Latin as the basis of modern languages. LatinaHelp Historical note

Latin language belongs to the family of Indo-European languages of the Italic root. Latin was originally the language of a small branch of the Italic tribe of the Latins, who lived back in prehistoric time in the region above the Tiber and known as Latium. The center of this area is VIII century BC e. became the city of Rome (according to ancient historians, the year of its foundation - 753 BC). To the north-west of the Romans lived the Etruscans - the people of an ancient and highly developed culture, who had a huge impact on the cultural development of all of Italy, especially Rome. Many Etruscan words have entered the Latin language, but the Etruscan language itself is very different from Latin: numerous Etruscan inscriptions have not been deciphered so far. Other languages of Italy (the most important of them - Ossky and Umbrian), related to Latin, were gradually replaced by him.

In literary Latin, there are 4 period. The first period - the period of archaic Latin: from the first surviving written sources to the beginning I in. BC. The second period is the period of classical Latin: from the first speeches of Cicero ( 80-81 gg. BC) until the death of Augustus in 14 AD. Cicero played a huge role in the formation of classical Latin. It was in his prose that the Latin language acquired that grammatical and lexical norm which made it a "classic". In most higher educational institutions our country is studying classical Latin.

The period of Postclassical Latin extends to I-II centuries AD This period is almost the same as the previous one: grammatical norms Classical Latin is almost not violated. Therefore, the division into classical and postclassical periods is of literary rather than linguistic significance. The fourth period - the period of late Latin - III-IV centuries. During this period, the fall of the Roman Empire and the emergence after its fall of the barbarian states took place. In the works of late Latin authors, many morphological and syntactic phenomena already find a place, preparing the transition to the new Romance languages.

The spread of the Latin language in the western Mediterranean took place as follows: by the end II c.b.c. the Latin language already dominated not only throughout Italy, but also penetrated as an official state language to the regions of the Iberian Peninsula and modern southern France conquered by the Romans, where the Roman province of Narbonne Gaul was then (it is noteworthy that the name of the modern French region of Provence comes from the Latin word province). The conquest of the rest of Gaul (the modern territories of France, Belgium, partly the Netherlands and Switzerland) was completed at the end 50s 1st century BC.

In all these territories, the Latin language is spreading, not only through official institutions, but also as a result of communication between the local population and Roman soldiers, merchants, and settlers. Thus, the Romanization of the provinces took place in two ways: from above, in particular, through the opening of Roman schools for the children of the local nobility, and from below, through live communication with native speakers of spoken Latin. As a result of this, the so-called vulgar (folk) Latin was formed - a colloquial version of the Latin language, which became the basis language for the Romance languages. Romance languages include Italian, Sardinian, French, Provencal (Occitan), Spanish, Catalan, Galician. Portuguese, Romanian, Moldavian, Romansh, and also disappeared in 19th century Dalmatian.

The influence of Latin on the languages of the Germanic tribes and the British was not so noticeable and was expressed primarily in a number of borrowings from Latin. Even after the fall of the Roman Empire, Latin retained its leading significance as the language of the state, science, culture, school and church for more than a millennium. Also in 18 century, Newton, Spinoza and even Lomonosov wrote their works in Latin.

Today, the study of Latin remains relevant for a number of humanitarian and natural specialties: philologists, historians, lawyers, as well as physicians, pharmacists and biologists, to varying degrees, master the basics of Latin, its vocabulary and grammar.

« Small Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron» (Yandex dictionaries)

« Great Soviet Encyclopedia» (Yandex dictionaries)

« Literary Encyclopedia» (Yandex dictionaries)

Interesting facts about the Latin language

The almost exclusive unambiguity of word-building forms makes the Latin language (along with Greek) the most convenient means of replenishing international scientific terminology in various fields of science and life.

The stress of the Latin language, according to most scholars, is defined as« musical with rapidly growing dynamic tendencies».

Features of the language and translation from Latin into Russian and from Russian into Latin

The modern pronunciation of the Latin language is very different from the ancient one. But this is not so important, since it is mostly written.

The lexical structure of the Latin language is characterized by great archaism, showing similarities with the Indo-Iranian and Hittite languages and, thus,encourages painstaking translation with elements of historiography.

Latin language (lat. lingua latina), or Latin, is the language of the Latin-Faliscan subgroup of the Italic languages of the Indo-European language family. To date, it is the only actively used Italian language (although there have been no people with a native Latin for at least a millennium and a half, therefore, it should be considered a dead language).

Latin is one of the most ancient written Indo-European languages.

Today, Latin is official language the State of the Holy See (Vatican City State), as well as the Roman Catholic Church and other Catholic Churches.

The Latin alphabet is the basis of the writing of many modern languages.

Latin Wikipedia(lat. vicipdia listen)) is a section of Wikipedia in Latin, opened in 2002. As of January 1, 2008, there were 17,621 articles (55th place), in May 2008 it passed the threshold of 20,000 articles. It is also interesting because Latin is considered a dead language (although more than 20 contributors to the English Wikipedia and a number of contributors to other language versions of Wikipedia claim Latin as their mother tongue).

Articles about the Latin language

Project "Live Latin" (www.school.edu.ru)
Visiting the Russian educational portal. Site editor Mikhail Polyashev answers questions
Wap-version of the portal (version for mobile phone) is available from any mobile phone at: wap.linguaeterna.com

In Defense of the Teaching of Latin (filolingvia.com)
Everyone, unfortunately, knows that the teaching of Latin in our universities has become a tedious duty, painful for both students and professors. All hope is high school. Not only in specialized gymnasiums, where Latin is now fashionable, but also in simple schools, it is necessary to introduce courses. ancient civilization”, where there would be a little of everything: the basics of the Latin language, the Greek roots of words, aphorisms, historical facts, mythology, philosophy, art, epigraphy.

How necessary and in demand is a course of popular practical Latin, where it would be studied as a living, almost colloquial. And it is very useful to accustom our school to this, so that students (and teachers themselves) can always easily apply their knowledge at any step of life. So that they can immediately find Latin roots in complex scientific terms, foreign words, understand derivatives, read numerous epigraphs in Latin, quotations, inscriptions on houses and objects, mottos of companies and states. "Classics" guarantee: even if outwardly you are far from antiquity, the knowledge gained in this area will never lie like a dead weight on your soul. Someday they will definitely come in handy and help you.

It occupies a special place. For several millennia of its existence, it has changed more than once, but retained its relevance and importance.

Dead language

Today Latin is a dead language. In other words, he does not have speakers who would consider this speech native and use it in everyday life. But, unlike others, Latin received a second life. Today, this language is the basis of international jurisprudence and medical sciences.

In terms of its importance, ancient Greek is close to Latin, which also died, but left its mark in a variety of terminologies. This amazing fate associated with historical development Europe in ancient times.

Evolution

The ancient Latin language originated in Italy a thousand years before our era. By its origin it belongs to the Indo-European family. The first speakers of this language were the Latins, thanks to whom it got its name. This people lived on the banks of the Tiber. Several ancient trade routes converged here. In 753 BC, the Latins founded Rome and soon began wars of conquest against their neighbors.

Over the centuries of its existence, this state has undergone several important changes. First there was a kingdom, then a republic. At the turn of the 1st century AD, the Roman Empire arose. Its official language was Latin.

Until the 5th century, it was the greatest civilization in the world. It surrounded the entire Mediterranean Sea with its territories. Under her rule were many peoples. Their languages gradually died out and were replaced by Latin. Thus it spread from Spain in the west to Palestine in the east.

Vulgar Latin

It was during the era of the Roman Empire that the history of the Latin language took a sharp turn. This adverb is divided into two types. There was a primitive literary Latin, which was the official means of communication in public institutions. It was used in the preparation of documents, worship, etc.

At the same time, the so-called Vulgar Latin was formed. This language arose as a lightweight version of a complex state language. The Romans used it as a tool to communicate with foreigners and conquered peoples.

This is how the folk version of the language arose, which with each generation was more and more different from its model of the ancient era. Live speech naturally brushed aside the old syntactic rules that were too complex for quick perception.

Latin legacy

So the history of the Latin language gave rise to In the 5th century AD, the Roman Empire fell. It was destroyed by the barbarians, who created their own national states on the ruins of the former country. Some of these peoples could not get rid of the cultural influence of the past civilization.

Gradually, the Italian, French, Spanish and Portuguese languages arose in this way. All of them are distant descendants of ancient Latin. The classical language died after the fall of the empire and ceased to be used in everyday life.

At the same time, a state was preserved in Constantinople, the rulers of which considered themselves the legal successors of the Roman Caesars. It was Byzantium. Its inhabitants, out of habit, considered themselves Romans. However, Greek became the colloquial and official language of this country, which is why, for example, in Russian sources, the Byzantines were often called Greeks.

Use in science

At the beginning of our era, the medical Latin language developed. Prior to this, the Romans had very little knowledge of human nature. In this field, they were noticeably inferior to the Greeks. However, after the Roman state annexed the ancient policies, famous for their libraries and scientific knowledge, in Rome itself, interest in education increased markedly.

Medical schools began to spring up. A huge contribution to physiology, anatomy, pathology and other sciences was made by the Roman physician Claudius Galen. He left behind hundreds of works written in Latin. Even after the death of the Roman Empire in European universities, medicine continued to be studied with the help of documents. That is why future doctors must have known the basics of the Latin language.

A similar fate awaited the legal sciences. It was in Rome that the first modern legislation appeared. Lawyers and legal experts played an important role in this. Over the centuries, a huge array of laws and other documents written in Latin has accumulated.

Emperor Justinian, the ruler of Byzantium in the 6th century, took up their systematization. Even though the country spoke Greek, the sovereign decided to reissue and update the laws in the Latin edition. This is how the famous codex of Justinian appeared. This document (as well as all Roman law) is studied in detail by law students. Therefore, it is not surprising that Latin is still preserved in professional environment lawyers, judges and doctors. It is also used in worship by the Catholic Church.

Phrases spoken in Latin are widely used by contemporaries. Many statements formed the basis of our understanding of the ancient philosophers. Article collected Interesting Facts about the origin of famous aphorisms.

Poetic license

From ancient times, privileged writers were given the right to violate the rules of the language, the manifestation of fantasy. Horace wrote: "Painters, as well as poets, have been given every right to dare from time immemorial." We often attribute modern and modern expressions to the Romans, forgetting about international recognition and spread of the Latin language. We will understand the origin of some famous aphorisms in Latin with translation.

Not a day without a stroke, not a day without a line Nulla dies sine linea"- a phrase taken from the writings of Pliny the Elder (77 BC), became the motto of many creative people. It was on this principle that Balzac, Zol, Beethoven, Schiller worked. The ancient scholar is also credited with: in vino veritas(truth in wine).

A young but popular turnover “Language is the enemy of people, but the friend of the devil and women” ( Lingua est hostis hominum amicusque diaboli et feminarum) is the authorship of Chekhov. He was preceded by the ancient satirist Juvenal: Lingua mali pessima servi. This gave rise to the proverb: "My tongue is my enemy."

Famous expressions have survived to this day, thanks to philosophical works and religious sources. Interestingly, the legendary phrase " memento mori” (remember death) appeared only in the 12th century. In the Trappist order, which existed from 1148 to 1636, it served as a greeting formula. Later, and more optimistically, Goethe put it: memento vivere- "Remember that you need to live!".

Latin and the modern world

Latin is successfully used in various fields of knowledge. It is used by physicians, biologists, lawyers and other specialists. Speech ordinary people replete with proverbs and sayings originated in antiquity.

A line from Cicero's work, "The good of the people is the highest law," became the basic principle of the democrats. Applied by jurists developed countries. At the end of the 19th century, a modified phrase was popular, where the good of the revolution was considered the highest law.

Many aphorisms in Latin about medicine carry a double meaning. A prime example is the expression used in the 4th chapter of the Gospel of Luke: "Physician, heal thyself."

N.I. Pirogov recalled the hospital, the wall of which is decorated with this phrase. However, the expression has a wider meaning. It implies an appeal to any professional. Everyone should know their job, show their skills and abilities, strive for the best, be a master, prove that you are a specialist.

Talking about relationships and feelings, trying to emphasize their literacy on the Internet, people often use aphorisms in Latin about love. The most popular of them:

amor omnia vincit- Love conquers everything
amor tussisque non celantur- you can not hide love and cough;
amor caecus- love is blind.

Other popular clichés:

Do no harm - noli nocere(Hippocrates);
I came, I saw, I conquered Veni, vidi, vici(Julius Caesar);
Paper will endure everything - Epistula non erubescit(Cicero);
Ignorance is no excuse Ignorantia non est argumentum(author not identified);
Oh times, oh manners! - o tempora, o mores! (Cicero)

Aphorisms in Latin have spread throughout the world. Passion for translating phrases from other languages into Latin, and embellishing ancient sayings, only adds honor to the Latin language and its heritage.

To the question Where was the Latin language born? Countries where it is used? What are some interesting facts about him? given by the author Valentine the best answer is Latin belongs to the family of Indo-European languages with an Italic root.

In literary Latin, 4 periods are distinguished, dating from the reign of Livius Andronicus and Cicero to Tiberius and the emperor Hadrian.
In the history of Italy and its spiritual development, as in the history of the Italian language, the role of Latin was especially great. And this is understandable: historically, Italy is the metropolis of the Roman Empire, the "garden of the Empire", Italy is the direct heir of Ancient Rome, the cradle of the European Renaissance. It was here that Latin flourished as a written language for centuries, and here the confrontation and interaction between Latin and the vernacular lasted an unusually long time.
Having long been ousted from the living communication of mere mortals, Latin steadfastly held on as the official language of writing and, in this sense, never died out in Italy. However, the golden age of Latin is associated with the Renaissance. The Latin language symbolized the continuity of tradition and the legality of the possession of the ancient heritage.
Evolution public life Italy at the end of the XIV and in the XV century, the crisis of urban communes, features of regression in social development brought new moments to the language situation, put forward new factors for strengthening the position of Latin. Rich literature in this language becomes an objective manifestation of the cult of Latin - epistolary, journalistic, historical and philosophical prose, short stories (Florentine Poggio Bracciolini and his "Facetia", Neapolitan Girolamo Morlini), poetry (Neapolitan Giovanni Poptano and Florentine Angelo Poliziano).
The cult of the Latin language finds its expression in its direct glorification, which is combined with a deep philological study. Here, of course, the name of Lorenzo Balla, author of the treatise "On the beauties of the Latin language" should be mentioned.
Throughout the same historical era, which we call the Renaissance, the fortune of Latin in its brilliant run on the way to the status of a recognized common language Italy has changed.
The dangerous gap between written and living language ultimately proved to be disadvantageous for the ruling classes as well, for it threatened their cultural power. Thus, the prerequisites for a new linguistic orientation arose.
The change of milestones was clearly manifested in such an area as translation. The second half of the Quattrocento and the 16th century is the time when humanists of different generations ("repentant sinners", as Philippe Monnier once called them), are intensively engaged in the "vulgarization" of Latin books - translating them into Italian.
Latin remained the language of science for a long time, and it took the creative feat of Galileo for the science of Italy to confidently speak the popular, Italian language.
The Latin language used to be common in ancient Rome and its environs. Then he gradually began to dominate the vast space around the pool mediterranean sea, from the Strait of Gibraltar in the West to the Euphrates River in the East and from North Africa to the UK.
Now the Latin language is widespread wherever there are professional doctors, biologists and philologists, as well as connoisseurs " popular expressions» .
The almost exclusive unambiguity of word-building forms makes the Latin language (along with Greek) the most convenient means of replenishing international scientific terminology in various fields of science and life.
A few "catchwords"
Non enim tam praeclarum est scire Latine, quam turpe nescire. - It is not so good to know Latin, how shameful not to know it (Cicero).
Ad cogitandum et agendum homo natus est. Man is born for thought and action.
Amicus Plato, sed magis amica veritas. - Plato is my friend, but truth is dearer (Aristotle).
Source:

Answer from 22 answers[guru]

Hello! Here is a selection of topics with answers to your question: Where was the Latin language born? Countries where it is used? What are some interesting facts about him?

Answer from Aljono4ka[guru]

Latin was originally the language of a small branch of the Italic tribe of the Latins, who also lived in prehistoric times in the area above the Tiber and was known as Latium. Together with the Roman conquest, the Latin language spread throughout Italy, and then beyond its borders to Gaul, Spain, etc. During the empire, the Latin language acquired worldwide significance.

Answer from Eurovision[guru]
Latin (self-named lingua latina), or Latin, is the language of the Latin-Faliscan subgroup of the Italic languages of the Indo-European language family. To date, this is the only actively used Italian language (although there have been no people with their native Latin for at least a millennium and a half, therefore, it should be considered a dead language).
Latin is one of the most ancient written Indo-European languages.
Today, Latin is the official language of the State of the Vatican, and catholic church.
A large number of words in European (and not only) languages are of Latin origin (see also international vocabulary).
Latin alphabet is the basis of many modern languages.

Answer from Vote[guru]
Latin was born in Ancient Rome, now it is a dead language, that is, it is not spoken anywhere, but it is the ancestor of modern Romance languages, the closest thing is Italian. Medical Latin is also used by physicians.

Answer from Kerosene[guru]
LATIN, the language of the Italic group of the Indo-European family of languages. Developed on the basis of the Latin language. With the rise of Rome, it spread to all of Italy, then to a significant part of the Roman Empire. Formation literary language- 3-2 centuries. BC e. The colloquial Latin language ceased to exist in the 9th century. , by this time, on its basis, the formation of Romance languages had ended. In the Middle Ages, it existed as a common written language of Western European society, the Catholic Church, science and partially literature. Latin played big role in the history of culture (especially Western European). In the 20th century used in scientific terminology. The language of the Catholic Church and the official language (along with Italian) of the Vatican.

Answer from Nowruz[newbie]
The Latin language (Linqua Latīna) got its name from a small Italian tribe of Latins (Latini), who lived in the region of Latium (Latium). This area is located in the middle part of the Apennine Peninsula. Here, according to legend, in 754/753. BC e. Rome was founded by the brothers Romulus and Remus. Rome pursued an aggressive, conquest policy. With the growth of the conquests of Rome and the expansion of the Roman state, the Latin language became widespread not only in the Mediterranean basin, but also beyond. Thus, until the second half of the 5th c. n. e. (476 - the year of the fall of the Western Roman Empire) Latin acquires the status of an international language throughout the Roman Empire. Latin was less widespread in Greece, conquered by the Romans in 146 BC. e. , as well as in the Greek colonies located in the south of the Apennine Peninsula and the island of Sicily. These colonies were called Graecia Magna (Greater Greece).
The wide spread of the Latin language in the conquered territories was facilitated by its lexical richness, reflecting all areas human being, as well as abstract concepts, grammatical harmony, brevity and accuracy of expression. The languages of the conquered peoples in the main did not yet have such characteristics.
The history of the Latin language is divided into several periods:
Archaic period VI-IV centuries. BC e. ;
Preclassic period III-II centuries. BC e. - this is the period of formation of the literary Latin language. The main monuments of this period are the comedies of Plautus and Terence, as well as the treatise of Cato the Elder "On Agriculture".
However, the Latin language reaches its greatest prosperity and perfection in the era of the "golden age" - during the reign of Emperor Augustus (I century BC). Classical or "golden" Latin received its grammatical, syntactic and stylistic completeness. "Golden Age" - the century of the highest flowering of Roman literature. At this time, Cicero, Virgil, Horace, Ovid, Caesar, Sallust worked.
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The next stage in the history of the Latin language is the period of "Silver Latin" (I century AD). It is characterized by deviations from the purity of the classical literary language and is influenced by the languages of the Roman colonies. By this time, phonetic and morphological norms literary language, spelling rules were established, which are still guided by the publication of Latin texts. The era of the Middle Ages in the history of the Latin language is characterized as the period Latinĭtas vulgāris ("Vulgar Latin") or also as Latinĭtas culinaria ("Kitchen Latin"). It was during this period that a mass of new words and concepts that were absent in classical Latin were introduced into the Latin language.
However, in the era of humanism (XIV-XVII centuries), the Latin language again approaches the ideal of "Golden Latin". It was during this period that beautiful new Latin literature was created. The Belarusian Renaissance is also famous for its Latin-language authors. The whole world knows the names of Belarusian enlighteners and poets (Francisk Skorina, Nikolai Gusovsky, Jan Wislitsky, Simeon Polotsky).
In the Middle Ages, Latin was taught in schools and universities Western Europe in addition, in this territory it functions as a common written language.
In modern times, up to the XVIII century. , Latin is used as the language of science and diplomacy.
Currently, Latin is the official language of the Catholic Church and the State of the Vatican. In the Catholic Church until the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), the service was conducted only in Latin.
Despite the subsequent displacement of the Latin language by national languages, to this day it retains its importance in the field of scientific terminology, especially in jurisprudence, biology, and medicine.