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Latin was originally spoken by the Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area around Rome, Italy. [2] Through the expansion of the Roman Republic it became the dominant language in the Italian Peninsula and subsequently throughout the Roman Empire.
Historical Latin came from the prehistoric language of the Latium region, specifically around the River Tiber, where Roman civilization first developed. How and when Latin came to be spoken has long been debated.
Jan 18, 2024 · The fall of the Western Roman Empire around AD 476 marked the end of Classical Latin as a widely spoken language but it continued to be used in religious, scientific, legal fields well into the Middle Ages.
Jul 1, 2024 · This led to Latin becoming one of the primary languages spoken worldwide. As the Roman Empire grew in power and expanded, Latin spread worldwide, serving as the lingua franca of the Western world. It was used for religious, legal, and administrative purposes, forming the foundation for many Romance languages.
Oct 22, 2024 · Originally spoken by small groups of people living along the lower Tiber River, Latin spread with the increase of Roman political power, first throughout Italy and then throughout most of western and southern Europe and the central and western Mediterranean coastal regions of Africa.
- The Latin language is an Indo-European language in the Italic group and is ancestral to the modern Romance languages. During the Middle Ages and un...
- A “dead” language is one no longer learned as a first language or used in ordinary communication. Classical Latin, the language of Cicero and Virgi...
- Latin was the lingua franca of scientific work in the West during the Middle Ages, so Western scientists used Latin for naming species of organisms...
Latin’s oldest version is known as “Archaic Latin”. It was spoken around the lower parts of the Tiber River, including where modern Rome lies. As the city of Rome developed and eventually gained power, other languages of the Italian peninsula impacted Latin.
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Oxford Latin offers translation, identification and verification of Latin texts from the Classical and medieval periods, from Christian and non-Christian texts.
