Download Latin

Elpida Palaiokrassa
& Aris Foufas

Latin is the language that was originally
spoken in both regions, Latium which was
around Rome and ancient Rome. The citizens
of the Roman Republic and Roman Empire, the
Romans, were the main speakers, but it was
also the lingua franca of Europe throughout the
Middle Ages.



In the year 2013, it is believed that there were fewer
than 10,000 fluent Latin speakers worldwide.
However, the language is commonly used in the
medical field as well as by scientists, botanists,
zoologists, and in the Catholic Church
organizations.
Latin is the official language of the Vatican. Many
of the people that use Latin as a secondary
language are required to do so for their careers.
The medical field and its terminology are vastly
based on the Greek and Latin languages.

Moreover, in the Western world, Latin was a
lingua franca, the learned language for scientific
and political affairs, for more than a thousand
years, being eventually replaced by French in the
18th century and English in the late 19th.




Old Latin
3rd century BC in the time of Marcus
Tullius Cicero
Classical Latin (prime Latin)
late Roman
Republic and the early to middle Roman Empire
Medieval
during that portion of the Post-Classical
period when no corresponding Latin vernacular existed.
Modern Latin from the end of the 19th century to
the present


The Roman Empire was widely spread and
thousands of peoples were under its
stranglehold. Consequently the conquered
territories were forced to learn the Roman
language, namely Latin.
Latin is a member of the broad family of Italic
languages. It is based on the Etruscan
Language and the Greek and Phoenician
alphabet.

Beginning around the 3rd century BC, it took
two centuries to become a dominant literature
of Ancient Rome, with many educated Romans
still reading and writing in Ancient Greek.
Some of the earliest writers using the language,
were Ennius, Plautus , Cicero, Vergil, Ovid and
Horace, but also included were some European
religious and secular writers after the fall of the
Empire like St. Augustine,Francis Bacon and
Spinoza.

Formal Latin literature began in 240 BC, when a
Roman audience saw a Latin version of a Greek
play.The adaptor was Livius Andronicus. He
also translated the Odyssey into an old type of
Latin verse called Saturnian. The first Latin poet
to write on a Roman theme was Gnaeus
Naevius. He composed an epic poem about the
first Punic War, in which he had fought. Other
epic poets followed Naevius. Quintus Ennius
wrote a historical epic, the Annals, describing
Roman history from the founding of Rome to his
own time.

The spread of Latin has positively influenced
the lands it was spoken in. Many languages,
such as English, German and French have
stemmed from Latin and have themselves
become Lingua Francas. Also, Latin terms are
currently used in different realms of science.

Latin courses offered in high schools and
universities are primarily encouraged to
translate Latin texts into modern languages.
However, there is a growing Living Latin
movement, whose supporters believe that
Latin can, or should, be taught in the same way
that modern "living" languages are taught. In
addition, in the United States there is a thriving
competitive organization for high school Latin
students, the National Junior Classical League.



Reason for the Latin’s death is the decline of the
Roman Empire.
Around 165 AD the Roman Empire suffered the
severe Antonine Plague brought back to Rome
from the troops that were returning from their
campaign in the Near East. It killed half the
population.
Another theory suggests that the Roman Empire
fell beacause Romans gradually entrusted the role
of defending the Empire to barbarian
mercanariess who eventually turned on them.
When the west part of the Empire “died”
the east part rose in power and the
Byzantine Empire was born.That’s when
Latin died as a Lingua Franca and Greek
became one.
Latin did not just died out. It transformed
Into modern day languages such as Italian, French,
Portuguese, Spanish and English
•For example:
•“acid” comes from the latin word “acidus”
•“annual” comes from the latin word “annus”
•“aquarium” comes from the latin word “aqua”
•“causative”……”causa”
•“cave”…..”cavus”
•“cent”…..”centum”
•“circular”…”circus”





Wikipedia
http://latin-language.co.uk/
http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~kemmer/Words04
/structure/latin.html
History book 2nd grade of Lyceum
History teachers interviewed