How is latin spoken

With no central power promoting and standardizing usage of Classical Latin, it gradually passed away from everyday usage. Vulgar Latin , essentially a simplified version of the mother tongue, survived for a while but diverged more and more as it folded in various local languages. By the end of the sixth century, people from different sections of the former empire could no longer understand each other.

Latin had died as a living language. Still, due to the overwhelming prevalence of Latin in early Western literature, medicine and science, Latin as a language of antiquity never quite went extinct -- a term which has its own particular meaning in linguistics.

Today, Latin is still used in many technical fields, medical terminology and taxonomy , the scientific classification of species. Britannica: Romance Languages. This article has been reviewed in accordance with our editorial policy. But hey, books are great. Join the Latinitium newsletter because we regularly send out tips , updates and learning material.

Learn Latin. Can Latin be Spoken? Common questions answered by a Latin speaker. By Daniel Pettersson. But this would soon change. As Rome continued to expand, it came into contact with the Greeks and eventually conquered them by BC. Walking into a Greek city, the Romans were awed by what they found. Greece was an advanced culture. This contact would lead to a great flowering for the Latin language.

At first, the Romans were just copy-cats. They took Greek culture and adapted it for a Roman audience. It seems the first type of literature the Romans plagiarized from the Greeks would be the one they already knew a little something about: theatrical plays!

They had learned theater from the Etruscans, if you recall. Some of the oldest Latin literature we have are the plays written by Plautus around BC. Surprisingly enough, the encounter between Greek and Latin was actually a family reunion. Linguists describe the relationship between Latin and Greek as cognate : This means they are actually siblings. Though the two would have a long history together, neither pre-dates the other. Rather, both descend from a common mother language.

This mother language remains unknown — perhaps she was numbered among the casualties of imperial expansion? Before encountering the Greeks, early Latin was a language for warfare, trade, and law. It was muscular, practical, and unrefined. But by imitating Greek culture, Latin writers cut their teeth on literature, poetry, and music. They would eventually tap into their artful side, find their own voice, and become a Classical Language like Greek.

In the late Roman Republic, the Latin language made huge advances. Works were produced which showed this Italic language was capable of great eloquence, subtlety, precision, and lyricism.

The Romans would invent a term for the literature which appeared during this period. Thus Classical Latin was born. For centuries, the works from the Classical period would be the model for proper Latin as opposed to vulgar Latin.

The first books on Latin grammar and spelling were soon to follow. This helped create a standard form of Latin which slowed the rate of change. A few centuries after Christ, late Latin became the equal of Greek as a language of literature, philosophy, science, and theology. When the Roman Empire collapsed, Latin carried on. Even after no one spoke it as a first language, it continued to be spoken as the official language of educated discourse.

It seemed a shame to let it go to waste. For modern people, learning Latin creates the opportunity to converse with the past. There are thousands of books in Latin since it was spoken for centuries even after it died, and only a fraction of these have been translated into English!

Latin also helps us converse with the Romance languages of the present! Get it? Roman-ce languages! French, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian, Italian — all of these and more are direct descendants from Latin. The resemblance is so striking that by learning Latin, you could learn to pick up any Romance language in record time.

If you visit Vatican City today, you will find the Roman Catholic Church still publishes all major documents and decisions in Latin. Since the Roman Catholic Church has been an international institution since the early middle ages, this actually helps them overcome modern language barriers.

Finally, English has much to gain from making contact with Latin , just like Latin had much to gain from contacting Greek. Even though English is not a Romance language, she has been deeply formed by Mother Latin over the centuries. So much so, we could say English is one of her adopted children!

Maintaining this relationship could help to enrich and beautify English as it continues to develop. He is a historian and Patristics scholar, and a graduate student at Wheaton College.

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To put it briefly — about 2, years old. Remus, Romulus, and the She-Wolf. Approximate boundaries of language groups on the Italian peninsula during the 6th century BC. Roman actors in a mosaic from Pompeii. Inside St. Online Latin Courses. What Are the Romance Languages? We Write Letters. Well, emails really