Latin
Latin (latīnum, [laˈtiːnʊ̃] or lingua latīna, [ˈlɪŋɡʷa laˈtiːna]) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area around present-day Rome (then known as Latium),[2] but through the power of the Roman Republic it became the dominant language in Italian region and subsequently throughout the Roman Empire. Even after the fall of Western Rome, its literary form, Literary Latin remained the common language of international communication, science, scholarship and academia in Europe until well into the 18th century, when other regional vernaculars (including its own descendants, the Romance languages) supplanted it in common academic and political usage, and it eventually became a dead language in the modern linguistic definition.
Latin | |
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lingua latīna | |
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Pronunciation | [laˈtiːna] |
Native to | |
Region | Originally in the Italian Peninsula, and the zone of influence of the Roman Empire. Today, it is official in Vatican City, although Italian is the working language there. |
Ethnicity | Latins, Romans |
Era | Attested from 7th century BC. Vulgar Latin developed during the Early Middle Ages into the Romance languages. Literary Latin, beginning with its original form, Classical Latin, developed into a number of succeding forms, with current form being Contemporary Latin. |
Latin alphabet | |
Official status | |
Official language in | ![]() ![]() |
Regulated by |
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Language codes | |
ISO 639-1 | la |
ISO 639-2 | lat |
ISO 639-3 | lat |
Glottolog | impe1234 lati1261 |
Linguasphere | 51-AAB-aa to 51-AAB-ac |
![]() Map indicating the greatest extent of the Roman Empire under Emperor Trajan (c. 117 AD) and the area governed by Latin speakers (dark red). Many languages other than Latin were spoken within the empire. | |
![]() Range of the Romance languages, the modern descendants of Latin, in Europe. | |
Latin is a highly inflected language, with three distinct genders, six or seven noun cases, five declensions, four verb conjugations, six tenses, three persons, three moods, two voices, two or three aspects, and two numbers. The Latin alphabet is directly derived from the Etruscan and Greek alphabets.
Latin can be divided into two forms: Vulgar Latin and Literary Latin. Vulgar Latin was the colloquial form spoken at that time among lower-class commoners and attested in inscriptions and the works of comic playwrights like Plautus and Terence[3] and author Petronius. It developed in the 6th to 9th centuries into the modern Romance languages. By contrast, Literary Latin was a variety of Latin specially developed for literary purposes. Up until today, it appeared in multiple forms, succeding each other. By the late Roman Republic (75 BC), Old Latin had been standardised into Classical Latin, first form of Literary Latin used by educated Roman elites. Late Latin is the written language from the 3rd century until the 9th century.Medieval Latin was used during the Middle Ages as a literary language from the 9th century to the Renaissance, which then used Renaissance Latin. Later, New Latin evolved during the early modern era to eventually become various forms of rarely spoken Contemporary Latin, one of which, the Ecclesiastical Latin, remains the official language of the Holy See and the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church at Vatican City.
Latin has also greatly influenced the English language and historically contributed many words to the English lexicon via the Christianization of Anglo-Saxons and the Norman conquest. In particular, Latin (and Ancient Greek) roots are still used in English descriptions of theology, science disciplines (especially anatomy and taxonomy), medicine and law.