latin

     

Latin (lingua Latīna, pronounce [laˈtiːna]) is an ancient Indo-European language that was spoken in Ancient Rome. It was also the de facto international language of science and scholarship in mid and western Europe until the 17th century. Through Roman conquest, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe. It later evolved into the languages spoken in France, Italy, Romania, and the Iberian peninsula, and through them to the Americas and Africa. There are two distinctions of Latin: Classical Latin, the form used in poetry and formal prose, and Vulgar Latin, the name given to a common set of Latin based dialects, until they diverged into the various Romance languages. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the rise of the Catholic Church, Latin became the ecclesiastical language of the Catholic Church and the lingua franca of educated classes in the West.

Trivia about latin

  • Dublin's famous Book of Kells is written in this language
  • The Roman Catholic church translates all of its principal documents into this dead language
  • Romanian developed from this language of the ancient Romans
  • Of the modern Romance languages, Sardinian is the most similar to the vulgar form of this language
  • The romance languages all developed directly from this ancient tongue
  • Around the Vatican you might be able to practice this source language of all Romance languages
  • The dramas of Seneca & the histories of Tacitus belong to this language's silver age
  • Petronius & Cicero were known to write in the Vulgar form of this language
  • The Ciceronian Age followed by the Augustan Age created the Golden Age of literature in this language
  • Until the 18th century, European treaties were generally written in this language
  • All of the Romance languages have their roots in this language
  • Most languages of Western Europe get their words for "read" & "write" from this language's legere & scribere
  • Scholars estimate that half of the words in English are derived from this ancient tongue
  • (Sarah of the Clue Crew reports from the Bruges Lace Center in Belgium wearing a handmade collar.) Lace is often worn around the neck, & the word "lace" is derived from "laqueus", which means "noose" in this ancient language
  • (Sofia of the Clue Crew speaks in a tongue.) Until Vatican II, the Catholic Mass was officially only celebrated in this language
  • Petronius wrote his "Satyricon" in the vulgar form of this language
  • Plautus wrote plays in the "Vulgar" form of this ancient language
  • Pax
  • It was the basic literary language of Italy as late as the 15th century
  • Condemning split infinitives is based on a false analogy with this language in which infinitives are a single word
  • The classical form of this language used only 23 letters; J, U & W were added at a later date
  • "Pecuniary" comes from this language's pecu, meaning "herd", as livestock were long used as a means of exchange
  • Boethius helped move things along by translating Greek philosophy into this language
  • The ambidextrous Garfield could write in Greek & this classic language at the same time
  • Language that originally gave us the word "language"
  • To read the Domesday Book in its original form, you have to know this language
  • Veni, vidi, vici
  • An essay by Walter Ong looks at the learning of this language as a puberty rite for well-off Renaissance boys