A friend of mine told the story of
how their eldest daughter (upper elementary age) had taunted her little sister
for being “ig-NOR-ant” of some fact. The mother had responded, “If you are
going to call somebody ignorant, you should probably pronounce it correctly.”
I feel a little bit like that mom
when I see scholars using inaccurate forms of terms borrowed from other
languages. If we are going to toss around Latin phrases, we should probably make
sure our grammar, spelling, and pronunciation are correct. I am referring to
variations of the phrase represented by the abbreviation CV, which is widely
used in academic circles. It stands for “curriculum vitae,” and can be
translated “course of life.” Although “vita” is the correct nominative form of
the word for “life,” when it is used in the prepositional phrase it must be
written “vitae” meaning “of life”. (“Vitae”
is also the plural nominative form, which might be a source of some of the
confusion.)
All that to say, “curriculum vita” is
never correct. Only when it stands alone could “vita” be used to describe the
summary of an individual’s life. “Curriculum vitas” (meaning more than one CV)
is also erroneous. To refer to more than one such document, the correct form is
“curricula vitae” (“courses of life”). Oh, and it is properly pronounced “vee-TIE,”
not “vee-TAY.”
Who cares? Or more to the point, who
would even know? Probably only a handful of Latin scholars would recognize
these errors, but excellent scholarship by definition demands accuracy in as
many details as humanly possible. Practicing precision is habitual for
outstanding scholars, in small matters as well as large.
