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Latin (lingua Latina or Latinum) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area around Rome, Italy. Through the expansion of the Roman Republic, it became the dominant language in the Italian Peninsula and subsequently throughout the Roman Empire. It has greatly influenced many languages, including English, having contributed many words to the English lexicon, particularly after the Christianization of the Anglo-Saxons and the Norman Conquest. Latin roots appear frequently in the technical vocabulary used by fields such as theology, the sciences, medicine, and law.
By the late Roman Republic, Old Latin had evolved into standardized Classical Latin. Vulgar Latin refers to the less prestigious colloquial registers, attested in inscriptions and some literary works such as those of the comic playwrights Plautus and Terence and the author Petronius. While often called a "dead language", Latin did not undergo language death. Between the 6th and 9th centuries, natural language change in the vernacular Latin of different regions evolved into distinct Romance languages. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, Latin remained the common language of international communication, science, scholarship and academia in Europe into the early 19th century, by which time modern languages had supplanted it in common academic and political usage.
Late Latin is the literary form of the language from the 3rd century AD onward. No longer spoken as a native language, Medieval Latin was used across Western and Catholic Europe during the Middle Ages as a working and literary language from the 9th century to the Renaissance, which then developed a classicizing form, called Renaissance Latin. This was the basis for Neo-Latin, which evolved during the early modern period. Latin was taught to be written and spoken at least until the late seventeenth century, when spoken skills began to erode; Contemporary Latin is generally studied to be read rather than spoken. Ecclesiastical Latin remains the official language of the Holy See and the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church.
Latin grammar is highly fusional, with classes of inflections for noun case, number, person, gender, Latin tenses, Grammatical mood, voice, and aspect. The Latin alphabet is directly derived from the Etruscan and .
In addition to the historical phases, Ecclesiastical Latin refers to the styles used by the writers of the Roman Catholic Church from Late Antiquity onward, as well as by Protestant scholars.
The term 'Vulgar Latin' remains difficult to define, referring both to informal speech at any time within the history of Latin, and the kind of informal Latin that had begun to move away from the written language significantly in the post-Imperial period, that led ultimately to the Romance languages.
During the Classical period, informal language was rarely written, so philologists have been left with only individual words and phrases cited by classical authors, inscriptions such as Curse tablets and those found as Roman graffiti. In the Late Latin period, language changes reflecting spoken (non-classical) norms tend to be found in greater quantities in texts. 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.
Ultimately, Latin diverged into a distinct written form, where the commonly spoken form was perceived as a separate language, for instance early French or Italian dialects, that could be transcribed differently. It took some time for these to be viewed as wholly different from Latin however.
After the Western Roman Empire fell in 476 and Germanic kingdoms took its place, the Germanic people adopted Latin as a language more suitable for legal and other, more formal uses.
It was not until the Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula in 711, cutting off communications between the major Romance regions, that the languages began to diverge seriously. The spoken Latin that would later become Romanian diverged somewhat more from the other varieties, as it was largely separated from the unifying influences in the western part of the Empire.
Spoken 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.
For many Italians using Latin, though, there was no complete separation between Italian and Latin, even into the beginning of the Renaissance. Petrarch for example saw Latin as a literary version of the spoken language.See Introduction,
Without the institutions of the Roman Empire that had supported its uniformity, Medieval Latin was much more liberal in its linguistic cohesion: for example, in classical Latin sum and eram are used as auxiliary verbs in the perfect and pluperfect passive, which are compound tenses. Medieval Latin might use fui and fueram instead. Furthermore, the meanings of many words were changed and new words were introduced, often under influence from the vernacular. Identifiable individual styles of classically incorrect Latin prevail.
The Renaissance reinforced the position of Latin as a spoken and written language by the scholarship by the Renaissance humanists. Petrarch and others began to change their usage of Latin as they explored the texts of the Classical Latin world. Skills of textual criticism evolved to create much more accurate versions of extant texts through the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and some important texts were rediscovered. Comprehensive versions of authors' works were published by Isaac Casaubon, Joseph Scaliger and others. Latin Studies in Nevertheless, despite the careful work of Petrarch, Politian and others, first the demand for manuscripts, and then the rush to bring works into print, led to the circulation of inaccurate copies for several centuries following. Criticism, textual in
Neo-Latin literature was extensive and prolific, but less well known or understood today. Works covered poetry, prose stories and early novels, occasional pieces and collections of letters, to name a few. Famous and well regarded writers included Petrarch, Erasmus, Salutati, Conrad Celtes, George Buchanan and Thomas More. Neo-Latin literature in Non fiction works were long produced in many subjects, including the sciences, law, philosophy, historiography and theology. Famous examples include Isaac Newton's Principia. Latin was also used as a convenient medium for translations of important works first written in a vernacular, such as those of Descartes.
Latin education underwent a process of reform to classicise written and spoken Latin. Schooling remained largely Latin medium until approximately 1700. Until the end of the 17th century, the majority of books and almost all diplomatic documents were written in Latin. Afterwards, most diplomatic documents were written in French (a Romance language) and later native or other languages.Laureys, Marc, Political Action in Education methods gradually shifted towards written Latin, and eventually concentrating solely on reading skills. The decline of Latin education took several centuries and proceeded much more slowly than the decline in written Latin output.
There are a small number of Latin services held in the Anglican church. These include an annual service in Oxford, delivered with a Latin sermon; a relic from the period when Latin was the normal spoken language of the university.
Canada's motto A mari usque ad mare ("from sea to sea") and most provincial mottos are also in Latin. The Canadian Victoria Cross is modelled after the British Victoria Cross which has the inscription "For Valour". Because Canada is officially bilingual, the Canadian medal has replaced the English inscription with the Latin Pro Valore.
Spain's motto Plus ultra 'even further', or figuratively "Further!", is also Latin in origin. It is taken from the personal motto of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain (as Charles I), and is a reversal of the original phrase Non terrae plus ultra ("No land further beyond", "No further!"). According to legend, this phrase was inscribed as a warning on the Pillars of Hercules, the rocks on both sides of the Strait of Gibraltar and the western end of the known, Mediterranean world. Charles adopted the motto following the discovery of the New World by Columbus, and it also has metaphorical suggestions of taking risks and striving for excellence.
In the United States the unofficial national motto until 1956 was E pluribus unum meaning "Out of many, one". The motto continues to be featured on the Great Seal. It also appears on the flags and seals of both houses of congress and the flags of the states of Michigan, North Dakota, New York, and Wisconsin. The motto's 13 letters symbolically represent the original Thirteen Colonies which revolted from the British Crown. The motto is featured on all presently minted coinage and has been featured in most coinage throughout the nation's history.
Several states of the United States have Latin mottos, such as:
Many military organizations today have Latin mottos, such as:
Some law governing bodies in the Philippines have Latin mottos, such as:
Some colleges and universities have adopted Latin mottos, for example Harvard University's motto is Veritas ("truth"). Veritas was the goddess of truth, a daughter of Saturn, and the mother of Virtue.
Some film and television in ancient settings, such as Sebastiane, The Passion of the Christ and Barbarians (2020 TV series), have been made with dialogue in Latin. Occasionally, Latin dialogue is used because of its association with religion or philosophy, in such film/television series as The Exorcist and Lost ("Jughead"). Subtitles are usually shown for the benefit of those who do not understand Latin. There are also songs written with Latin lyrics. The libretto for the opera-oratorio Oedipus rex by Igor Stravinsky is in Latin.
The continued instruction of Latin is seen by some as a highly valuable component of a liberal arts education. Latin is taught at many high schools, especially in Europe and the Americas. It is most common in British public schools and grammar schools, the Italian liceo classico and liceo scientifico, the German Humanistisches Gymnasium and the Dutch gymnasium.
Occasionally, some media outlets, targeting enthusiasts, broadcast in Latin. Notable examples include Radio Bremen in Germany, YLE radio in Finland (the Nuntii Latini broadcast from 1989 until it was shut down in June 2019), and Vatican Radio & Television, all of which broadcast news segments and other material in Latin.
A variety of organisations, as well as informal Latin circuli 'circles', have been founded in more recent times to support the use of spoken Latin. Moreover, a number of university classics departments have begun incorporating communicative pedagogies in their Latin courses. These include the University of Kentucky, the University of Oxford and also Princeton University.
There are many websites and forums maintained in Latin by enthusiasts. The Latin Wikipedia has more than 140,000 articles.
Latin translations of modern literature such as: The Hobbit, Treasure Island, Robinson Crusoe, Paddington Bear, Winnie the Pooh, The Adventures of Tintin, Asterix, Harry Potter, Le Petit Prince, Max and Moritz, How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, The Cat in the Hat, and a book of fairy tales, fabulae mirabiles, are intended to garner popular interest in the language. Additional resources include phrasebooks and resources for rendering everyday phrases and concepts into Latin, such as Meissner's Latin Phrasebook.
The Logudorese dialect of the Sardinian language and Italian language are the two closest contemporary languages to Latin.
This also was true in the United States where many of the nation's founders obtained a classically based education in grammar schools or from tutors.Of the eighty-nine men who signed the Declaration of Independence and attended the Constitutional Convention, thirty-six went to a Colonial college, all of which offered only the classical curriculum. Richard M. Gummere, The American Colonial Mind and the Classical Tradition, p.66 (1963). Admission to Harvard in the Colonial era required that the applicant "Can readily make and speak or write true Latin prose and has skill in making verse"Meyer Reinhold, Classica Americana: The Greek and Roman Heritage in the United States, p.27 (1984). Harvard's curriculum was patterned after those of Oxford and Cambridge, and the curricula of other Colonial colleges followed Harvard's. Lawrence A. Cremin, American Education: The Colonial Experience, 1607–1783, pp. 128–129 (1970), and Frederick Rudolph, Curriculum: A History of the American Undergraduate Course of Study Since 1636, pp.31–32 (1978). Latin Study and the classics were emphasized in American secondary schools and colleges well into the Antebellum era.Id. at 104.
Instruction in Latin is an essential aspect. In today's world, a large number of Latin students in the United States learn from Wheelock's Latin: The Classic Introductory Latin Course, Based on Ancient Authors. This book, first published in 1956, was written by Frederic M. Wheelock. Wheelock's Latin has become the standard text for many American introductory Latin courses.
The numbers of people studying Latin varies significantly by country. In the United Kingdom, Latin is available in around 2.3% of state primary schools, representing a significant increase in availability. In Germany, over 500,000 students study Latin each year, representing a decrease from over 800,000 in 2008. Latin is still required for some University courses, but this has become less frequent.
The Living Latin movement attempts to teach Latin in the same way that living languages are taught, as a means of both spoken and written communication. It is available in Vatican City and at some institutions in the US, such as the University of Kentucky and Iowa State University. The British Cambridge University Press is a major supplier of Latin textbooks for all levels, such as the Cambridge Latin Course series. It has also published a subseries of children's texts in Latin by Bell & Forte, which recounts the adventures of a mouse called Minimus.
In the United Kingdom, the Classical Association encourages the study of antiquity through various means, such as publications and grants. The University of Cambridge, the Open University, a number of independent schools, for example Eton College, Harrow School, Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School, Merchant Taylors' School, and Rugby School, and The Latin Programme/Via Facilis, a London-based charity, run Latin courses. In the United States and in Canada, the American Classical League supports every effort to further the study of classics. Its subsidiaries include the National Junior Classical League (with more than 50,000 members), which encourages high school students to pursue the study of Latin, and the National Senior Classical League, which encourages students to continue their study of the classics into college. The league also sponsors the National Latin Exam. Classicist Mary Beard wrote in The Times Literary Supplement in 2006 that the reason for learning Latin is because of what was written in it.
was not native to Classical Latin. It appeared in Greek loanwords starting , when it was probably pronounced (at least by educated speakers) initially and [[doubled|Gemination]] between vowels, in accordance with its pronunciation in [[Koine Greek]]. In Classical Latin poetry, the letter between vowels always counts as two consonants for metrical purposes. The consonant ⟨b⟩ usually sounds as [b]; however, when ⟨t⟩ or ⟨s⟩ follows ⟨b⟩ then it is pronounced as in [pt] or [ps]. In Latin, ⟨q⟩ is always followed by the [[vowel]] ⟨u⟩. Together they make a [kʷ] sound.
In Old and Classical Latin, the Latin alphabet had no distinction between letter case, and the letters did not exist. In place of , were used, respectively; represented both vowels and consonants. Most of the letter forms were similar to modern uppercase, as can be seen in the inscription from the Colosseum shown at the top of the article.
The spelling systems used in Latin dictionaries and modern editions of Latin texts, however, normally use in place of Classical-era . Some systems use for the consonant sounds except in the combinations for which is never used.
Some notes concerning the mapping of Latin phonemes to English graphemes are given below:
| + Notes ! scope="col" | phoneme !! scope="col" >English examples |
In Classical Latin, as in modern Italian, double consonant letters were pronounced as Gemination consonant sounds distinct from short versions of the same consonants. Thus the nn in Classical Latin annus 'year' (and in Italian anno) is pronounced as a doubled as in English unnamed. (In English, distinctive consonant length or doubling occurs only at the boundary between two words or , as in that example.)
| + Simple vowelsAndrea, figure 18 ! !! scope="col" | Back |
In Classical Latin, did not exist as a letter distinct from ; the written form was used to represent both a vowel and a consonant. was adopted to represent upsilon in loanwords from Greek language, but it was pronounced like and by some speakers. It was also used in native Latin words by confusion with Greek words of similar meaning, such as sylva and ὕλη .
Classical Latin distinguished between vowel length. Then, long vowels, except for , were frequently marked using the apex, which was sometimes similar to an acute accent . Long was written using a taller version of , called i longa 'long I': . In modern texts, long vowels are often indicated by a macron , and short vowels are usually unmarked except when it is necessary to distinguish between words, when they are marked with a breve . However, they would also signify a long vowel by writing the vowel larger than other letters in a word or by repeating the vowel twice in a row. The acute accent, when it is used in modern Latin texts, indicates stress, as in Spanish, rather than length.
Although called long vowels, their exact quality in Classical Latin is different from short vowels. The difference is described in the table below:
| + Pronunciation of Latin vowels ! scope="col" | Grapheme ! scope="col" | Phone ! scope="col" | Modern examples |
This difference in quality is posited by W. Sidney Allen in his book Vox Latina. However, Andrea Calabrese has disputed this assertion, based in part upon the observation that in Sardinian and some Lucanian dialects, each long and short vowel pair merged, as opposed to in Italo-Western languages in which short /i/ and /u/ merged with long and /o:/ ( Latin siccus, Italian secco, and Sardinian siccu).
A vowel letter followed by at the end of a word, or a vowel letter followed by before or , represented a short nasal vowel, as in monstrum .
The sequences sometimes did not represent diphthongs. and also represented a sequence of two vowels in different syllables in aēnus 'bronze' and coēpit 'began', and represented sequences of two vowels or of a vowel and one of the semivowels , in cavē 'beware!', cuius 'whose', monuī 'I warned', solvī 'I released', dēlēvī 'I destroyed', eius 'his', and novus 'new'.
Old Latin had more diphthongs, but most of them changed into long vowels in Classical Latin. The Old Latin diphthong and the sequence became Classical . Old Latin and changed to Classical , except in a few words whose became Classical . These two developments sometimes occurred in different words from the same root: for instance, Classical poena "punishment" and pūnīre "to punish". Early Old Latin usually monophthongized to a later Old Latin , to Classical .
By the late Roman Empire, had merged with . During the Classical period this sound change was present in some rural dialects, but deliberately avoided by well-educated speakers.
| + Diphthongs classified by beginning sound ! !! Front !! Back |
Further, if a consonant separates two vowels, it will go into the syllable of the second vowel. When there are two consonants between vowels, the last consonant will go with the second vowel. An exception occurs when a phonetic stop and liquid come together. In this situation, they are thought to be a single consonant, and as such, they will go into the syllable of the second vowel.
The number of letters in the Latin alphabet has varied. When it was first derived from the Etruscan alphabet, it contained only 21 letters. Later, G was added to represent , which had previously been spelled C, and Z ceased to be included in the alphabet, as the language then had no voiced alveolar fricative. The letters K, Y, and Z were later added to represent Greek letters kappa, upsilon, and zeta respectively, in Greek loanwords.
W was created in the 11th century from VV in some areas and UU in others. It represented in Germanic languages, not Latin, which still uses V for the purpose. J was distinguished from the original I only during the late Middle Ages, as was the letter U from V. Although some Latin dictionaries use J, it is rarely used for Latin text, as it was not used in classical times, but many other languages use it.
The first line of Catullus 3 ("Mourn, O Venuses and ") was originally written as:
It would be rendered in a modern edition as:
The Roman cursive script is commonly found on the many excavated at sites such as forts, an especially extensive set having been discovered at Vindolanda on Hadrian's Wall in Britain. Most notable is the fact that while most of the Vindolanda tablets show spaces between words, spaces were avoided in monumental inscriptions from that era.
Latin inflection can result in words with much ambiguity: For example, amābit 'he/she/it will love', is formed from amā-, a future tense morpheme -bi- and a third person singular morpheme, -t, the last of which -t does not express masculine, feminine, or neuter gender. A major task in understanding Latin phrases and clauses is to clarify such ambiguities by an analysis of context. Latin word order is relatively free because inflections disambiguate semantic connections, but different word orders can indicate different nuances of meaning.
There are seven Latin noun cases, which also apply to adjectives and pronouns and mark a noun's syntactic role in the sentence by means of inflections. Thus, word order in Latin is not as important as it is in English, which is less inflected. The general structure and word order of a Latin sentence can therefore vary. The cases are as follows:
Latin lacks both definite and indefinite articles so puer currit can mean either 'the boy is running' or 'a boy is running'.
Latin numbers are sometimes declined as adjectives; see .
First- and second-declension adjectives are declined like first-declension nouns for the feminine forms and like second-declension nouns for the masculine and neuter forms. For example, for mortuus, mortua, mortuum 'dead', mortua is declined like a regular first-declension noun (such as puella 'girl', mortuus is declined like a regular second-declension masculine noun (such as dominus 'lord, master', and mortuum is declined like a regular second-declension neuter noun (such as auxilium 'help'.
Third-declension adjectives are mostly declined like normal third-declension nouns, with a few exceptions. In the plural nominative neuter, for example, the ending is -ia (omnia 'all, everything', and for third-declension nouns, the plural nominative neuter ending is -a or -ia (capita 'heads', animalia 'animals'. They can have one, two or three forms for the masculine, feminine, and neuter nominative singular.
Irregular verbs are verbs that do not follow the regular conjugations in the formation of the inflected form. Irregular verbs in Latin are esse 'to be'; velle 'to want'; ferre 'to carry'; edere 'to eat'; dare 'to give 'ire 'to go'; posse 'to be able'; fieri 'to happen'; and their compounds.
There are six simple tenses in Latin (present, imperfect, future, perfect, pluperfect and future perfect), three grammatical mood (indicative, imperative and subjunctive, in addition to the infinitive, participle, gerund, gerundive and supine), three persons (first, second and third), two numbers (singular and plural), two voices (active and passive) and two aspects (perfective and imperfective). Verbs are described by four principal parts:
The six simple tenses of Latin are divided into two systems: the present system, which is made up of the present, imperfect and future forms, and the perfect system, which is made up of the perfect, pluperfect and future perfect forms. Each simple tense has a set of endings corresponding to the person, number, and voice of the subject. Subject (nominative) pronouns are generally omitted for the first ( I, we) and second ( you) persons except for emphasis.
The table below displays the common inflected endings for the indicative mood in the active voice in all six tenses. For the future tense, the first listed endings are for the first and second conjugations, and the second listed endings are for the third and fourth conjugations:
After the Fall of Tarentum in 272 BC, the Romans began Hellenising, or adopting features of Greek culture, including the borrowing of Greek words, such as camera 'vaulted roof', sumbolum 'symbol', and balineum 'bath'. This Hellenisation led to the addition of Y and Z to the alphabet to represent Greek sounds. Subsequently, the Romans transplanted Greek art, medicine, science and philosophy to Italy, paying almost any price to entice Greek skilled and educated persons to Rome and sending their youth to be educated in Greece. Thus, many Latin scientific and philosophical words were Greek loanwords or had their meanings expanded by association with Greek words, as 'craft' and 'art'.
Because of the Roman Empire's expansion and subsequent trade with outlying European tribes, the Romans borrowed some northern and central European words, such as beber 'beaver', of Germanic origin, and bracae 'breeches', of Celtic origin. The specific dialects of Latin across Latin-speaking regions of the former Roman Empire after its fall were influenced by languages specific to the regions. The dialects of Latin evolved into different Romance languages.
During and after the adoption of Christianity into Roman society, Christian vocabulary became a part of the language, either from Greek or Hebrew borrowings or as Latin neologisms. Into the Middle Ages, Latin incorporated many more words from surrounding languages, including Old English and other Germanic languages.
Over the ages, Latin-speaking populations produced new adjectives, nouns, and verbs by or compounding meaningful segments. For example, the compound adjective, omnipotens 'all-powerful', was produced from the adjectives omnis 'all', and potens 'powerful', by dropping the final s of omnis and concatenating. Often, the concatenation changed the part of speech, and nouns were produced from verb segments or verbs from nouns and adjectives.
| ūnus, ūna, ūnum (masculine, feminine, neuter) | I | one |
| duo, duae, duo (m., f., n.) | II | two |
| trēs, tria (m./f., n.) | III | three |
| quattuor | IIII or IV | four |
| quīnque | V | five |
| sex | VI | six |
| septem | VII | seven |
| octō | IIX or VIII | eight |
| novem | VIIII or IX | nine |
| decem | X | ten |
| quīnquāgintā | L | fifty |
| centum | C | one hundred |
| quīngentī, quīngentae, quīngenta (m., f., n.) | D | five hundred |
| mīlle | M | one thousand |
The numbers from 4 to 100 do not change their endings. As in modern descendants such as Spanish, the gender for naming a number in isolation is masculine, so that "1, 2, 3" is counted as ūnus, duo, trēs.
The same text may be marked for all long vowels (before any possible elisions at word boundary) with apices over vowel letters, including customarily before nf and ns where a long vowel is automatically produced:
An example of Late Latin is the Latin Vulgate by Saint Jerome. Below is Psalm One (Psalmum Unum) from the Clementine Vulgate.
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