Download Main languages derived from the Latin

The Role of Latin
The Romanian language, as Portuguese, is a Romanic language, in other words a
language derived from Latin, thus some similarities between the Portuguese and the
Romanian languages .
Latin, on the other hand, originated from the Indo-European language, which was
spoken by an ancient people (the Aryans), whose tribes spread to Europe and Asia.
The Indo-European language changed into a variety of dialects that led to the origin of
some spoken languages in Europe and part of Asia, as for example the Germanic, the
Slav, the Greek or the Latin languages, among others.
Latin, today a dead language, was a language spoken by the Romans, who invaded
Italy (establishing the city of Rome in 753 BC) and established the Roman Empire. To
give a cultural and political stability to the Empire, the Romans passed on their
civilisation and with it its language (Latin) to all of the Empire’s inhabitants.
Despite the imposition of the Roman language, a common language was not
originated, due to variety of races and languages of the conquered people as well as
the time that the Roman conquest took place, which lasted some centuries. Thus,
while some people were Latinized in the 3rd century, others only were in the 1st
century AC, that is why the Latin language of the last ones is different from the first
ones.
In the region that today is know as Romania lived the Dacians. After years of
battle, the Roman emperor Trajan conquered in 106 AC the Dacians. The Romans
were able to romanize the Dacians through the use of Roman soldiers of Dacian origin
in its army, who learned the customs and language of the Romans. These soldiers
were married to Dacian women and after the soldiers ended their service in the army,
Roman citizenship was granted to them and their families. Another way to romanize
was through the role of the missionaries that brought the Christian religion and the
Latin language (Mass was in Latin).
The Romans left two centuries later and although Romania was invaded by other
people, some of these ended up learning Latin. However, one can not forget that Latin
was mainly spoken and not written, so Latin would be spoken differently according to
the origin of the races.
In the 5th century, the Roman Empire is declining and in its more distant regions
the linguistic differences gradually grow. In a short time, the Empire’s inhabitants will
not be able to understand each other and consequently different languages will start
appearing, although related. Such are the cases of the Romanic languages as
Portuguese, Spanish, French, Italian and Romanian, which resulted from the slow
transformation of Latin, already different because introduced in different periods of
time.
Comparing some words in Latin, Portuguese and Romanian, and without analysing
the processes of language evolution, it is possible to notice some similarities at a
vocabulary level.
Latin
Portuguese
Romanian
Libertatem
Liberdade
Libertate
Ille
Ele
Ele
Habere
Haver
A avea
Contra
Contra
Contra
Novus
Novo
Nou
It is due to the Roman Empire and its language (Latin) that there is a connection
between Portugal and Romania: two countries distant geographically but related
linguistically. Nevertheless, the Romanian language has other linguistic influences
besides Latin: words of Dacian, English, French or Slav origin, among others. It is a
never ending linguistic evolution – the language today is still developing.
Fábio Fagundes M1
Natacha Silveira J1