Although Latin is often considered a dead language, its influence is immortal. It pervades various fields such as Medicine, Science, and Religion.

 

Introduction

Latin (Lingua Latīna) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally the dialect of a tribe called Latium, located in the west-central Apennine Peninsula in Italy. In the 8th century BC, Rome emerged as the center of the Latium region, and the surrounding tribes began to identify themselves as Romānus or Romānī. Following the founding of Rome (Rōma), the civilization experienced the Roman Kingdom (Regnum Romanum) era (7th century BC~510 BC), the Roman Republic (Respublica Romana) era (510 BC~27 BC), and the Roman Empire (Imperium Rōmānum) era (27 BC~476 AD). With the expansion of its territory, Latin not only became dominant in the Apennine Peninsula but also supplanted other languages, establishing itself as the official language of the provinces of the Roman Empire.

 

History

Linguists refer to the earliest form of Latin as “Pre-literary Latin” (prior to 250 BC).

From the 4th century BC, Rome began to expand outward, and by the 1st century BC, all of Italy had been Latinised. However, there was no unified standard for Latin during this period. Linguists refer to the Latin of this period as “Archaic Latin”.

The written language used during the period of Emperor Augustus (Octavius) of the Roman Empire is referred to as “Classical Latin” (Latina Classica) (80 BC~2nd century AD). This era, spanning the late Republic to the early Empire, is roughly equivalent to the Golden Age in the history of Latin literature (90 BC~4 AD) and the Silver Age (14~117 or 180). By the Golden Age, Latin had formed a unified and standardized language, characterized by a rich vocabulary, perfect syntax, and strong expressive power.

“Classical Post-Latin” (14~200), including the Silver Age (14~117 or 118) in literary history, was the language of the early Roman Empire. It still largely adhered to the grammatical norms of the Golden Age, but the syntactic structure evolved, the prose incorporated certain poetic elements, and the rhetoric became richer.

“Vulgar Latin” or “Late Latin” (3rd~6th centuries AD) marks the period from the later Roman Empire to a hundred years after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. During this time, Latin evolved rapidly, especially between the 6th and 8th centuries. Declension largely disappeared, the use of prepositions and auxiliary verbs increased, and the subjunctive form often intermingled with the declarative form. Consequently, Classical Latin gradually diverged from Vulgar Latin and eventually became a written language. Vulgar Latin dialects evolved from the 6th to 9th centuries into the modern Romance languages.

From the early medieval period onward, Latin lost its native speakers. However, 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. This developed into a more refined form known as Renaissance Latin, which laid the foundation for Neo-Latin that evolved during the early modern era. During these periods, while Latin was productively used and taught for both writing and speaking, its spoken usage began to erode by the late seventeenth century. Afterward, Latin was predominantly taught for reading purposes.

Ecclesiastical Latin remains the official language of the Holy See and the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church in Vatican City. When discussing current uses of Latin, we also refer to Contemporary Latin, which has limited productive use and is seldom spoken. However, a small number of Christian clergy still speak Latin fluently.

In the evolution of Latin into the languages of the Romance language family (such as French, Italian, Catalan, Spanish, Portuguese…), many words lost their grammatical inflection endings, especially declensions, which have mostly disappeared in many Romance languages (with the exception of some pronouns).

Following these developments, Latin continued to decline and eventually became an extinct language.

 

Effects

One of the most significant influences of Latin is undoubtedly the alphabet (alphabetum). The alphabet we use today, known as the Roman or Latin Alphabet, was indirectly derived from the Greek Alphabet between the 7th and 6th centuries BC. This alphabet, used by the Romans, originally consisted of 23 letters. Before the Middle Ages, Romans used “I” to replace “J” and “V” to replace “U”. The letters J, U, and W were added in the 11th century, forming the modern 26-letter alphabet. The ancient Latin Alphabet was written in capital letters only and without punctuation, so the words in inscriptions that we see today are separated by space or dots.

Another significant influence of Latin is its vocabulary (vocabulum). Approximately 50% of English words are derived from Latin. Understanding the roots of a word to find its primitive form is a great way to learn a language. For example, the word “nova” (new) is the primitive word of “novice”, “novel”, “novelty”, and “nova”. The word “prima” (first) is the primitive word of “prime”, “primary”, “primitive”, and “primeval”…

Furthermore, the names of each month also originated from Latin. For instance, “January” (Januarius) is derived from the name of Janus, a god from Roman Mythology. “April” (Aprilis) comes from the Latin word “aperire”, which means “start” or “the start of spring”. “September” signifies “seventh” in Latin, as in the Ancient Roman Calendar, there were only 10 months in a year…

Additionally, many early books and notes were written in Latin. Works such as Isaac Newton’s “The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy” (Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica), Nicolaus Copernicus’ “On The Revolutions” (De revolutionibus orbium coelestium), and Johannes Kepler’s “Mystery of the Cosmos” (Mysterium Cosmographicum) are prime examples…

 

Grammar

Latin is a highly inflected language, with three distinct genders (masculine, feminine, and neuter), six noun cases (nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, ablative, and vocative), five declensions, four verb conjugations, and six tenses (present, imperfect, future, perfect, pluperfect, and future perfect).

The sentence structure in English that we use today typically follows the SVO (subject-verb-object) order. However, in Latin, the general order is SOV (subject-object-verb). For instance, in the sentence “Ego puer sum” (I am a boy), “sum” is the verb and “puer” is the object. Additionally, in Latin, there are no articles, so “puer” can mean either “the boy” or simply “boy”.

 

Some Latin Phrases

If you’ve ever watched Dead Poets Society, you’re likely familiar with the phrase CARPE DIEM. This Latin phrase, used by the Roman poet Horace, expresses the idea that one should enjoy life while one can — it means “seize the day”. However, it actually has a second part, CARPE DIEM, QUAM MINIMUM CREDULA POSTERO, which translates to “seize the day, trusting as little as possible in the next one.”

Another phrase we’re going to introduce is Gaius Julius Caesar’s (Gaius Iulius Caesar) quote, VENI VIDI VICI. This phrase comes from the letter that Gaius Julius Caesar wrote to the Roman Senate (Senatus) after defeating Pharnaces II of the Kingdom of Pontus at the Battle of Zela. It’s a powerful phrase that means “I came, I saw, I conquered.”

The last phrase we’re going to introduce is SEMPER PROGREDIENS. Personally, I find this phrase very meaningful — it means “always progressing”. And progress (processus) is what we should pursue throughout our lives.

 

Conclusion

Latin, such a fascinating language… Sadly, Latin began to fade away in the 6th century, shortly after the fall of Rome in 476 AD. To quote a verse from 2 Samuel 1:23 in the Bible, “In morte quoque non sunt divisi” (Even in death they were not divided).