How Did Latin Become
A Dead Language?
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While
Latin's influence is apparent in many modern languages, it is no longer
commonly spoken.
Is Latin a dead language? Whether you agree or not, you have spoken a countless number of Latin language words if you speak any international language. The influence of this ancient language is obvious in many modern languages. But I have never seen anyone in my time speaking Latin fluently. It has died out since. How did Latin become a dead language?
Gone are those days when Latin was the official language in the entire Roman Empire. When the Catholic Church was so influential in ancient Rome, the Latin language was the king of the world; the language of international communication, education, science, and government. So how did Latin become a dead language when it was so influential several centuries ago?
Though now considered a dead language, it’s still being used in certain contexts. Of course, it no longer has a native speaker. Yet, rather than consider it dead, look into English, French, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, and Spanish to see the metamorphosis of Latin. You’ll see its grammar, tenses, and intricacies in these languages.
So how did such an influential language die? One undisputable reason is the fate of the Empire that developed the language. When Roman Empire failed, Latin died and new languages were born from the former territories of the Western Roman Empire where the language was developed. The struggle for power in the Middle Age and through the centuries moved new nations to focus on developing their unique official languages. They considered national languages an ingredient of nationalism sweeping across Europe.
Gone are those days when Latin was the official language in the entire Roman Empire. When the Catholic Church was so influential in ancient Rome, the Latin language was the king of the world; the language of international communication, education, science, and government. So how did Latin become a dead language when it was so influential several centuries ago?
Though now considered a dead language, it’s still being used in certain contexts. Of course, it no longer has a native speaker. Yet, rather than consider it dead, look into English, French, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, and Spanish to see the metamorphosis of Latin. You’ll see its grammar, tenses, and intricacies in these languages.
So how did such an influential language die? One undisputable reason is the fate of the Empire that developed the language. When Roman Empire failed, Latin died and new languages were born from the former territories of the Western Roman Empire where the language was developed. The struggle for power in the Middle Age and through the centuries moved new nations to focus on developing their unique official languages. They considered national languages an ingredient of nationalism sweeping across Europe.
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So exactly why did the language die out?
When the Catholic Church
gained influence in ancient Rome, Latin became the official language of the sprawling Roman Empire. Latin was king of the world -- the language of international communication, scholarship, and science.
So what
happened? Jules Suzdaltsev investigates in today's Seeker Daily report.
Latin is now considered a dead language,
meaning it's still used in specific contexts, but does not have any native speakers. (Sanskrit is another dead language.)
In historical
terms, Latin didn't die so much as it changed -- into French, Spanish,
Portuguese, Italian and Romanian.
These are known as the Romance
languages -- "Rome" is the root term -- and while other tongues
developed from Latin, these are the most common.
All five of these languages incorporate grammar, tenses and specific
intricacies from Latin. Not coincidentally, each language developed in
former territories of the Western Roman Empire. When that empire failed, Latin died, and the new languages were born.
Part of the reason that Latin passed out of common usage is because, as a language, it's incredibly complex.
Classical Latin is highly inflected, meaning that nearly every word is potentially modified based on tense, case, voice, aspect, person, number, gender and mood. With no central power promoting and standardizing usage of Classical Latin, it gradually passed away from everyday usage.
Vulgar Latin, essentially a simplified version of the mother tongue, survived for a while but diverged more and more as it folded in various local languages. By the end of the sixth century, people from different sections of the former empire could no longer understand each other.
Latin had died as a living language.
Still, due to the
overwhelming prevalence of Latin in early Western literature, medicine
and science, Latin as a language of antiquity never quite went extinct --
a term which has its own particular meaning in linguistics.
Today,
Latin is still used in many technical fields, medical terminology and taxonomy, the scientific classification of species.
http://www.seeker.com/how-did-latin-become-a-dead-language-2008876974.html
Romance Languages Map
- Old French*
- French
- Occitan (Provençal)
- Spanish
- Asturian
- Galician
- Catalan
- Portuguese
- Italian
- Corsican
- Rhaetoromance
The
Amazing Diversity of Languages
Around the World
in one Map
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