LATIN LANGUAGE OVERVIEW

Origin of Latin language

Latin is a member of the Italic languages, subgroup of the Indo-European family of languages. Below is a chart showing the Indo-European language family tree.

INDO-EUROPEAN

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INDIC

HELLENIC

ITALIC

CELTIC

GERMANIC

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LATIN

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ROMANCE LANGUAGES

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ITALIAN

SPANISH

FRENCH

PORTUGUESE

ROMANIAN

 History of the Latin language

Brought to Italy about 1000 B.C. by a group of Indo-European immigrants from Northern Europe, Latin begins as a local tongue of a small territory on the Tiber River, called Latium. It soon spreads over a larger part of Italy and, with the Roman Empire, to a big portion of the known ancient world. The Latin of Rome becomes the literary model of the new Empire. While classical Latin develops in the city of Rome, a spoken vernacular form of Latin is carried by the Roman army throughout the Roman territories. Little by little, the use of Latin in these regions overcomes the pre-Roman dialects of Italy, Gaul and Spain. However, some idioms and expressions remain intact and, once mixed with the spoken Latin, give birth to new languages known as the Romance languages.

The Latin language of the origins was influenced by the Etruscan, a non-Indo-European language from Central Italy. It was also affected by the Celtic dialects from Northern Italy and by the Greek language. As the Roman Empire grows, Latin language becomes the tool for the political unity of the Italian peoples and the different communities living around Rome start losing their dialects.

The early period for Latin literature covers the 3 last centuries before our era (250 B.C.- 80 B.C.). It includes the writings of Plautus and Terence. The golden age of ancient literary Latin occurs between 80 B.C. -14 A.D. The most famous authors of this time are Livy, Cicero, Catullus, Vergil, Horace, Caesar and Ovid. Then, Latin knows another time of glory that ends in the middle of the second century of our era with authors like Tacitus, Juvenal, Pliny the Younger and Suetonius. The late Latin period (2d century - 6th century) coincides with the decline of the Empire. Invading barbarian tribes modify Latin by bringing forms and idioms coming from their own languages. What was once Classical Latin has become a form of corrupted Latin.

During the Middle Age (6th century - 14th century), the Latin language will remain alive in Europe thanks to the Church but also as a media for writing. Latin is kept as an international language to write scientific, religious or philosophical literature till the late 17th century. Later on, Latin progressively disappears to be replaced by languages that not only scholars but also the people can speak: French, Italian, Spanish, German, English, ... Less and less books are written in Latin and classical Latin authors are translated in vernacular.

In the 20th century, Latin is used only by the Vatican, siege of the Roman Catholic Church.

Below is an account of the milestones in the evolution of the Latin language in Europe.