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ABSTRACT: This article presents data from the first Census Latinus (2009) and examines CL's purpose, prospects, and relevance. The main goals of Census Latinus (CL) are to survey the people who are today using Latin and to investigate the circumstances in which Latin is deployed in contemporary life. CL2009 collected data on the number and age of Latin language users, on Latin users' gender, country of origin, country and city of residence, experience in language use, duration of experience, attended institutions, and books used for language learning. CL has relevance for the current status of Latin as a language and for Latin pedagogy.

I.Overview

In A Festschrift for Native Speaker,1 we find the following note about Latin: "No present-day speakers exist."2 Commenting on this, Raimund Pfister remarks: "Thereby is expressly denied not only the existence of a [Latin] native speaker, but of a [Latin] speaker at all. There are, however, Latin speakers in large numbers. And I will not even mention Latin writers."3 Today, there are many and manifold meetings for Latin speakers organized by and targeting professional classicists and nonprofessional users of the Latin language. There are at least three periodicals whose articles are written exclusively in Latin and a number of other philological publications that enthusiastically welcome papers written in the Roman language.4 It suffices to visit the internet to find a number of Latin-promoting organizations and venues to practice "active Latin." These organizations give evidence of a bourgeoning community of Latin users.5 What is this community of Latin users? Who and how many are its members? Which Latin language abilities do they have? Which schools, colleges, or universities are associated with the use of Latin, or which endorse and promote speaking, writing, reading, and listening comprehension in Latin? Which Latin language textbooks do the members of this community use? Which language abilities are fostered by these textbooks?

In order to answer these and other questions, I designed Census Latinus (CL), whose first iteration appeared in 2009. As presented in its on-line introductory page (see section 2), the Census taken in 2009 (CL2009) was a collaborative undertaking of faculty members belonging to two institutions: Western Washington University and the Academia Latinitati Fovendae (ALF).6 The first page also declared CL's two main goals. First,...

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