Latin Language

Latin Language Did you ever wonder why the language of ancient Rome was called Latin and not Roman?

Latin Language The answer is in the fact that Romans spoke the language of the district in which they lived, Latium in Italy. Latin was the language of the Romans

Latin Language The influence of Rome as a country made Latin the common language of South and Western Europe. In these areas Romance languages (Italian, French, Spanish, Romanian and Portuguese) were later derived from Latin.

Latin Language To understand the English language thoroughly it is necessary to have a knowledge of Latin. This is caused by the fact that Anglo-Saxon language (Old English), had borrowed many words from Latin, either directly or through French.

Latin Language This Germanic language group, spoken in Britain, south of the Forth (except Wales and Cornwall), has been making these borrowings both before and after the Norman Conquest (AD 1066). As a result, modern English and Latin are quite closely connected.

Latin Language For many centuries after AD 120 Latin was used for literary purposes. Until recent times scientific and philosophical works were often written in Latin. The Roman Catholic Church still uses it in its services and for official purposes.

The Roman alphabet evolved from the Greek alphabet. The Romans used just 23 letters to write Latin: A B C D E F G H I K L M N O P Q R S T V X Y Z There were no lower case letters, and K, Y and Z used only for writing words of Greek origin. The letters J, U and W were added to the alphabet at a later stage to write languages other than Latin. J is a variant of I, U is a variant of V, and W was introduced as a 'double-v' to make a distinction between the sounds we know as 'v' and 'w' which was unnecessary in Latin.

Latin Language THE END