Here's an amusing article on Latin as a living language. Apparently the Vatican employs a committee of lucky sods who get to spend their days choosing the best Latin terms for such modern innovations as the hot dog (pastillum botello fartum) or the hippie (conformitatis osor). I am not astounded, though, by the news that the Finnish Broadcasting Company has been putting out weekly bulletins in Latin for fourteen years, for their fellow countryman Dr. Jukka Ammondt has surely gone them one better. Dr. Ammondt put out a recording some time back of Elvis songs in Latin, and his work eventually earned him a medal from the Pope. He was not content to rest on his laurels, however, as he has gone on to record a translation of Blue Suede Shoes into Sumerian. Bravo!

"But my sandals of sky-blue leather do not touch" comes out in Sumerian, the world's oldest written language (it died out around 2000 BC), as: "Nig-na-me si-ib-ak-ke-en, e-sir kus-za-gin-gu ba-ra-tag-ge-en."

"Elvis would have fitted just fine in the Sumerian society, for love songs and intoxicating music were important parts of the enormously popular cult of the goddess Inanna."