In the mythology of the ancient Sumerian and Babylonian civilisations, both centred across modern-day Iraq, the fearsome demon Anzu was represented as a giant winged bird. Appropriate, then, that the scientists who discovered a 300kg dinosaur reminiscent of a chicken named it partly after the ancient god.
The researchers who discovered Anzu wylie originally contemplated calling it “chicken from hell” in Latin. But such a name – which would have ended up as something like pullum ex inferno – hardly trips off the tongue, as few Latin words and phrases do these days.
In the Middle East, education in the “the classics” tends to mean an understanding of the history and culture of Arabic and Persian. In Western Europe, it often means learning Latin. But the language is dead: no new works of culture are produced in it. Arabic and Farsi have fared rather better, but that is no cause for complacency. Like the creatures they are used to name, great languages can easily die out, and it is often easier to bring the former back to public life than the latter.
