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Requiesce In Pace, Latine: A Formal Autopsy of a Dead Language
I. Introductio Introduction:
Reading this sentence, your brain is processing visual cues of letters on a page,
converting them into sounds, putting these sounds together to make words, and then deriving
meaning from those words based on prior knowledge all within milliseconds. The phenomenon
of reading has become so commonplace that the extensive complexity of the activity has been
neglected; as well as the amazing process of language comprehension, the historical, cultural,
and societal implications of language are often overlooked. Personally, the lack of appreciation
for language is heartbreaking for it is a product of humanity that I value more than nearly every
other. Language has created a world in which words cannot exist without meaning and meanings
cannot exist without words to capture them, and really what is life without meaning?
My love for language and the meaning it adds to life projected itself onto the language I
have grown up knowing best: English. I have delved into reading and writing with a passion I
seem incapable of finding for other subjects. I feel as though I have come a long way in my
endeavors and I am proud of having done so, yet I find myself at a road block. Though extensive
and flexible, even the English language has its limits. I became aware of said limits when I found
myself incapable of expressing certain feelings or thoughts in English for what I could easily
describe in Korean, the second language I grew up learning from my family. Because of these
confines set by English and my experiences growing up bilingual, I became enamored with the
idea of language and the infinite possibilities it promises for expression through word. On top of
that, I was interested in how languages have arisen throughout history, how they have evolved,
and how they have affected modern languages.
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English is an interesting language as it is, but it came about only as a result of thousands
of years of other languages particularly, languages like Latin. English is riddled with Latin
phrases; quid pro quo, deus ex machina, e pluribus unum, et cetera, et cetera. Many of our words
rely on Latin roots, and areas of study in science and history rely on Latin to develop subject-
based jargon. Knowing the impact that Latin had on the development of the English language
that I had come to love, I became interested in Latin and its development. Language is as much
the words and grammar that it is made up of as it is the context within which it developed, which
is why I believe understanding the historical significance of Latin is so important. As a lover of
history as well, the impact that the Romans had during their time and long afterwards has always
fascinated me. Roman mythology, culture, technology, and literature they were a civilization
that conquered, literally and figuratively. Not only did the Romans shape Western culture, but
they also shaped the development of several languages, collectively known as the Romance
languages because of their Roman roots. Along with my personal interest in language, the
prominence of Latin in the development of Western cultures and the complexity of the
languages development have encouraged me to investigate the question: How has Latin changed
over time?
Walking into Amy Caseys Latin classroom at Northcreek Academy in Walnut Creek, I
found myself in the perfect classroom environment: colorful posters adorning the walls, boards
filled with lesson plans for the days to come, books taking up the majority of the wall space in
the small classroom, and the smell of freshly-brewed coffee made me feel immediately
comfortable and interested in what Casey had to say. The only aspect of the classroom that I was
truly unfamiliar with was the content; as a Latin teacher for 4th 8th graders, Caseys classroom
was covered inch by inch by Latin vocabulary, grammar, and history. I was hit with a wave of
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jealousy for the students of Northcreek who have the opportunity to learn Latin, especially from
such a capable teacher. The classical Christian education utilized at Northcreek requires students
to learn basic Latin, a privilege that I never encountered throughout my public school education.
But despite the fact that I never had the opportunity to learn the technicalities of the language, I
certainly did learn from my history classes the unimaginable influence that Latin had across the
globe as the Roman Empire grew.
Looking at Latin through a purely historic lens, it is easy to break it down into major
stages birth, life, and death relative to the existence of the Roman Empire. Because of the
way that the Romans acted as the vehicle of Latins growing influence in Western Europe, the
two are inextricably tied; Roman history is Latin history, and Latin history is Roman history.
Latin grew from an esoteric language of a small tribe that existed before the Romans came to be,
was spread across the entire Mediterranean region and beyond as it became the official and
standard language of the Romans, and integrated itself into languages that were only able to arise
from the ashes of a dying language. Over more than two and a half millennia, Latin persisted
through shifting governments and civilizations while also molding to the cultural and societal
demands of the Roman Empire.
II. Genesis Birth:
Learning Latin roots is a crucial step in developing ones English vocabulary, but the
roots of Latin are rarely discussed. Though it is a language inseparable from the Roman Empire,
Latin itself had its beginnings far before the names Romulus and Remus even came to be. The
relationship between Latin, the language, and Rome, the Empire, was clearly expressed by the
Romans themselves, who referred to the language they spoke as lingua Latina, the Latin
language/tongue (Zecca-Naples). As Latin is not called Roman, this title given to the
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language indicates that it was claimed by the Romans as their own after it had already been
developed, leaving historians and linguists the task of figuring out where Latin came from and
why it was integrated into the greatest civilization the world had ever seen.
Historians have found that Latin was established in Latium, a small region on the Italian
peninsula that was occupied by a tribe of people known as the Latins, around 750 BCE (Zecca-
Naples). Because there is limited written evidence, the exact history of the region is difficult to
pinpoint, but historians do agree that Latin arose as a dominant language in competition with
several others in the region that was spoken by competing tribes. Some of the most popular of
these languages were of an Indo-European family that developed in Latium and is commonly
referred to as the Italic language family (Zecca-Naples). Of these, three main languages
emerged: Latin, Umbrian, and Oscan. The only significant distinction between Umbrian and
Oscan was dialectical, as they were spoken by different people of different regions; Umbrian was
popular in the northern peninsula, Oscan in the southern.
Another popular language that developed in the area was Etruscan, named for the people
that spoke it. Etruscans have puzzled historians for decades because there is no explanation as to
where exactly they came from. The language they spoke adds even more confusion to Etruscan
civilization for it resembles more closely Central Asian Turkish languages than it does Italic
languages, Greek, Punish, or Gaelish. The Etruscans even ruled over Rome during the height of
Etruscan influence, from 740 to 450 BCE (Zecca-Naples). Because of the control that the
Etruscans had over Rome in its infancy, Etruscan could have easily become the language of
Rome rather than Latin. The unmistakable purple Roman toga was borrowed from the Etruscans,
Romans emulated the rigid structure of Etruscan society, Romans borrowed Etruscan words for
fashion and food, and Etruscans made possible for Latin-speakers to develop their own version
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of the Greek alphabet (Zecca-Naples). But despite the obvious competition that Etruscan posed
as a language that could dominate, Latin eventually prevailed, and when the city of Rome was
founded in 753 BCE, Latin found a lasting home (Pulju).
III. Vitae Life:
Another consensus amongst linguists and historians is that Latin only survived thanks to
its integration into the Roman Empire. The Etruscans may have extended their influence over
parts of the Italian peninsula, but that would prove to be no match for the Roman Empires
complete dominion over the Mediterranean. The Romans were famous for their success in
conquest, not only politically, but also culturally. Nicholas Ostler, in his book Ad Infinitum: A
Biography of Latin, says that At the outset, the Latin language was something imposed on a
largely unwilling populace, if arguablyin the Roman mind, and that of later generationsfor
their greater good (Ostler 4). Ellen Dill, a Northgate High School teacher who studied Latin in
her undergraduate career at California State University, Northridge, accredits the success of Latin
to the fact that it was the language of the Roman Empire, the language of those who controlled
most of the world at the time. It also had a simple vocabulary, it was easier than Greek to learn,
and the Romans, when they conquered, would either impose or allow people to join the Empire
willingly, and that required an understanding of Latin.
The Romans were brought together by the language they spoke and it became a symbol
of pride in the Empire to spread Latins influence. Ostler also outlined three main factors that led
to Latins success over its competing languages: it was a farmers language, a soldiers
language, and a city language (Ostler 7). The Roman military, a beacon of the Empires
strength, was unified by its use of Latin, and it became a source of pride and camaraderie to
share the tongue. As the Romans took control of the Mediterranean through conquest, the Roman
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soldiers found themselves settling down in lands they took over. As they started their quiet lives
as farmers, Latin became the language of small towns and families. As the Empire built up Latin
as the official language of the Empire and its acolytes, the far-settling soldiers made Latin the
language of the average man as well. Further, as non-Roman peoples found themselves falling
under the control of the Empire, they were compelled to join the militarys ranks, bolstering their
need to learn Latin in order to properly integrate themselves; these soldiers would then bring the
language home where their families and communities would adopt it as well, creating a cycle of
the perpetuation of Latin. As Rome built up its Empire, cities, and culture, Latin became the
language around which law, literature, and politics were established, making it also the language
of the most privileged and powerful.
Because Rome was able to create a united government from which it could extend its
rule, it superseded its competing civilizations and, along with them, their languages. The
Etruscans may have been luxurious and wealthy, but they failed to reach out to the people that
lay outside of the central wealth, the farmers. The isolation of the language for the few inevitably
led to its demise. On the other hand, Umbrian and Oscan, which were the language of the people,
failed to find a united government capable of extending its influence. Rome was able to do what
its surrounding peoples could not by uniting cities, soldiers, and farmers. The golden age of
Latins development can be attributed to the rule of Emperor Augustus, who was in power from
27 BCE to 14 AD and who used his power and his interest in Latin to develop and encourage the
creation of Latin grammar and more defined literary aspects (Roman Civilization). Latin and the
Empire served one another by helping each other spread the others influence and significance,
and by the first century AD, Latin dominated where Rome did as well.
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As Latin changed over the long expanse of the Empire, Latin went down two different
paths. Classical Latin became the standard language that had been perfected during the Augustan
Age whereas Vulgar Latin became the vernacular of the people that deviated from Classical
Latin in pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar (Roman Civilization). Classical Latin, over
the first three centuries AD, went through changes including inflection simplification, syntax
standardization and simplification, phonological changes, verb tense modification, and more
(Roman Civilization). Vulgar Latin was changed over the middle ages, when it also experienced
phonological changes, changes in pronunciation, and vowel changes, such as distinctions
between e and i, u and o, au and o, and ae and e (Roman Civilization). Both Classical Latin and
Vulgar Latin are found in ancient texts and the differences between the two have been cause for
confusion, but they generally distinguished themselves enough to clarify between the two, but
not to separate them. Considering their technical similarities and differences, Classical and
Vulgar Latin were simply flexible derivatives of Latin as a whole.
IV. Mors Death:
Though historians dispute the exact causes and dates of Romes collapse, it is generally
accepted that by 476 AD, the Roman Empire truly fell to the growing power of the Ottoman
Empire when they conquered the ancient city of Rome (Wasson). There had been whispers of
fragmentation all across Europe as the Romans lost their authority over the continent during the
first half of the first millennium, but the Ottoman takeover of the great city of Rome triggered the
dark path down which Europe found itself travelling, with a destination of political disunity and
chaos that would last centuries. With the obliteration of European unity came the slow
dismantling of Latin as well; Ostler describes this resulting destruction of Latin as the best
example we have of how a former imperial language can split when the political conditions of
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unity and mutual contact are no longer maintained (Ostler 160). By 600 AD, Latin was a dead
language, by definition one that no longer has native speakers (Comrie et al. 14). Ostler also
explains the poignant implications that came with the fall of Latin as a result of the fall of the
Empire:
Yet after the collapse of Romes Empire, Europe itself was never again to be organized as
a single state. The Latin language, never forgotten, was left as a tantalizing symbol of
Europes lost unity. Once upon a time the whole world spoke Latin. This mythical
sense remained behind Europe, and its proud civilization. And so, more than Christianity,
freedom, or the rule of law, it has in practice been the sense of a once-shared language, a
language of great antiquity but straightforward clarity that has bound Europe together.
(Ostler 20)
But Latin died only to lay the foundation upon which other languages could be born and today,
Latin continues its life through its progeny: the Romance languages.
Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian, Catalan, Provenal, and Romansh are all
languages directly derived from Vulgar Latin, or spoken and colloquial Latin (Comrie et al. 39).
The changes that arose to distinguish each language can be attributed to geography. In an
interview, the aforementioned Amy Casey explained that the evolution of Spanish is easy to
trace because you see Arabic influences from North Africa as well as Latin. Similarly, French
was influenced by the surrounding Celtic and German languages, and Romanian by surrounding
Slavic languages; Portuguese and Catalan eventually developed separately from Spanish,
Provenal developed from French, and Romansh developed from Romanian (Comrie et al. 39).
Italian stands out as it has the closet resemblance to Classical Latin, which is unsurprising as
Italy later developed around the heart of the Empire, Rome. These languages differentiated from
original Latin through subtle changes in sound and vocabulary and through major changes
typologically, such as case inflections, sentence structure, verb conjugations, and gender
designations to nouns. These derivatives of Latin became their own entities based on changes in
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dialect used by their owners verbally changes in pronunciation, connotation, word usage, etc.
before evolving to distinguish themselves enough to form standardized grammar systems in
writing, emphasizing how literary Latin died when the Empire did, while spoken Latin lived on.
Because of their common ancestor, though, learning one Romance language opens a gateway to
easily learning the others. The widespread dissemination of Latin through the Romance
languages speaks to the immortality of the Romans and their language as well as to their
influence over Western civilization.
V. Conclusio Conclusion:
Taken as a whole rather than its individual parts, Latins influence in laying the
foundations of the western world is undeniable. The Romans did the impossible by uniting nearly
all of Europe, and Latin furthered that connection by establishing a common method of
communication for the people of the Empire. Ostler explains that Romans and Europeans
thoughts were formed in Latin; and so the history of Latin is utterly and pervasively bound up
with the thinking behind the history of Western Europe (Ostler 3). When asked about her
thoughts on Latins lasting influence in the world today, Casey recalled the facts that 60% of
English words derive from Latin despite being a Germanic language, not a Romance and that
Latin is found throughout all of society, from scientific definitions to legal texts to state mottos to
everyday sayings. When asked about the practical benefits of understanding Latin, Dill, a
speaker of more than five languages, explained that it improves your grammar and vocabulary
in other languages You start to understand your own language even better. By broadening
ones understanding of Latin language structure, the understanding of ones own language is
enhanced and the acquisition and understanding of other languages is facilitated. We created
language to come together, and we now rely on language to hold us together. As Ostler says:
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Languages create worlds to live in, not just in the minds of their speakers, but in their lives, and
their descendants lives, where those ideas become real (Ostler 20).
VI. Cogitatio Reflection:
In researching this topic, I found that the contemporary and long-lasting influence of the
Romans was far more pervasive than I had ever imagined. Like most, I never put much thought
into the development of languages and focused naturally on how they were when I was
introduced to them, without much thought to the process that led them to that state that I
experienced them. I feel as though I was able to address the central answer to the question I
posed, but there was an unbelievable amount of information and details that I had to exclude to
refrain from exceeding the parameters set by the requirements of this paper. I would have liked
to elaborate on the different languages that arose from Latin and how they continued to change
and emerge as well as on the far-reaching influence of the Romans in regions like Africa and the
Middle East, as opposed to solely Europe. Through my research I learned more about the
Romans than I had ever been exposed to before, as well as realizing that there truly is an infinite
amount of information on Roman history available. This paper enhanced my love for history that
I already had and also shed light on the topics I was unable to reach in classes I have taken. In
retrospect, I would have specified the topic I was researching to either only the technicalities of
the language and how they developed/changed or to the factors that caused changes to occur,
rather than simply how the language changed over time due to the sheer amount of information
invoked by my question. Understanding the historical context and background of Latin has
bolstered my interest in learning the language and Roman history, and I have a newfound
appreciation for the skills I will be acquiring by learning Latin for my project that I did not have
before doing all this research.
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Works Cited
Books:
Comrie, Bernard, Stephen Matthews, and Maria Polinsky. Atlas of Languages: The Origin and
Development of Languages Throughout the World. Sydney, NSW: ABC for the Australian
Broadcasting Corporation, 2003.
Ostler, Nicholas. Ad Infinitum: A Biography of Latin. London: Harper Press, 2009.
Electronic Sources:
Pulju, Timothy J. "History of Latin." History of Latin. N.p., n.d. Web.
<http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~kemmer/Words04/structure/latin.html>. Accessed 20 Mar. 2017.
"Roman Civilization, Language and Religion." Encyclopedia of Authentic Hinduism. N.p., n.d. Web.
<http://www.encyclopediaofauthentichinduism.org/articles/15_roman_civilization.htm>.
Accessed 20 Mar. 2017.
Wasson, Donald L. "Fall of the Roman Empire." Ancient History Encyclopedia. N.p., 16 Oct. 2015.
Web. <http://www.ancient.eu/article/835/>. Accessed 20 Mar. 2017.
Zecca-Naples, Natalia. "Lingua Latina Omnia Vincit: How Latin Became the Language of the Roman
Empire." Unravel. N.p., 13 Nov. 2015. Web. <http://unravellingmag.com/articles/latin/>.
Accessed 20 Mar. 2017.
Primary Sources:
Casey, Amy. Latin teacher and tutor, Northcreek Academy, Walnut Creek CA. Personal Interview. 6
March 2017.
Dill, Ellen. Calculus teacher, Northgate High School, Walnut Creek CA. Personal Interview. 16 March
2017.
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