Latin (lingua lătīna, IPA: /laˈtiːna/) is an Italic language extinct: Anatolian · Paleo-Balkans (Dacian, ^[3] originally spoken in Latium Latium is the region of central western Italy in which the city of Rome was founded and grew to be the capital city of the Roman Empire. Latium was originally a small triangle of fertile, volcanic soil on which resided the tribe of the Latins. It was located on the left bank of the Tiber river, northward to the Anio river (a left-bank tributary of and Ancient Rome Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea, it became one of the largest empires in the ancient world. With the Roman conquest Rome's military was always tightly keyed to its political system. In the Roman kingdom the social standing of a person impacted both his political and military roles. The political system was from an early date based upon competition within the ruling elite. Senators in the Republic competed fiercely for public office, the most coveted of which, Latin was spread to countries around the Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant. The sea is technically a part of the Atlantic Ocean, although it is usually identified as a completely, including a large part of Europe Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus region (Specification of borders) and the Black Sea to the southeast. Europe is bordered by the. Romance languages extinct: Anatolian · Paleo-Balkans (Dacian, such as Aragonese Aragonese , is a Romance language now spoken in a number of local varieties by between 10,000 and 30,000 people over the valleys of the Aragón River, Sobrarbe and Ribagorza in Aragon. It is also colloquially known as fabla (literally, "speech") and is the only remaining speech form derived from medieval Navarro-Aragonese dialects, Corsican Corsican is a Romance language spoken and written on the islands of Corsica (France) and northern Sardinia (Italy). Corsican is the traditional native language of the Corsican people, and was long the sole language of the island, which was acquired by France in 1768. In 1990, more than two centuries later, nearly all Corsicans were fluent in, Catalan Catalan is a Romance language, the national and official language of Andorra, and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencià (Valencian), as well as in the city of Alghero on the Italian island of Sardinia. It is also spoken in the, French French is a Romance language spoken as a first language by about 136 million people worldwide. Around 190 million people speak French as a second language, and an additional 200 million speak it as an acquired foreign language. French speaking communities are present in 57 countries and territories. Most native speakers of the language live in, Italian Italian ( italiano , or lingua italiana) is a Romance language spoken as a native language by about 62 million people in Italy, San Marino and parts of Switzerland, Croatia, Slovenia and France. It is spoken as a first language by many Italian citizens and immigrants abroad, for a total of approximately 70 million native speakers. In addition, it, Portuguese Portuguese ( português or língua portuguesa) is a Romance language that originated from a fusion of the dialect spoken in what is now Galicia and northern Portugal with closely related dialects spoken in territories to the south which had not yet been reconquered by the Christians to the Arabs by the time Portugal was born as a Christian kingdom, Romanian Romanian (or Daco-Romanian; obsolete spellings Rumanian, Roumanian; self-designation: română, limba română [ˈlimba roˈmɨnə] ("the Romanian language") or româneşte (lit. "in Romanian") is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova. It has official status in Romania,, Sardinian Sardinian is the collective name of the vernacular linguistic varieties spoken in most of the island of Sardinia, Italy. It is considered the most conservative of the Romance languages in terms of phonology and is noted for its Paleosardinian substratum, Spanish Countries where Spanish has official status. States of the U.S. where Spanish has no official status but is spoken by 25% or more of the population. States of the U.S. where Spanish has no official status but is spoken by 10-20% of the population. States of the U.S. where Spanish has no official status but is spoken by 5-9.9% of the population and others, are descended from Latin,^[4] while many others, especially European languages Most languages of Europe belong to the Indo-European language family; another major family is the Finno-Ugric. The Turkic family also has several European members, while the North and South Caucasian families are important in the southeastern extremity of geographical Europe. Basque is a language isolate directly related to ancient Aquitanian,, have inherited and acquired much of their vocabulary from it. Latin was the international language of science and scholarship in central and western Europe until the 17th century, when it was gradually replaced with vernacular languages A vernacular, mother tongue or mother language, and less frequently one sense of idiom and dialect, is the native language of a population located in a country or in a region defined on some other basis, such as a locality. For example, Navajo is a local language in the southwest of the United States, English is the state language of a number of.

Contents 1 Legacy 2 History of Latin 2.1 Old, early or archaic Latin 2.2 Classical Latin 2.3 Vulgar Latin 2.4 Medieval Latin 2.5 Renaissance Latin 3 Language characteristics 3.1 Pronunciation 3.2 Orthography 3.3 Grammar 3.3.1 Nouns 3.3.2 Verbs 4 Contemporary use 5 Instruction in Latin 6 See also 6.1 Language 6.2 Culture 7 Notes 8 References 9 External links 9.1 Language tools 9.2 Courses 9.3 Grammar and study 9.4 Phonetics

Legacy

The Latin heritage has been delivered in these broad genres:

• Inscriptions
• Latin literature
• Latin words and concepts in modern languages and scientific terminology
• An extensive tradition of instruction in the Latin language, including grammars and dictionaries

Most inscriptions have been published in an internationally agreed upon, monumental, multi-volume series termed the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum The Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum is a comprehensive offline collection of ancient Latin inscriptions. It forms an authoritative source for documenting the surviving epigraphy of classical antiquity. Public and personal inscriptions throw light on all aspects of Roman life and history. The Corpus continues to be updated in new editions and (CIL). Authors and publishers vary but the format is approximately the same: volumes detailing inscriptions with a critical apparatus stating the provenance and relevant information. The reading and interpretation of these inscriptions is the subject matter of the field of epigraphy Epigraphy is the study of inscriptions or epigraphs as writing; that is, the science of identifying the graphemes and of classifying their use as to cultural context and date, elucidating their meaning and assessing what conclusions can be deduced concerning the writing and the writers. Specifically excluded from epigraphy is the historical. In addition to the approximately 180,000 known inscriptions the works of several hundred ancient authors who wrote in Latin have survived in whole or in part, in substantial works or in fragments to be analyzed in philology Philology is the humanistic study of historical linguistics, considering both form and meaning in linguistic expression, combining linguistics and literary studies. They are in part the subject matter of the field of classics Classics is the branch of the Humanities comprising the languages, literature, philosophy, history, art, archaeology and other culture of the ancient Mediterranean world (Bronze Age ca. BC 3000 – Late Antiquity ca. AD 300–600); especially Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome during Classical Antiquity (ca. BC 600 – AD 600). Initially, study of. Their works were published in manuscript A manuscript or handwrit is a recording of information that has been manually created by someone or some people, such as a hand-written letter, as opposed to being printed or reproduced some other way. The term may also be used for information that is hand-recorded in other ways than writing, for example inscriptions that are chiselled upon a hard form before the invention of printing and now exist in carefully annotated printed editions, such as the Loeb Classical Library The Loeb Classical Library is a series of books, today published by Harvard University Press, which presents important works of ancient Greek and Latin Literature in a way designed to make the text accessible to the broadest possible audience, by presenting the original Greek or Latin text on each left-hand leaf, and a fairly literal translation by Harvard University Press Harvard University Press is a publishing house, a division of Harvard University, that is highly respected in academic publishing. It was established on January 13, 1913. In 2005, it published 220 new titles. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses (AAUP). The current director is William P. Sisler and the editor-in-chief.

For more details on this topic, see Latin literature Latin literature, the body of written works in the Latin language, remains an enduring legacy of the culture of ancient Rome. The Romans produced many works of poetry, comedy, tragedy, satire, history, and rhetoric, drawing on Italic traditions and particularly on the literary culture of Greece, which was regarded by the Romans themselves as.

There has also been a major Latin influence in English English is a Germanic language, having a grammar and core vocabulary inherited from Proto-Germanic. However, a significant portion of the English wordhoard comes from Romance and Latinate sources. Estimates of native words range from 20%–33%, with the rest made up of foreign borrowings (—these estimates are based on the raw counts of. In the medieval period, much of this borrowing occurred through ecclesiastical usage established by Saint Augustine of Canterbury Augustine of Canterbury was a Benedictine monk who became the first Archbishop of Canterbury in the year 598. He is considered the "Apostle to the English" and a founder of the English Church in the 6th century, or indirectly after the Norman Conquest The Norman conquest of England began on 28 September 1066 with the invasion of the Kingdom of England by the troops of William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy and their victory at the Battle of Hastings (on the other side of the Channel in Southeast England) on 14 October 1066 over King Harold II of England. Harold's army had been badly depleted, through the Anglo-Norman language Anglo-Norman is a term traditionally used to refer to what was in fact a variety of different Old French dialects used in England and to some extent elsewhere in the British Isles during the Anglo-Norman period. From the 16th to the 18th centuries, English writers cobbled together huge numbers of new words from Latin and Greek roots. These words were dubbed "inkhorn terms", as if they had spilled from a pot of ink. Many of these words were used once by the author and then forgotten, but some were so useful that they survived. Imbibe and extrapolate are inkhorn terms created from Latin words. Many of the most common polysyllabic A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds. For example, the word water is composed of two syllables: wa and ter. A syllable is typically made up of a syllable nucleus (most often a vowel) with optional initial and final margins (typically, consonants) English words are simply adapted Latin forms, in a large number of cases adapted by way of Old French Old French was the Romance dialect continuum spoken in territories that span roughly the northern half of modern France and parts of modern Belgium and Switzerland from the 9th century to the 14th century. It is a direct descendent of Old Gallo-Romance. It was then known as the langue d'oïl to distinguish it from the langue d'oc (Occitan language,.

History of Latin

Main article: History of Latin Latin is a member of the broad family of Italic languages. Its alphabet, the Latin alphabet, emerged from the Old Italic alphabets, which in turn were derived from the Greek and Phoenician scripts. Historical Latin came from the prehistoric language of the Latium region, specifically around the River Tiber, where Roman civilization first developed

Latin has been divided into historical phases, each of which is distinguished by minor differences in vocabulary, usage, spelling, morphology and syntax. In addition to the historical phases, Ecclesiastical Latin Ecclesiastical Latin is the Latin used by the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church in all periods for ecclesiastical purposes. Having developed as a style of Late Latin called sermo humilis, used to preach and otherwise communicate to the people in ordinary language, it can be distinguished from Classical Latin by some lexical variations, a refers to the styles used by the writers of the Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with more than a billion members. The Church's leader is the Pope who holds supreme authority in concert with the College of Bishops of which he is the head. A communion of the Western church and 22 autonomous Eastern Catholic churches (called in all historical phases from Late Latin on.

Old, early or archaic Latin

Main article: Old Latin Old Latin refers to the Latin language in the period before the age of Classical Latin; that is, all Latin before 75 BC. The term prisca Latinitas distinguishes it in New Latin and Contemporary Latin from vetus Latina, in which "old" has another meaning

The earliest known is Old Latin Old Latin refers to the Latin language in the period before the age of Classical Latin; that is, all Latin before 75 BC. The term prisca Latinitas distinguishes it in New Latin and Contemporary Latin from vetus Latina, in which "old" has another meaning, a phase of the early and middle Roman republic attested in inscriptions and the earliest surviving Latin works of literature. Often infused with other ancient languages, examples include the Praenestine Fibula, which uses the even older boustrophedon Boustrophedon , is a type of bi-directional text, mostly seen in ancient manuscripts and other inscriptions. Rather than going from left to right as in modern English, or right to left as in Hebrew and Arabic, alternate lines in boustrophedon must be read in opposite directions and some Classical Greek Ancient Greek is the historical stage in the development of the Greek language spanning the Archaic , Classical (c. 5th–4th centuries BC), and Hellenistic (c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD) periods of ancient Greece and the ancient world. It is predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek. Its Hellenistic phase is known as Koine (& endings.

Classical Latin

Main article: Classical Latin Classical Latin in simplest terms is the sociolinguistic register of the Latin language regarded by the enfranchised and empowered populations of the late Roman republic and the Roman empire as good Latin. Most writers during this time made use of it. Any unabridged Latin dictionary informs moderns that Marcus Tullius Cicero and his contemporaries

Old Latin was followed in the late republic and empire by Classical Latin Classical Latin in simplest terms is the sociolinguistic register of the Latin language regarded by the enfranchised and empowered populations of the late Roman republic and the Roman empire as good Latin. Most writers during this time made use of it. Any unabridged Latin dictionary informs moderns that Marcus Tullius Cicero and his contemporaries, a conscious creation of the orators, poets, historians and other literate Literacy has traditionally been described as the ability to read and write. It is a concept claimed and defined by a range of different theoretical fields. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization defines literacy as the "ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate, compute and use printed and men, who wrote the great works of classical literature Classics is the branch of the Humanities comprising the languages, literature, philosophy, history, art, archaeology and other culture of the ancient Mediterranean world; especially Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome during Classical Antiquity (Bronze Age ca. BC 3000 – Late Antiquity ca. AD 300–600). Initially, study of the Classics (the period's, and was taught in the schools of grammar In linguistics, grammar is the set of structural rules that govern the composition of sentences, phrases, and words in any given natural language. The term refers also to the study of such rules, and this field includes morphology, syntax, and phonology, often complemented by phonetics, semantics, and pragmatics. Linguists do not normally use the and rhetoric Rhetoric is the art of using language to communicate effectively. It involves three audience appeals: logos, pathos, and ethos, as well as the five canons of rhetoric: invention or discovery, arrangement, style, memory, and delivery. Along with grammar and logic or dialectic, rhetoric is one of the three ancient arts of discourse. From ancient. The concepts of today's instructional grammars originated in these schools Each school day of Ancient Rome was believed to begin before sunrise, and last until late afternoon. The fixed beginning of the school year was March 24th, which is held in honor of Minerva, the Roman Goddess of Wisdom and Knowledge, which served as a sort of informal language academy to maintain and perpetuate the classical language.^[5][6]

Vulgar Latin

Main article: Vulgar Latin Vulgar Latin was the nonstandard form of the Latin language; because of its nonstandard nature, it had no official orthography, and only Classical Latin was used in writing. It is sometimes called colloquial Latin

Philological analysis of Old Latin works, such as the plays of Plautus Titus Maccius Plautus , commonly known as Plautus, was a Roman playwright of the Old Latin period. His comedies are among the earliest surviving intact works in Latin literature. He wrote Palliata comoedia, the genre devised by the innovator of Latin literature, Livius Andronicus. The word Plautine (pronounced /ˈplɔːtaɪn/) is used to refer to, which contain dialogue purporting to be the speech of the common people, indicates that contemporaneous with the literary and official language was a spoken language, which has from ancient times been called Vulgar Latin Vulgar Latin was the nonstandard form of the Latin language; because of its nonstandard nature, it had no official orthography, and only Classical Latin was used in writing. It is sometimes called colloquial Latin (sermo vulgi in Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists), the language of the vulgus or "common people." Since the vulgus spoke — but did not write — their language, it can only be known through words and phrases cited by classical authors or in inscriptions.^[7]

As vulgar Latin was not under the control or encouragement of the schools of rhetoric, there is no reason to expect any uniformity of speech either diachronically or geographically. Just the opposite must have been true: European populations learning Latin developed their own dialects of the language.^[8] This is the situation that prevailed when the Migration Period, ca. 300-700 AD, brought an end to the unity and peace of the Roman world and removed the stabilizing influence of its institutions on the language. A post-classical phase of Latin appeared, Late Latin, in which the spoken forms reappeared, and which is regionalized. Starting about the 5th or 6th centuries, Late Latin contains minor features that are germinal to the development of the Romance languages.

One of the tests as to whether a given Latin feature or usage was in the spoken language is to compare its reflex in a Romance language with the equivalent structure in classical Latin. If it appeared in the Romance language but was not preferred in classical Latin, then it passes the test as being vulgar Latin. For example, grammatical case in nouns is present in classical Latin but not in the Romance languages, excluding Romanian. One might conclude that case endings in regions other than Romania were already wholly or partly missing in the spoken language even while being insisted upon in the written. (Even in Romanian there are only as many different case endings for nouns as there are for pronouns in the other languages; cf. Romanian endings i, lor with the Italian pronouns gli, loro). Also, much of the vocabulary that went into the Romance languages came from Vulgar Latin rather than classical. The following examples follow the formula, classical Latin word/vulgar Latin word/ Italian word/ French word: ignis/focus/fuoco/feu, equus/caballus/cavallo/cheval, loquor/parabolare/parlare/parler, pulcher/bellus/bello/bel (or belle).^[9] In each case French does not use the classical Latin word. The words actually used: focus, caballus, etc., must have been in the Vulgar Latin vocabulary.

The expansion of the Roman Empire had spread Latin throughout Europe. Vulgar Latin began to diverge into various dialects and many of these into distinct Romance languages by the 9th century at very latest, when the earliest known writings appeared. These languages must already have been in place. These were, for many centuries, only oral languages, Latin still being used for writing. For example, Latin was still the official language of Portugal until 1296, when Portuguese replaced it. Portuguese had already developed and was in use under the umbrella of the vulgar language.

Medieval Latin

Main article: Medieval Latin The language of Rome has had a profound impact on later cultures, as demonstrated by this Latin Bible from 1407

The term Medieval Latin refers to the written Latin in use during that portion of the post-classical period when no corresponding Latin vernacular existed. The spoken language had developed into the various incipient Romance Languages; however, in the educated and official world Latin continued without its natural spoken base. Moreover, this Latin spread into lands that had never spoken Latin, such as the Germanic and Slavic nations. It became useful as a means of international communication between the member states of the Holy Roman Empire and its allies.

Cut loose from its corrective spoken base and severed from the vanished institutions of the Roman empire that had supported its uniformity, medieval Latin lost the precise knowledge of correctness; for example, suus ("his/her own"), sui ("his/her own") and eius ("his/her") are used almost interchangeably, a confusion not resolved until the Renaissance, in works such as the famous tract of Lorenzo Valla, De reciprocatione suus et sui. 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.^[10] Furthermore the meanings of many words have changed and new vocabulary has been introduced from the vernacular.

While these minor changes are not enough to impair comprehension of the language, they introduce a certain flexibility not in it previously. The style of each individual author is characterized by his own uses of classically incorrect Latin to such a degree that he can be identified just by reading his Latin. In that sense medieval Latin is a collection of individual Latins united loosely by the main structures of the language. Some are more classical, others less so.^[10] As the majority of these writers were influential members of the Christian church: bishops, monks, philosophers, etc., the term Ecclesiastical Latin does not accurately apply; the majority were ecclesiastical by occupation but there was no uniform language of the church; that was a product of the Renaissance. Late Latin is sometimes classified as medieval, sometimes not. Certainly many of the individual Latins were influenced by the vernaculars of their authors.

Renaissance Latin

Main article: Renaissance Latin

The Renaissance briefly reinforced the position of Latin as a spoken language, through its adoption by the Renaissance Humanists. Often led by members of the clergy, they were shocked by the accelerated dismantling of the vestiges of the classical world and the rapid loss of its literature. They strove to preserve what they could. It was they who introduced the practice of producing revised editions of the literary works that remained by comparing surviving manuscripts, and they who attempted to restore Latin to what it had been. They corrected medieval Latin out of existence no later than the 15th century and replaced it with more formally correct versions supported by the scholars of the rising universities, who attempted, through scholarship, to discover what the classical language had been.

Language characteristics

Throughout its entire history the Latin language retained the same major characteristics and is on that account classified as one language. These characteristics are reflected best in the classical Latin period and are introduced in this article rather than in the Classical Latin article.

Over its 2500-3000 year history the language varied considerably in minor ways. In general, a native speaker in one historical period understood the Latin of another only with difficulty or not at all. Persons educated in Latin, however, were able through study to broaden their horizons to two or more periods, an event that always commanded the respect of their peers. Queen Elizabeth I of England and her close relatives, for example, who received the best classical education from tutors hired for the purpose from Oxford University, were respected at home and abroad for their command of Latin and ancient Greek. Elizabeth could, when required, transit easily from French or Spanish into Latin for the convenience of foreign dignitaries.

Pronunciation

Main article: Latin spelling and pronunciation

Pronunciation of Latin by the Romans in ancient times can be reconstructed from evidence in the modern Romance languages, transliteration to and from Greek, and the statements of ancient authors themselves.

Latin spelling seems to have been a fairly close representation of the pronunciation, but some distinctions did not show up in the spelling. In particular all vowels could be either long or short, the letter N before G, or X (and probably G before N) represented IPA /ŋ/ (like English ng in sing) and the letters I and V each functioned sometimes as a vowel and sometimes as a consonant. In modern texts, V is generally printed as U / u when a vowel and V / v when a consonant. (Some newer editions, such as the Oxford Latin Dictionary, use V for upper case and u for lower case.) Less commonly, I is printed as I / i when a vowel and J / j when a consonant.

Most of the letters are pronounced the same as in English, but note the following:

Consonants:

• c = /k/ (never as in nice)
• g = /g/ (never as in germ)
• t = /t/ (never as in English nation)
• v (consonantal u) = /w/
• j (consonantal i) = /j/ (like English y in you)

Vowels:

• a = /a/ when short and /aː/ when long.
• e = /ɛ/ (as in pet) when short and /eː/ (somewhat as in English they) when long.
• i = /ɪ/ (as in pin) when short and /iː/ (as in machine) when long
• o = /ɔ/ (as in British English law) when short and /oː/ (somewhat as in holy) when long.
• u = /ʊ/ (as in put) when short and /uː/ (as in true) when long.

Orthography

Main article: Latin alphabet The Duenos Inscription, from the 6th century BC, is one of the earliest known Old Latin texts.

To write Latin, the Romans used the Latin alphabet, derived from the Old Italic alphabet, which itself was derived from the Greek alphabet. The Latin alphabet flourishes today as the writing system for the Romance, Celtic, Germanic (including English and Scots), Baltic and Finnic, and some Slavic (such as Croatian and Czech) languages, among others as Indonesian, Vietnamese and Niger-Congo languages.

The ancient Romans did not use punctuation, macrons (although they did use apices to distinguish between long and short vowels), the letters j, u or w, lowercase letters (although they did have a cursive script), or interword spacing (though dots were occasionally placed between words that would otherwise be difficult to distinguish). So, a sentence originally written as:

LVGETEOVENERESCVPIDINESQVE

would be rendered in a modern edition as

Lugete, O Veneres Cupidinesque

or with macrons

Lūgēte, Ō Venerēs Cupīdinēsque.

and translated as

Mourn, O Venuses and Cupids

A replica of the Old Roman Cursive inspired by the Vindolanda tablets

The Roman cursive script is commonly found on the many wax tablets excavated at sites such as forts, an especially extensive set having been discovered at Vindolanda on Hadrian's Wall in Britain. Curiously enough, most of the Vindolanda tablets show spaces between words, though spaces were avoided in monumental inscriptions from that era.

Grammar

It has been suggested that Latin numbers: 1-10‎ be merged into this article or section. (Discuss)

Main article: Latin grammar

Latin is a synthetic, fusional language: affixes (often suffixes, which usually encode more than one grammatical category) are attached to fixed stems to express gender, number, and case in adjectives, nouns, and pronouns—a process called declension. Affixes are attached to fixed stems of verbs, as well, to denote person, number, tense, voice, mood, and aspect—a process called conjugation.

Nouns

Main article: Latin declension

There are six main Latin noun cases. These play a major part in determining a noun's syntactic role in the sentence, so word order is not as important in Latin as it is in some other languages, such as English. Because of noun cases, words can often be moved around in a sentence without significantly altering its meaning, though the emphasis will have been altered. The cases, with their most important uses, are these:

1. Nominative: used when the noun is the subject of the sentence or phrase, or when functioning as a predicative of the subject. The thing or person acting (e.g., The girl ran. Puella cucurrit.)
2. Vocative: used when the noun is used in a direct address. The vocative form of a noun is the same as the nominative except for second declension nouns ending in -us. The -us becomes an -e or if it ends in -ius (such as filius) then the ending is just -i (fili) (as distinct from the plural nominative (filii)). (e.g., "Master!" shouted the slave. "Domine!" servus clamavit.)
3. Accusative: used when the noun is the direct object of the sentence/phrase, with certain prepositions, or as the subject of an infinitive. The thing or person having something done to them. (e.g., The slave woman carries the wine. Ancilla vinum portat.) In addition, there are certain constructions where the Accusative can be used for the subject of a clause, one being the Indirect Statement.
4. Genitive: used when the noun is the possessor of an object (e.g., "the horse of the man", or "the man's horse"—in both of these cases, the word man would be in the genitive case when translated into Latin). Also indicates material of which something greater is made (e.g., "a group of people"; "a number of gifts"—people and gifts would be in the genitive case). Some nouns are genitive with special verbs and adjectives too. (e.g., The cup is full of wine. Poculum plenum vini est. The master of the slave had beaten him. Dominus servi eum verberaverat.)
5. Dative: used when the noun is the indirect object of the sentence, with special verbs, with certain prepositions, and if used as agent, reference, or even possessor. (e.g., The merchant hands over the stola to the woman. Mercator feminae stolam tradit.)
6. Ablative: used when the noun demonstrates separation or movement from a source, cause, agent, or instrument, or when the noun is used as the object of certain prepositions; adverbial.

There is also a seventh case, called the Locative case, used to indicate a location and services (corresponding to the English "in" or "at"). This is far less common than the other six cases of Latin nouns and usually applies to cities, small towns, and islands smaller than the island of Rhodes, but not including Rhodes, along with a few common nouns. In the first and second declension singular, its form coincides with the genitive (Roma becomes Romae, "in Rome"). In the plural, and in the other declensions, it coincides with the dative and ablative (Athenae becomes Athenis, "at Athens").

Latin lacks definite and indefinite articles; thus puer currit can mean either "the boy runs" or "a boy runs".

Verbs

Main article: Latin conjugation

Verbs in Latin are usually identified by four main conjugations, groups of verbs with similarly inflected forms. The first conjugation is typified by active infinitive forms ending in -āre, the second by active infinitives ending in -ēre, the third by infinitives ending in -ere, and the fourth by active infinitives ending in -īre. However, there are exceptions to these rules. Further, there is a subset of the 3rd conjugation, the -iō verbs, which behave somewhat like the 4th conjugation. There are six general tenses in Latin (present, imperfect, future, perfect, pluperfect, and future perfect), three grammatical moods (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 a few aspects. Verbs are described by four principal parts:

1. The first principal part is the first person (or third person for impersonal verbs) singular, present tense, indicative mood, active voice form of the verb (or passive voice for verbs lacking an active voice).
2. The second principal part is the present infinitive active (or passive for verbs lacking an active) form.
3. The third principal part is the first person (or third person for impersonal verbs) singular, perfect indicative active (or passive when there is no active) form.
4. The fourth principal part is the supine form, or alternatively, the nominative singular, perfect passive participle form of the verb. The fourth principal part can show either one gender of the participle, or all three genders (-us for masculine, -a for feminine, and -um for neuter). It can also be the future participle when the verb cannot be made passive. Most modern Latin dictionaries, if only showing one gender, tend to show the masculine; however, many older dictionaries will instead show the neuter. The fourth principal part is sometimes omitted for intransitive verbs, although strictly in Latin these can be made passive if used impersonally.

Contemporary use

Main article: Contemporary Latin The signs at Wallsend Metro station are in English and Latin as a tribute to Wallsend's role as one of the outposts of the Roman empire.

Latin lives in the form of Ecclesiastical Latin used for edicts and papal bulls issued by the Catholic Church, and in the form of a sparse sprinkling of scientific or social articles written in it, as well as in numerous Latin clubs. Latin vocabulary is used in science, academia, and law. Classical Latin is taught in many schools often combined with Greek in the study of Classics, though its role has diminished since the early 20th century. The Latin alphabet, together with its modern variants such as the English, Spanish, French, Portuguese and German alphabets, is the most widely used alphabet in the world. Terminology deriving from Latin words and concepts is widely used, among other fields, in philosophy, medicine, biology, and law, in terms and abbreviations such as subpoena duces tecum, q.i.d. (quater in die: "four times a day"), and inter alia (among other things). These Latin terms are used in isolation, as technical terms. In scientific names for organisms, Latin is typically the language of choice, followed by Greek.

The largest organization that still uses Latin in official and quasi-official contexts is the Roman Catholic Church (particularly in the Latin Rite). The Tridentine Mass uses Latin, although the Mass of Paul VI is usually said in the local vernacular language; however, it can be and often is said in Latin, particularly in the Vatican. Indeed, Latin is still the official standard language of the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church, and the Second Vatican Council merely authorized that the liturgical books be translated and optionally used in the vernacular languages. Latin is the official language of the Holy See and the Vatican City-State. The Vatican City is also home to the only ATM where instructions are given in Latin.(although only the front invitation page is in Latin, the details are not)^[11].

Some films of relevant ancient settings, such as Sebastiane and The Passion of the Christ, have been made with dialogue in Latin for purposes of realism. Occasionally, Latin dialogue is used because of its association with religion or philosophy, in such film/TV series as the Exorcist and Lost (Jughead). Subtitles are usually employed for the benefit of audiences who do not understand Latin. There are also songs written with Latin lyrics.

Many organizations today have Latin mottos, such as "Semper Paratus" (always ready), the motto of the United States Coast Guard, and "Semper Fidelis" (always faithful), the motto of the United States Marine Corps. Several of the states of the United States also have Latin mottos, such as "Montani Semper Liberi" (Mountaineers are always free), the state motto of West Virginia, and "Esse Quam Videri" (To be rather than to seem), that of North Carolina.

Latin grammar has been taught in most Italian schools since the 18th century: for example, in the Liceo classico and Liceo scientifico, Latin is still one of the primary subjects. Latin is taught in many schools and universities around the world as well.

Occasionally, the media broadcasts in Latin, which is targeted at the enthusiasts audience. Notable examples include Radio Bremen in Germany, YLE radio in Finland and Vatican Radio & Television; all of which broadcast news segments and other material in Latin.^[12][13]

As with many languages which are seen as relatively unused in a day to day context - there are many websites and forums maintained in the language by enthusiasts. Wikipedia has over 10,000 articles written in Latin.

Instruction in Latin

Main article: Instruction in Latin A multi-volume Latin dictionary in the University Library of Graz

The Living Latin movement attempts to teach Latin in the same way that modern living languages are taught, i.e., as a means of both spoken and written communication. Living Latin instruction is provided at the Vatican, and at some institutions in the U.S., such as the University of Kentucky and Iowa State University. In the United Kingdom, the Classical Association encourages this approach, and Latin language books describing the adventures of a mouse called Minimus have been published. In the United States, the National Junior Classical League (with more than 50,000 members) encourages high school students to pursue the study of Latin, and the National Senior Classical League encourages college students to continue their studies of the language.

Many international auxiliary languages have been heavily influenced by Latin. Interlingua, which lays claim to a sizeable following, is sometimes considered a simplified, modern version of the language. Latino sine Flexione, popular in the early 20th century, is a language created from Latin with its inflections dropped.

Latin translations of modern literature such as Treasure Island, Robinson Crusoe, Paddington Bear, Winnie the Pooh, Olivia, Tintin, Asterix, Harry Potter, Walter the Farting Dog, Le Petit Prince, Max und Moritz, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and The Cat in the Hat and a book of fairy tales, "fabulae mirabiles", are intended to bolster interest in the language. Additional resources include Phrasebooks or resources to render modern terms and concepts into Latin, such as Meissner's Latin Phrasebook

See also

This "see also" section may contain an excessive number of suggestions. Please ensure that only the most relevant suggestions are given and that they are not red links, and consider integrating suggestions into the article itself.

Language

AP Latin: Vergil Latin alphabet Alphabets derived from the Latin Latin characters in Unicode Latin-1 Western Latin character sets (computing) List of Latin letters Latin encyclopedia Latin Wikipedia (Vicipaedia) Latin grammar Latin conjugation Latin declension Latin mnemonics Latin school Golden line Latin literature Latin translations of modern literature Latin poetry List of Latin language poets Panegyrici Latini Latin profanity

Latin spelling and pronunciation Latin regional pronunciation Traditional English pronunciation of Latin Latinism Greek and Latin roots in English Latin honors Latin influence in English Latinization (literature) List of Germanic and Latinate equivalents in English List of Latin abbreviations List of Latin and Greek words commonly used in systematic names List of Latin phrases List of Latin words with English derivatives List of Latinised names List of legal Latin terms List of songs with Latin lyrics List of Latin place names in Europe Medical terminology National Latin Exam

Latin edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Latin edition of Wikisource, the free-content library

Culture

Ancient Rome Culture of ancient Rome Romanization (cultural) Brocard Carmen Possum Dog Latin Pig Latin Hiberno-Latin Interlingua Internationalism

Judeo-Latin Latin liturgy Latin Mass Latin Rite Macaronic Latin Latino sine Flexione Loeb Classical Library Orbis Pictus Romance languages Romance peoples

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Latin proverbs Wikibooks has a book on the topic of Latin Latin edition of Wiktionary, the free dictionary/thesaurus

Notes

1. ^ "Schools". Britannica (1911 ed.).
2. ^ Opus Fundatum Latinitas is an organ of the Roman Catholic Church, and regulates Latin with respect to its status as official language of the Holy See and for use by Catholic clergy.
3. ^ Sandys, John Edwin (1910). A companion to Latin studies. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. pp. 811–812.
4. ^ Bryson, Bill (1996). The mother tongue: English and how it got that way. New York: Avon Books. pp. 33–34.
5. ^ Pope, Mildred K. From Latin to modern French with especial consideration of Anglo-Norman; phonology and morphology. Publications of the University of Manchester, no. 229. French series, no. 6. Manchester: Manchester university press. p. 3.
6. ^ Monroe, Paul (1902). Source book of the history of education for the Greek and Roman period. London, New York: Macmillan Co.. pp. 346–352.
7. ^ Herman (2000), pp. 17-18.
8. ^ Herman (2000) p 8.
9. ^ Herman (2000), pp. 1-3.
10. ^ ^{a b} Thorley, John (1998). Documents in medieval Latin. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. pp. 13–15.
11. ^ Moore, Malcom (28 January 2007). "Pope's Latinist pronounces death of a language". The Daily Telegraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1540843/Popes-Latinist-pronounces-death-of-a-language.html. Retrieved 16 September 2009.
12. ^ http://www.radiobremen.de/nachrichten/latein/
13. ^ http://www.yleradio1.fi/nuntii/

References

• Bennett, Charles E. (1908). Latin Grammar. Chicago: Allyn and Bacon.
• Herman, József; Wright, Roger (Translator) (2000). Vulgar Latin. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press.
• Palmer, Frank Robert (1984). Grammar (2nd ed.). Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England; New York, N.Y., U.S.A.: Penguin Books.
• Vincent, N. (1990), "Latin", in Harris, M., The Romance Languages, Oxford: Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-520829-3
• Waquet, Françoise; Howe, John (Translator) (2003). Latin, or the Empire of a Sign: From the Sixteenth to the Twentieth Centuries. Verso. ISBN 1-85984-402-2.
• Wheelock, Frederic (2005). Latin: An Introduction (6th ed.). Collins. ISBN 0-06-078423-7.

External links

Language tools

• Latin Dictionary Headword Search at Perseus Hopper. Searches Lewis & Short's A Latin Dictionary and Lewis's An Elementary Latin Dictionary
• Perseus Word Study Tool, a morphological analysis of inflected Latin words
• "Latin Inflector" Analyze inflected words in Latin sentences.
• Conjugate Latin verbs with Verbix
• Latin dictionary for Mac OS 10.5's Dictionary.app free online
• Words by William Whitaker, program to analyze inflected words and offer meanings
• Online interface to Whitaker's Words. Accepts English words or Latin phrases
• Latin Dictionaries at the Open Directory Project

Courses

• Latin the easy way, an informal introduction to Latin by C. J. Cherryh
• Simplicissimus, an excellent, free, online ecclesiastical Latin course
• Ludus Latinus - A Latin Textbook
• Latin by the Dowling method

Grammar and study

• New Latin Grammar by Charles E. Bennett
• "Latin Language, General Overview". Orbis Latinus. http://www.orbilat.com/Languages/Latin/Latin.html. Retrieved 16 September 2009.
• Lehmann, Winifred P.; Slocum, Jonathan (2008). "Latin Online, Series Introduction". The University of Texas at Austin. http://www.utexas.edu/cola/centers/lrc/eieol/latol-0-X.html. Retrieved 16 September 2009.
• The World of Comparative and Historical Linguistics presents Hugh Wilkinson's papers including The Latinity of Ibero-Romance
• "Latin Language". latin-language.co.uk. 2005. http://latin-language.co.uk/. Retrieved 16 September 2009.

Phonetics

• "Latin Pronunciation - a Beginner's Guide". h2g2, BBC. 2001. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A657272.
• Classical and ecclesiastical Latin pronunciations with audio

Ages of Latin until 75 BC 75 BC – 200 200–900 900–1300 1300–1500 1500–present 1900–present Old Latin Classical Latin Late Latin Medieval Latin Renaissance Latin New Latin Contemporary Latin See also: History of Latin, Latin literature, Vulgar Latin, Ecclesiastical Latin, Romance languages, Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum

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