Latin Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ==Legacy== Italian, French, [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]], Spanish, [[Romanian language|Romanian]], [[Catalan language|Catalan]], [[Romansh language|Romansh]] and other [[Romance languages]] are direct descendants of Latin. There are also many Latin [[Loanword|borrowings]] in English and [[Albanian language|Albanian]],<ref name=Sawicka>Sawicka, Irena. [https://ispan.waw.pl/journals/index.php/ch/article/view/ch.2013.006/117 "A Crossroad Between West, East and Orient–The Case of Albanian Culture."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210927124146/https://ispan.waw.pl/journals/index.php/ch/article/view/ch.2013.006/117 |date=27 September 2021 }} Colloquia Humanistica. No. 2. Instytut Slawistyki Polskiej Akademii Nauk, 2013. Page 97: "Even according to Albanian linguists, Albanian vocabulary is composed in 60 percent of Latin words from different periods... When albanological studies were just emerging, it happened that Albanian was classified as a Romance language. Already there exists the idea of a common origin of both Albanian and Rumanian languages. The Rumanian grammar is almost identical to that of Albanian, but it may be as well the effect of later convergence within the Balkan Sprachbund.."</ref> as well as a few in German, [[Dutch language|Dutch]], [[Norwegian language|Norwegian]], [[Danish language|Danish]] and [[Swedish language|Swedish]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.ezglot.com/etymologies.php?l2=lat |title=List of words of Latin origin}}</ref> Latin is still spoken in Vatican City, a city-state situated in Rome that is the seat of the [[Catholic Church]]. ===Literature=== [[File:Commentarii de Bello Gallico.jpg|thumb|upright=1.36|[[Julius Caesar]]'s {{lang|la|[[Commentarii de Bello Gallico]]}} is one of the most famous classical Latin texts of the Golden Age of Latin. The unvarnished, journalistic style of this [[patrician (ancient Rome)|patrician]] general has long been taught as a model of the urbane Latin officially spoken and written in the [[floruit]] of the [[Roman Republic]].]] 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]]. They are in part the subject matter of the field of [[classics]]. Their works were published in manuscript form before the invention of printing and are now published in carefully annotated printed editions, such as the [[Loeb Classical Library]], published by [[Harvard University Press]], or the [[Oxford Classical Texts]], published by [[Oxford University Press]]. [[Latin translations of modern literature]] such as: ''[[The Hobbit]]'', ''[[Treasure Island]]'', ''[[Robinson Crusoe]]'', ''[[Paddington Bear]]'', ''[[Winnie the Pooh]]'', ''[[The Adventures of Tintin]]'', ''[[Asterix]]'', ''[[Harry Potter]]'', {{lang|fr|[[The Little Prince|Le Petit Prince]]}}, ''[[Max and Moritz]]'', ''[[How the Grinch Stole Christmas!]]'', ''[[The Cat in the Hat]]'', and a book of fairy tales, "{{lang|la|fabulae mirabiles}}", are intended to garner popular interest in the language. Additional resources include phrasebooks and resources for rendering everyday phrases and concepts into Latin, such as [[Meissner's Latin Phrasebook]]. ===Inscriptions=== Some inscriptions have been published in an internationally agreed, monumental, multivolume series, the {{lang|la|[[Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum]]}} (CIL). Authors and publishers vary, but the format is about 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]]. About 270,000 inscriptions are known. ===Influence on present-day languages=== The [[Latin influence in English]] has been significant at all stages of its insular development. In the [[Middle Ages]], borrowing from Latin occurred from ecclesiastical usage established by Saint [[Augustine of Canterbury]] in the 6th century or indirectly after the [[Norman Conquest]], through the [[Anglo-Norman language]]. From the 16th to the 18th centuries, English writers cobbled together huge numbers of new words from Latin and Greek words, dubbed "[[inkhorn term]]s", 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 useful ones survived, such as 'imbibe' and 'extrapolate'. Many of the most common [[polysyllabic]] English words are of Latin origin through the medium of [[Old French]]. Romance words make respectively 59%, 20% and 14% of English, German and Dutch vocabularies.<ref>{{cite book |last=Finkenstaedt |first=Thomas |author2=Dieter Wolff |title=Ordered Profusion; studies in dictionaries and the English lexicon |publisher=C. Winter |year=1973 |isbn=978-3-533-02253-4}}</ref><ref>Uwe Pörksen, German Academy for Language and Literature's Jahrbuch [Yearbook] 2007 (Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen 2008, pp. 121–130)</ref><ref name="Walter">{{cite book |url=https://pure.knaw.nl/ws/files/475024/Van_der_Sijs_Loanwords_in_the_World's_Languages.pdf |title=Loanwords in the World's Languages: A Comparative Handbook |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=HnKeVbwTwyYC&pg=PA370 370] |publisher=Walter de Gruyter |year=2009 |access-date=9 February 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170326062334/https://pure.knaw.nl/ws/files/475024/Van_der_Sijs_Loanwords_in_the_World%27s_Languages.pdf |archive-date=26 March 2017 |url-status=live }}</ref> Those figures can rise dramatically when only non-compound and non-derived words are included. [[File:Romance 20c en (cropped).png|thumb|400x400px|Range of the Romance languages, the modern descendants of Latin, in Europe.]] The influence of Roman governance and [[Roman technology]] on the less-developed nations under Roman dominion led to the adoption of Latin phraseology in some specialized areas, such as science, technology, medicine, and law. For example, [[Linnaean taxonomy|the Linnaean system]] of plant and animal classification was heavily influenced by ''[[Natural History (Pliny)|Historia Naturalis]]'', an encyclopedia of people, places, plants, animals, and things published by [[Pliny the Elder]]. Roman medicine, recorded in the works of such physicians as [[Galen]], established that today's [[medical terminology]] would be primarily derived from Latin and Greek words, the Greek being filtered through the Latin. Roman engineering had the same effect on [[scientific terminology]] as a whole. Latin law principles have survived partly in a long [[list of Latin legal terms]]. A few [[international auxiliary language]]s have been heavily influenced by Latin. [[Interlingua]] is sometimes considered a simplified, modern version of the language.{{Dubious|date=January 2017}} [[Latino sine Flexione]], popular in the early 20th century, is Latin with its inflections stripped away, among other grammatical changes. The [[Logudorese]] dialect of the [[Sardinian language]] and [[Italian language|Standard Italian]] are the two closest contemporary languages to Latin.<ref>{{cite book |title=Story of Language |last=Pei |first=Mario |author-link=Mario Pei |page=28|year=1949 |publisher=Lippincott |isbn=978-0-397-00400-3 }}</ref> ===Education=== [[File:Latin dictionary.jpg|thumb|A multivolume Latin dictionary in the [[University of Graz Library]] in Austria]] Throughout European history, an education in the classics was considered crucial for those who wished to join literate circles. This also was true in the United States where many of the nation's founders obtained a classically based education in grammar schools or from tutors.<ref>Of the eighty-nine men who signed the Declaration of Independence and attended the Constitutional Convention, thirty-six went to a Colonial college, all of which offered only the classical curriculum. Richard M. Gummere, The American Colonial Mind and the Classical Tradition, p.66 (1963).</ref> Admission to Harvard in the Colonial era required that the applicant "Can readily make and speak or write true Latin prose and has skill in making verse . . ."<ref>Meyer Reinhold, Classica Americana: The Greek and Roman Heritage in the United States, p.27 (1984). Harvard's curriculum was patterned after those of Oxford and Cambridge, and the curricula of other Colonial colleges followed Harvard's. Lawrence A. Cremin, American Education: The Colonial Experience, 1607–1783, pp. 128–129 (1970), and Frederick Rudolph, Curriculum: A History of the American Undergraduate Course of Study Since 1636, pp.31–32 (1978).</ref> Latin Study and the classics were emphasized in American secondary schools and colleges well into the Antebellum era.<ref>Id. at 104.</ref> [[Instruction in Latin]] is an essential aspect. In today's world, a large number of Latin students in the US learn from ''Wheelock's Latin: The Classic Introductory Latin Course, Based on Ancient Authors''. This book, first published in 1956,<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.wheelockslatin.com/ | title=The Official Wheelock's Latin Series Website | first=Richard A. | last=LaFleur | year=2011 | publisher=The Official Wheelock's Latin Series Website | access-date=17 February 2011 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110208122304/https://www.wheelockslatin.com/ | archive-date=8 February 2011 | url-status=live }}</ref> was written by [[Frederic M. Wheelock]], who received a PhD from Harvard University. ''Wheelock's Latin'' has become the standard text for many American introductory Latin courses. The numbers of people studying Latin varies significantly by country. In the United Kingdom, Latin is available in around 2.3% of state primary schools, representing a significant increase in availability.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Woolcock |first1=Nicola |title=Latin is now fourth most-taught language in primary schools |url=https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/latin-language-lessons-uk-primary-schools-2023-wrqrtfj0s |access-date=20 August 2023 |work=The Times |date=29 June 2023}}</ref> In Germany, over 500,000 students study Latin each year, representing a decrease from over 800,000 in 2008. Latin is still required for some University courses, but this has become less frequent.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Breitenbach |first1=Dagmar |title=Why Latin should not become extinct in school |url=https://www.dw.com/en/why-latin-should-not-become-extinct-in-school/a-66373904 |access-date=20 August 2023 |publisher=Deutsche Welle |date=27 July 2023}}</ref> The [[Living Latin]] movement attempts to teach Latin in the same way that living languages are taught, as a means of both spoken and written communication. It is available in Vatican City and at some institutions in the US, such as the [[University of Kentucky]] and [[Iowa State University]]. The British [[Cambridge University Press]] is a major supplier of Latin textbooks for all levels, such as the [[Cambridge Latin Course]] series. It has also published a subseries of children's texts in Latin by Bell & Forte, which recounts the adventures of a mouse called [[Minimus]]. In the United Kingdom, the [[Classical Association]] encourages the study of antiquity through various means, such as publications and grants. The [[University of Cambridge]],<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cambridgescp.com/ |title=University of Cambridge School Classics Project – Latin Course |publisher=Cambridgescp.com |access-date=2014-04-23}}</ref> the [[Open University]],<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www3.open.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/course/a297.htm |title=Open University Undergraduate Course – Reading classical Latin |publisher=.open.ac.uk |access-date=2014-04-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140427094907/https://www3.open.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/course/A297.htm |archive-date=27 April 2014 |url-status=live }}</ref> a number of independent schools, for example [[Eton College|Eton]], [[Harrow School|Harrow]], [[Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School]], [[Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood|Merchant Taylors' School]], and [[Rugby School|Rugby]], and The Latin Programme/Via Facilis,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.thelatinprogramme.co.uk/ |title=The Latin Programme – Via Facilis |publisher=Thelatinprogramme.co.uk |access-date=2014-04-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140429163517/https://www.thelatinprogramme.co.uk/ |archive-date=29 April 2014 |url-status=live }}</ref> a London-based charity, run Latin courses. In the United States and in Canada, the [[American Classical League]] supports every effort to further the study of classics. Its subsidiaries include the [[National Junior Classical League]] (with more than 50,000 members), which encourages high school students to pursue the study of Latin, and the [[National Senior Classical League]], which encourages students to continue their study of the classics into college. The league also sponsors the [[National Latin Exam]]. Classicist [[Mary Beard (classicist)|Mary Beard]] wrote in ''[[The Times Literary Supplement]]'' in 2006 that the reason for learning Latin is because of what was written in it.<ref name="timesonline train the brain">{{cite web | url=https://timesonline.typepad.com/dons_life/2006/07/does_latin_trai.html | title=Does Latin "train the brain"? | work=[[The Times Literary Supplement]] | date=10 July 2006| author=Beard, Mary | quote=No, you learn Latin because of what was written in it – and because of the sexual side of life direct access that Latin gives you to a literary tradition that lies at the very heart (not just at the root) of Western culture. | author-link=Mary Beard (classicist) | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120114185439/https://timesonline.typepad.com/dons_life/2006/07/does_latin_trai.html | archive-date=14 January 2012}}</ref> ===Official status=== Latin was or is the official language of European states: * {{flag|Hungary}} – Latin was an official language in the [[Kingdom of Hungary]] from the 11th century to the mid 19th century, when [[Hungarian language|Hungarian]] became the exclusive official language in 1844.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Zemplényi |first=Lili |date=13 November 2023 |title=The Day of the Hungarian Language |url=https://www.hungarianconservative.com/articles/culture_society/the-day-of-the-hungarian-language/ |magazine=Hungarian Conservative |location=Budapest |publisher=BL Nonprofit Ltd |access-date=7 November 2023}}</ref> The best known Latin language poet of Croatian-Hungarian origin was [[Janus Pannonius]]. * {{flag|Croatia}} – Latin was the official language of [[Croatian Parliament]] (Sabor) from the 13th to the 19th century (1847).<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--not stated--> |date=23 November 2021 |title=Croatian declared official language 174 years ago |url=https://www.croatiaweek.com/croatian-declared-official-language-174-years-ago/ |work=Croatia Week |location= |access-date=18 November 2023}}</ref> The oldest preserved records of the parliamentary sessions ({{lang|la|Congregatio Regni totius Sclavonie generalis}}) – held in Zagreb ({{lang|la|Zagabria}}), Croatia – date from 19 April 1273. An extensive [[Croatian Latin literature]] exists. Latin was used on Croatian coins on even years until 1 January 2023, when Croatia adopted the Euro as its official currency.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.hnb.hr/en/currency/coins |title=Coins |date=30 September 2016 |website=[[Croatian National Bank]] |access-date=15 November 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171116041640/https://www.hnb.hr/en/currency/coins |archive-date=16 November 2017 |url-status=dead }}</ref> * {{flag|Poland}}, [[Kingdom of Poland]] – officially recognised and widely used<ref>Who only knows Latin can go across the whole Poland from one side to the other one just like he was at his own home, just like he was born there. So great happiness! I wish a traveler in England could travel without knowing any other language than Latin!, Daniel Defoe, 1728</ref><ref>Anatol Lieven, The Baltic Revolution: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and the Path to Independence, Yale University Press, 1994, {{ISBN|0-300-06078-5}}, Google Print, p.48</ref><ref>Kevin O'Connor, Culture And Customs of the Baltic States, Greenwood Press, 2006, {{ISBN|0-313-33125-1}}, Google Print, p.115</ref><ref name="Friedrich">Karin Friedrich et al., ''The Other Prussia: Royal Prussia, Poland and Liberty, 1569–1772'', Cambridge University Press, 2000, {{ISBN|0-521-58335-7}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=qsBco40rMPcC&dq=Latin+language+szlachta&pg=PA88 Google Print, p.88] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150915150106/https://books.google.com/books?id=qsBco40rMPcC&pg=PA88&dq=Latin+language+szlachta&as_brr=3&ei=J44rR5_XFZXC7AK4xeGVBQ&sig=3ecP0DjPuCLnTaEdVI76Ck8xSE8 |date=15 September 2015 }}</ref> between the 10th and 18th centuries, commonly used in foreign relations and popular as a second language among some of the [[szlachta|nobility]].<ref name="Friedrich"/> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. 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