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What is Latin, precisely? Is it a fish? A piece of furniture? Or, perhaps, a dead language? (Or possibly, as this Researcher would posit, not dead at all!) This section introduces you to the basics on a terribly cool language.

The History of Latin

Latin has been many things over the years. First, it was the language spoken by the ancient Romans, where it was not the high-fallutin' tongue we see it as today, but the everyday language that filled Rome and its provinces. The Latin language was spoken everywhere from the Senate House to the theatres to the fish markets, all over Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. The Romans carried Latin with them to every province they conquered, and the locals incorporated Latin vocabulary and grammar into their own languages. These melded over time — and thus we have Latin-based, locally-influenced languages such as French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and Romansch¹.

Latin is also the language of the Roman Catholic Church. This church (somewhat obviously, to judge by the name) originated in Rome during the reign of the Emperor Constantine, whereupon it adapted the language of the locals. Some Catholic masses are still conducted in Latin, and the words In nomine Patri et Filii et Spiritus Sanctus² leave no doubt as to the origins of the Catholic Church. Interestingly, the Church declines to use the same system of Latin pronunciation as modern scholars do. Thus, two schools of pronunciation have sprung up: the Classical and the Ecclesiastical.

Which brings us nicely to the third use of Latin: a language for scholars. Even after the fall of the Roman Empire, Latin was used as a sort of lingua franca for scholars and record-keepers in the Middle Ages and through the Enlightenment. If a person living in France wanted to carry on a correspondence with another living in Germany, they might write to each other in Latin. Latin also, naturally, allows us to study the ancient Romans: their literature, such as Virgil's Aeneid or Ovid's Metamorphoses is quite interesting, and the comic plays of Plautus and Terence are just plain fun!

Latin as a Language

Although English has borrowed many words from Latin, it really bears very little resemblance to the older language. Unlike in English, grammar in Latin is very regular. Although the language is heavily inflected, meaning that grammar is shown by word endings instead of by extra words like personal pronouns. However, it is always easy to tell where you are in Latin. There's never any guessing as to what case, gender or number a noun is, or what tense, person and number a verb is. And that's why these tutorials can show you all you need to know.

Read on to Lesson II: Conversational Latin to find out more!