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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.
Oct 22, 2024 · Latin language, Indo-European language in the Italic group and ancestral to the modern Romance languages. During the Middle Ages and until comparatively recent times, Latin was the language most widely used in the West for scholarly and literary purposes.
- 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...
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.
The religious practices of the Greeks extended beyond mainland Greece, to the islands and coasts of Ionia in Asia Minor, to Magna Graecia (Sicily and southern Italy), and to scattered Greek colonies in the Western Mediterranean, such as Massalia (Marseille).
The Romans began speaking Latin. After the conquest of Alexander the Great, Greek became a "lingua franca" in the extensive territories of his conquests, though Rome wasn't much affected by this. Rome proceeded to conquer Greece and surrounding territories: Greek was studied and spoken as a language of cultivation by many Romans, including Cicero.
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While Classical Latin remained the language of literature, law, and religion, Vulgar Latin evolved into the vernacular tongues of Europe, each with its own rich linguistic heritage.
