Is Latin a Dead Language?
In the fourth century, Germanic invasions brought the decline of Latin. Latin then evolved into other languages such as Italian, French, Romanian, Portuguese and Spanish.
Medieval Latin, however, was still largely used in Europe right into the 18th century, in the fields of administration, medicine, science and education among others. Gradually the use of Latin came to be restricted to the Roman Catholic Church.
Latin is categorized as an Italic language spoken mainly in Ancient Rome. Apart from the Roman citizens, Latin was also spoken by the Egyptians, Greeks, and members of varied groups including those living in Modern Persia, Turkey and the Levant.
Medieval 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. Therefore Latin had died as a living language.
Latin is now considered a “dead” language, meaning it’s still used in specific contexts, but does not have any native speakers. (Sanskrit and Classical Arabic are also other dead languages.) In historical terms, though Latin didn’t die so much as it changed into Romance languages.
Among the various reasons leading to Latin becoming a “dead” language were the fall of the Roman Empire and the rise of other powers.
When the Roman Empire dissolved it saw the emergence of other languages known as the Romance languages. These languages were primarily influenced by Roman culture and include French, Spanish, Romanian, Portuguese and Italian languages. Thereafter Latin retained its use as a Church language and stopped being used as an “everyday” language.
Another reason that Latin passed out of common usage is that, as a language, it is 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 the usage of Classical Latin, it gradually passed away from everyday usage.
Latin may be considered to be a “dead” language today but scholars and many members of the Clergy were well versed in Latin, being the main language of the Catholic Church.
After the Second Vatican Council, the use of Latin was reduced to official Vatican documents only, and never used in liturgy anymore except by the traditionalist in Roman Mass (aka Tridentine Mass).
Almost up until the 19th century, Latin was used to write academic books and scholarly papers to reach audiences across America and Europe.
Latin is however no longer the native language of any particular place today, and as such, is not a developing language like the other modern languages.
All the same, it is a fact that Latin is the root for many languages used today.
It is common to find Latin vocabulary in the fields of science, academics and law besides the largely ecclesiastical use of Latin related to the Church.
Up till the early 20th century, Classical Latin formed an important part of the study of Classics in schools.
The Latin alphabet is still a widely used alphabet with terminology originating from Latin words being widely used in diverse fields of religion, law, medicine, science and many other allied areas.
Students across the world can choose to study Latin as a subject since it is still taught in many universities.
