Yesterday, in one of the many daily email newsletters I subscribe to and generally love reading, I had to disagree with the premise the writer started with.

The question was, in the scope of leadership, why can't we evolve like words do?

The claim: Words can alter their meaning, so us leaders can do the same. That's essentially how it went.

However, words don't change their meaning. People change the meaning of the words.

This is not a hard concept to understand.

Human beings have agency. Words are just there.

The way people interpret the words is meaningful. By their nature, the words themselves are merely sounds and symbols.

This was obvious to previous generations. My grandmother repeated the mantra to us, "Sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me."

So, the degree to which words have meaning is entirely dependent on the person reading or listening to them.

One of the reasons Ecclesiastical Latin remains the official language of the Catholic Church is precisely because the meanings of the words have never changed and never will be changed.

It's called a "dead language" by some, but this is not really true. Ecclesiastical Latin was never spoken as a native language to begin with.

It is a combination of:

• Vulgar Latin – the popular or spoken form of the language in the late Roman Republic and thereafter.

• Classical Latin – the literary standard of the Republic and Empire periods of Rome. Typically, the Latin that used to be widely taught in schools.

• Greek – still the lingua franca of much of the Empire at the time the Gospels were written. The New Testament was first written in Greek and much of the early writing by the Church Fathers was in Greek. Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius (121 – 180 AD) even wrote his Meditations in Koine Greek—the common dialect that remains the liturgical language of Greek Eastern Orthodox and many Greek Catholic churches.

• Hebrew – the language containing the literary standard of the people of the Bible.

• Aramaic – the native tongue of Jesus and most if not all the Apostles.

Ecclesiastical Latin shares much of the structure and vocabulary with Classical Latin, but includes many of the informal elements used in Vulgar Latin. It uses "loan words" from these other languages that have been re-purposed with Christian meaning.

But, codified within Ecclesiastical Latin, these words will never change their meaning. They can't.

The Vulgate—the Latin translation of the Bible—is and forever will be the standard. There will, however, always be problems with any number of the English language translations (or any other vernacular translation)  of the Bible. Such is the nature of translations.

Since most people cannot understand foreign—particularly ancient foreign—language, there is a necessity for translations into our native tongues. These translations are regularly being updated and modified, though, thanks to modern usage, syntax, and structure.

In other words, the Latin is always the Latin and the English is always the English, and they may not mean exactly the same thing. Same thing goes with many English words of my childhood. The words are the same, but meanings change with modern usage.

Why? I don't know exactly. Furthermore, this is probably the subject of a 500-page book, not a short email.

English terminology from the era of the publication of the Douay-Rheims Bible—the first official translation of the Vulgate into English in the late-16th and early-17th centuries—is wildly different than what you hear from people today.

Again, the words did not change. The dictionaries still have—or should maintain—those meanings. Yet, the way people use or interpret some of the various words and phrases have most definitely changed.

Slang, colloquialisms, and misinterpretation sneaking into the vernacular can and does materially change the language. H. L. Mencken wrote an entire treatise on the matter, his thesis being the "American Language" is different than the "English Language."

For an idea of the scope: The abridged version of The American Language runs 777 pages.

Anyhow, standardization of pronunciation for Ecclesiastical Latin began during the time of Charlemagne in the 8th century, but pronunciation—to this day—is still influenced somewhat by the "accent" of the local vernacular language. Nevertheless, the words don't change (aside from some typesetting and the incorporation of the letter J/j in to the alphabet).

But the words in English never change, either. There may be new ones that emerge—something that won't happen within Ecclesiastical Latin. Spelling might be a little different here and there, but standardized spelling is one of the fruits of the American Revolution.

An individual, a dictionary publisher, or a cultural movement of some sort can and do add—I hesitate to say change—different meanings to English words. The more people use certain words in certain settings, the understanding of the words shift.

But the words don't "change."

Mencken was spot-on with his analysis. With what we call "English" in the States, there is a synonymous structure and vocabulary with English in … duh, England. Although, in America there exists a distinct language: The American Language, for lack of a better term.

All this being said, we as leaders (or people in general) can and do "evolve" during our lifetimes. But the evolution is nothing like that of words.

We alone possess the agency to change ourselves. Other people may try to change us, but, unlike the way it is with words, another person lacks the ability to modify what exists at the core of our being.

As always,

Brian

P.S. – As it relates to Latin and the Church, there are a couple books to look at that I've found incredibly worthwhile.

• Sacred Then and Sacred Now: The Return of the Old Latin Mass by Thomas E. Woods, Jr.

Tom's book is a concise explanation of the importance, the history, the mechanics, and the necessity of the Traditional Latin Mass in today's world.

On a side note, I now work with Tom (though in a different realm than the subject of this book) … Go to briandoleary.com/tsol for more. We'd like to have you join us.

• The Eternal City: Rome & the Origins of Catholic Christianity by Taylor R. Marshall

Dr. Marshall is worth listening to on many fronts. He is a top podcaster when it comes to Catholic philosophy and current events, a theology professor with his own online institute, and a bestselling author of many books. Also a cattleman in Texas.