Latin Language
Download
Report
Transcript Latin Language
Latin Language
Latin Language
Did you ever wonder
why the language of
ancient Rome was called
Latin and not Roman?
Latin Language
The answer is in the fact
that Romans spoke the
language of the district
in which they lived,
Latium in Italy.
Latin was the language
of the Romans
Latin Language
The influence of Rome
as a country made Latin
the common language of
South and Western
Europe. In these areas
Romance languages
(Italian, French, Spanish,
Romanian and
Portuguese) were later
derived from Latin.
Latin Language
To understand the
English language
thoroughly it is necessary
to have a knowledge of
Latin. This is caused by
the fact that AngloSaxon language (Old
English), had borrowed
many words from Latin,
either directly or through
French.
Latin Language
This Germanic language
group, spoken in Britain,
south of the Forth
(except Wales and
Cornwall), has been
making these borrowings
both before and after the
Norman Conquest (AD
1066). As a result,
modern English and
Latin are quite closely
connected.
Latin Language
For many centuries after
AD 120 Latin was used
for literary purposes.
Until recent times
scientific and
philosophical works were
often written in Latin.
The Roman Catholic
Church still uses it in its
services and for official
purposes.
The Roman alphabet evolved from
the Greek alphabet.
The Romans used just 23 letters to write Latin:
ABCDEFGHIKLMNOPQRSTVXYZ
There were no lower case letters, and K, Y and Z used
only for writing words of Greek origin. The letters J, U
and W were added to the alphabet at a later stage to
write languages other than Latin. J is a variant of I, U is
a variant of V, and W was introduced as a 'double-v' to
make a distinction between the sounds we know as 'v'
and 'w' which was unnecessary in Latin.
Latin Language
THE
END