Those searching for period names may wish to visit the Rootsweb website, which includes an extensive list of period occupations with descriptions, many of which have become surnames.

The Iris Project wants to bring the classics to British schools. To that end, the charity is sending "Oxford University undergraduates into primary schools in Blackbird Leys, Headington and Kidlington to teach the ancient language to nine and 10-year-olds."

The debate continues among archeologists and linguists over the symbols on over 200 carved stones dating to the time of the Picts in Scotland. Archeologists feel that the carvings are "symbolic markings that communicated information."

In 1066, William the Conqueror invaded England. Since then, Norman names, such as William, Henry and Alice, have dominated Brittish naming preferences, and it is in the language where they may have left their greatest mark.

Archeologists digging at Magdalena de Cao Viejo in Peru have found a letter written in the eary 17th century by a Spanish colonist. On the back of the letter is a list of numbers written in Spanish, Arabic numerals, and an unknown language.

A new website, PASE Domesday, allows users to search William the Conqueror's 1086 Domesday book by person and village. The results can be seen in tabular or map form.

A British anthropologist is going to live for a year with the Inughuit in Greenland in the hopes of studying and documenting their language. The Inughuit are the northernmost tribe of Inuits in Greenland and speak Inuktun, a non-written language that is considered a pure dialect of Inuit.

Latin teacher and blogger Denis Ambrose, Jr. is often asked to justify his existence to people who think "high school is nothing more than preparation for college, and college is nothing more than job training." He has compiled a list of five pragmatic reasons to study classics.

Long thought to be artistic images of hunters and animals, the engravings on the famous Iron Age Pictish Stones are now believed to be the written language of the Pictish people, an ancient language recognized by the Venerable Bede.

In the village of Maaloula, Syria, the ancient language Aramaic is still spoken but endangered.

THL Justinian Clarus, of the Kingdom of Ealdormere, reports that he has created a website for his class Speaking Forsoothly for Newcomers.

A recent Scottish campaign to restore the Scottish language is meeting with some resistance - from the Scottish people.

For his next project, filmmaker Mel Gibson may be returning to a childhood dream. "The very first idea that I ever had about making a film, my first thought ever about being a filmmaker was when I was 16-years-old, and I wanted to make a Viking movie," Gibson told journalists at a press event.

"There was no heating in the Sacred Heart RC church in Bridgeton, a vast 100-year-old building in the bosom of a parish first established in 1873. Perhaps that was because there were only 31 of us in the congregation, but being freezing cold certainly helped focus the mind. After all, they do say austerity is good for the soul," writes reporter Cate Devine of the Herald Scotland after attending a recent Latin mass.

A major multi-year study, five years underway, seeks to provide the first detailed grammar of the 3400-year-old Greek language as it evolved from 1100 to 1700 CE.

Students of the John Carroll School Latin 2 class found themselves dissatisfied with their textbook depiction of ancient Celts and Gauls. Their solution? Create a wiki of online links relating to the subject. (map)

Hebrew? Persian? Pirate Speak? Now Latin is the latest translation to be added to Facebook's Translations application.

Test your knowledge of medieval terms in an online quiz by Melissa Snell, and posted on About.com. The terms were taken from Melissa's Medieval History Blog "Medieval History Glossary."

Why study Latin? Charlotte Higgins, author of Latin Love Lessons and It's All Greek to Me makes the case in her "On Culture" blog for The Guardian.

Those interested in the evolution of languages will want to visit The University of Texas at Austin's Linguistics Research Center's website, where they may view extensive research on the evolution of Indo-European languages. The site includes timelines and maps to help understand the development of a number of languages.

Linguistics experts at Reading University have used computer model analysis to date English words and to predict which words may soon become extinct.

Looking for the perfect gift of an SCA linguist or herald? Wondering what to get that shire-mate with a Welsh persona? How about Scrabble yn Gymraeg, Scrabble in Welsh?

Manx Gaelic, an off-shoot of Old Irish, thought to have died out in the 19th century, is being revived thanks to the efforts of Manx scholar Jennifer Kewley Draskau, who has published "Practical Manx, a guide to the grammar and morphology of the language."

Bart Simpson would have a field day if he visited England with some of its "unfortunate" place names such as Pratts Bottom, a village in Kent, or Crapstone in Devon. Hazel Thompson of the New York Times looks at some historic names which might bring a snicker.

On the blog Proof for the New York Times, Iain Gately ponders the history of hangovers and the euphemisms used to deal with them.

A 7th century inscription in stone by an Arabic traveler may help solve a mystery about the Qur'an pondered by scholars for centuries: Why was the text seemingly written without diacritical marks?

Classical scholars in Great Britain are appalled by the recent decision by some local councils to ban the use of Latin words and phrases from official documents. The bureaucrats say that Latin is no longer widely understood.

An 11th century spindle, discovered recently in Reykjavík, Iceland, is inscribed with ruins which may be the oldest yet discovered in the country.

In his weekly podcast for September 24, 2008, humorist Garrison Keillor commemorates the 1066 Norman invasion of England with a discussion of how the French language affected food and cooking terms.

Latin, the language once considered dead and buried, is finding new life in New York's suburbs where middle school students hope to increase test scores, or read Harry Potter's Latin spells by studying the language.