Latin

## Overview

**Latin** is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. The Latin alphabet is derived from the Etruscan and Greek alphabets, and ultimately from the Phoenician alphabet.

Latin was originally spoken in Latium, in the Italian Peninsula. Through the power of the Roman Republic, it became the dominant language, initially in Italy and subsequently throughout the western Roman Empire. Vulgar Latin developed into the Romance languages, such as Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, French, and Romanian. Latin, Greek, and French have contributed many words to the English language. In particular, Latin and Ancient Greek roots are used in theology, biology, science, medicine, and law.

By the late Roman Republic (75 BC), Old Latin had been standardised into Classical Latin. Vulgar Latin was the colloquial form spoken during the same time and attested in inscriptions and the works of comic playwrights like Plautus and Terence. Late Latin is the written language from the 3rd century, and Medieval Latin the language used from the 9th century to the Renaissance which used Renaissance Latin. Later, Early Modern Latin and Modern Latin evolved. Latin was used as the language of international communication, scholarship, and science until well into the 18th century, when it began to be supplanted by vernaculars. Ecclesiastical Latin remains the official language of the Holy See and the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church.

Latin is taught in primary, secondary, and postsecondary educational institutions around the world.

Latin is a highly inflected language, with three distinct genders, seven noun cases, five declensions, four verb conjugations, four verb principal parts, six tenses, three persons, three moods, two voices, two aspects and two numbers.

## Vulgar Latin

Philological analysis of Archaic Latin works, such as those of Plautus, which contain snippets of everyday speech, indicates that a spoken language, Vulgar Latin (termed *sermo vulgi*, "the speech of the masses", by Cicero), existed concurrently with literate Classical Latin. The informal language was rarely written, so philologists have been left with only individual words and phrases cited by classical authors and those found as graffiti.

As it was free to develop on its own, there is no reason to suppose that the speech was uniform either diachronically or geographically. On the contrary, romanised European populations developed their own dialects of the language, which eventually led to the differentiation of Romance languages. The decline of the Roman Empire meant a deterioration in educational standards that brought about Late Latin, a postclassical stage of the language seen in Christian writings of the time. It was more in line with everyday speech, not only because of a decline in education but also because of a desire to spread the word to the masses.

Despite dialectal variation, which is found in any widespread language, the languages of Spain, France, Portugal, and Italy retained a remarkable unity in phonological forms and developments, bolstered by the stabilizing influence of their common Christian (Roman Catholic) culture. It was not until the Moorish conquest of Spain in 711 cut off communications between the major Romance regions that the languages began to diverge seriously. The Vulgar Latin dialect that would later become Romanian diverged somewhat more from the other varieties, as it was largely cut off from the unifying influences in the western part of the Empire.

One key marker of whether a given Romance feature was found in Vulgar Latin is to compare it with its parallel in Classical Latin. If it was not preferred in Classical Latin, then it most likely came from the undocumented contemporaneous Vulgar Latin. For example, the Romance for "horse" (Italian *cavallo*, French *cheval*, Spanish *caballo*, Portuguese *cavalo* and Romanian *cal*) came from Latin *caballus*. However, Classical Latin used *equus*. Therefore *caballus* was most likely the spoken form.

Vulgar Latin began to diverge into distinct languages by the 9th century at the latest, when the earliest extant Romance writings begin to appear. They were, throughout the period, confined to everyday speech, as Medieval Latin was used for writing.

## Latin excerpt from Wikipedia article "Imperium Romanum"

Octavius, divite sed non nobilissime gente anno 63 a.C.n. orto, quod a Gaio Iulio Caesare in filium adoptatus est, heres Caesaris factus est et nomen Octaviani sumpsit, post mortem Caesaris atque hoc nomen.

Bello civili post Caesarem interfectum exorto Marcum Antonium, pristinum Triumviratus collegam, qui una cum Cleopatra regina Aegypti rerum potiri imminebat, apud Actium anno 31 a.C.n. devicit. Scripsit ipse postea in rebus gestis, quas multis in locis imperii Romani inscribi iussit, se "rem publicam a dominatione factionis oppressam in libertatem vindicavi(sse)".

Anno 27 a.C.n. imperia, quibus inter bellum civilem solus rexerat, formaliter deposuit, postea autem sibi tribuniciam potestatem et summum imperium legionum provinciarum ad limitem sitarum tempore certo deferri fecit, quod et in posterum erat imperii fundamentum (vide Principatus Romanus).

Auctoritas principis multis ex honoribus et civilibus et militaribus aucta est, inter quas pluries honore consulis (annis usque ad 27 a.C.n.) et pontificis maximi (anno 13 a.C.n. aut 12 a.C.n.). Ter triumphans etiam imperator appellatus est. Tribunus plebis, etsi tribunicia potestate gaudebat, non fuit, quia in patriciam gentem adoptatus erat (Iulii erant stirps Veneris ipsae!). Anno 27 a.C.n. senatus ei nomen Augusti detulit, quod in disputando, an Romulus appellaretur, sententia praevaluit "ut Augustus potius vocaretur, non tantum novo sed etiam ampliore cognomine, quod loca quoque religiosa et in quibus augurato quid consecratur augusta dicantur . . . , sicut etiam Ennius docet scribens: Augusto augurio postquam incluta condita Roma est."Una cum nomine etiam clipeus virtutis traditus est, in quo Augusti fortitudo, clementia, iustitia, pietas erga deos patriamque celebratae sunt. Anno 8 a.C.n. senatui placuit, posthac mensem Sextilem Augustum vocari; anno 2 a.C.n. denique pater patriae appellatus est.

Octavianus certe divitissimus erat Romanorum; copiis quin uteretur, ut plebi acceptus esset, non dubitavit. Inter alia pro populo multos ludos edidit. Praeterea numerosa opera publica exstrui iussit, sicut Forum Augustum cum templo Martis Ultoris et templum Apollinis in Palatio.

Augustus etiam religionem moresque Romanos restituere conatus est, quia "moribus antiquis stat res Romana virisque."Matrimonio procreationique favit (uxorem liberisque carentibus vestigal imposuit) et nimis in veneralibus indulgere nobilibus vetavit. Romae quinquaginta tres templa refecit et ritus eorum neglectos restauravit. Se ipsum vindicem rei publicae restituroremque pacis in monumentis (Ara Pacis Augustae), statuis (Augustus loricatus), nummis, litteris celebrari fecit.

Quidam poetarum inter maximos linguae Latinae Augusto principe et ab eodem adiuti opera sua scripserunt, in quibus Vergilius, Horatius et Ovidius, qui ultimus quidem a principe in exilium missus est, propter "duo crimina, carmen et error", ut Ovidius ipse scripsit.

Augustus multas leges ad officia emendenda intulit. Patricios corruptos ex officiis amovit et honores sollertibus equitibus detulit (ut Pontio Pilato), et in locum publicanorum saepe corruptorum magistratus substituit, qui vectigalia exigerent. Senatum bellis civilibus ac proscriptionibus valde mutatum Augustus favoribus in suas partes traxit.

Exercitus diminuit; Aegyptum in provinciam redegit, regiones in Alpibus, Hispania septentrionali et in Balcania sitae expugnavit; a conatu, ut Germaniam transrhenanam in provinciam redigeret, clade Variana accepta discessit; cum Parthis foedere controversias composuit. Defendere magis quam occupare sors facta est militum Romanorum Augusto regnante.