About the Latin Language

[AureliaeLacrimae]

A little history is always good, isn't it? This is just a little bit about the Latin language, its origin and relation to other languages of the Indo-European family.

 

Latin was, primarily, the language of the city of Rome and its vicinity, named after the tribe which lived in Latium. As the Roman state grew, so did its influence on other, smaller areas which soon started to adopt and favour Latin over other languages, some of which were Umbrian (spoken by Umbri of Umbria) and Oscan (the language of southern Italy). When the Roman Republic conquered the whole peninsula, Latin became the official language. As Rome expanded further to other areas such as Europe, northern Africa and western Asia, Latin became one of the world's languages.

 

Latin is one of the Indo-European languages, among which are also Sanskrit (Old Indian language), Greek, the Slavic languages and Germanic languages (and many more). Latin shares a lot of the common things with these languages (e.g. lat. mater, si. matar, gr. meter, ger. Mutter, slav. mati, eng. mother). Romance languages developed from common Latin (spoken by common people). After the fall of Rome, Latin was used in science and literature throughout history mostly by scholars, historians and poets. Latin is no longer spoken but is still used for the purposes of sciences, especially in the terminology. There are also a lot of international words of Latin origin.