A Brief History of Latin and Romance Languages

COLOUR EDITION How many times have you heard someone say 'Latin is a dead language'? More often than not they are referring to Classical Latin, a formal and literary style of Latin that existed at a finite period of time, accounting for about 30% of the language's timeline as a whole. A dead language is one that no longer has any native speakers, even if the language is still in use. However, Latin is not dead because it lives on in the Romance Languages, which are its continuation. In previous centuries, education traditionally focused heavily on Classical Latin because of what was written in that time, building on what the Romans had achieved in the same way that the Romans had built on the achievements of the Ancient Greeks. In the midst of this focus, some Latin teachers even went so far as to tell their students 'There is no such thing as Medieval Latin, there is only Classical Latin, and mistakes'. Is someone speaking Latin incorrectly if they are not following the style of its golden age like one of Cicero's speeches? Transposing that same question to English, is someone speaking English incorrectly because they are not following the style of Charles Dickens? or William Shakespeare? or Chaucer? or Beowulf? Of course not. These so-called 'mistakes' or 'vulgarisms' are a reflection of how people actually spoke across the Roman world in their day to day lives, and how that changed over time. It was Vulgar Latin that evolved into the Romance Languages, which are spoken around the world to this day. This book explores the history of Latin, both in literature and in every day speech, from the Roman Empire to its collapse, linguistic and political reinvention, and the flourishing of literature in the vernacular during the Medieval Period. With texts along the way fully translated with word lists for easy reference. This book is designed to be of use and interest to anyone with a passion for Latin, Romance Languages, or languages and history in general.