Latin is mainly associated with the Roman Empire. Once being one of the most widely spoken languages in the World, Latin is now rarely spoken. With the decline of the British Grammar School and with it the teaching of Latin in schools, will the language die, to become something left in history? Although there are no countries where Latin is the main language, it is still used in one form or another by millions of people around the world every day.
Latin is thought to have been formed from the Greek alphabet, with influence from Celtic dialects and the native languages of northern Italy. It is thought to have been first brought to Italy in the 8th or 9th Century B.C. by migrants from the north. They settled in the area around the River Tiber, which is where the Roman Empire started.
The Romans had two types of Latin – Vulgar and Classical. Vulgar Latin was mainly spoken in the Western empire, although we have very little evidence of this. It is thought that this was used in every day speech, and varied slightly from its Classical brother in its grammar and pronunciation. We have lots of evidence of Classical Latin from the scholars of the time. Throughout the golden age of Roman literature (1st Century B.C. - 1st Century A.D) poets, such as Virgil and Ovid, used Classical Latin for their works. Some of these survive today showing us how they used the language.
The Roman Empire, however, finally fell in the 5th Century A.D and with it the wide-spread use of Latin, so how do we use it today? The most common way that Latin has survived over the years is the variations which have become the Latino languages. There are many other ways we use Latin today, for example medical terms, flower names and even words in English used everyday.
Have you ever been to the doctors and be told you have Anemia or you've torn your bicep? Well both are Latin words. Many medical terms have origins in Latin, either being built on Latin words or being words used in Roman times. Words such as Orthodontist use the Latin prefix “Ortho” meaning straight to build words relating to the correction of problems with teeth and bones.
Flowers are another place where Latin is still commonly used. Plants and flowers are often referred to as their common name or their Latin name, however sometimes these are the same thing. Acacia's, Dahlia's and Iris' would have all been known as this by native Latin speakers. The words Crocus and Clematis, now commonly used, are officially the Latin names for what are known in English as Saffron and Virgin's-bower respectively.
The most common use of words however is in everyday speech. We all use words that we don't even realise have come from Latin. Some examples of this are “item”, “pro”, “ultra” and “sponsor”. There are hundreds of words which are in common usage in English, which have come from Latin origins.
We also come across Latin in many historic texts with a few people around the world still speaking the language and in these case it is important to have some way of performing
Latin Translation. Latin is still the official language of the Vatican state and is used throughout the worlds of medicine, science and law, so by no means is it a dead language.
