by Heath Cleaveland

Created on: May 31, 2009

Latin is the precursor to the assorted languages of Europe termed Romance Languages. The major Romance Languages are French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and Romanian. People consider Latin a dead language and so the question arises, Why study it?

For one thing, Latin is the language of Caesar, of the Roman Empire, and of scholarly learning until the middle of the second millennium. The Roman tongue, practically forced upon conquered areas, became something of a common language in the empire's early days. As time went on, areas developed their own forms of Latin-based speech, known later as vernaculars.

After the sack of Rome in the middle of the first millennium, the bustling economy stopped the further Romanization of these areas. The vernacular speech of areas like Spain, France, Portugal, and Italy of course became more widely used and learning shut down. The support of arts and education had collapsed and the Latin language, which had a measure of stability because it was written, lost its authority.

But what of these vernacular languages, the Romance Languages, which are derived from Latin? Like pidgins and creoles, they are composites but with a common thread: the total domination of Roman authority for over one thousand years. Just as it's possible to develop feelings for people who hold you hostage, you tend to adopt words from those who have control over you. Romance languages are filled with Latin cognates, which are words with the same root in different languages. Knowing Latin helps you learn vocabulary in Romance Languages (and even in English) at an accelerated pace.

The fact that Latin was the written language long after the fall of Rome is significant as well. We all know that words and phrases and modes of speech change over time. Writing a language in any form (subject to dissemination) codifies structure and turns it into an art. Because vernacular Romance Languages were spoken rather than written up to 1500 or so, they gather much of their grammar and syntax from the written language par excellence before that, Latin.

Romance languages typically preserve the conjugations (parts of a verb) and do away with the declensions (parts of a noun) that we find everywhere in Latin. The verb to be is always a great example. In Latin, it runs in order: sum, es, est, sumus, estis, sunt. In French: Je suis, tu es, il/elle est, nous sommes, vous etes, ils/elles sont. Getting used to the routine of practicing

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