Latin (
lingua latina)
was the language of ancient Rome. It was the ancestor of the modern Romance languages (Portuguese, French, Italian,
Spanish, Romanian, Catalan, etc.). In addition, Latin is the language of the
Roman Catholic Church. While the liturgical use of Latin in Catholicism may be declining, an increasing number of students are learning Latin in schools in the United States. The Latin language may never again achieve its former status as the lingua franca of the Western world, but Latin continues to live in our midst.
The Latin language belongs to the Italic group of the Indo-European family of languages. Roman
soldiers spread Latin from the Tiber River throughout an Empire that spread from
Mesopotamia to Spain. In later times, Catholic missionaries helped carry Latin to farther reaches
of the world.
The long history of the Latin language can be divided into periods:
- Early Latin, from the founding of Rome in 753 B.C. until 81 B.C.;
- Classical Latin, from 81 B.C., when Caesar and Cicero were writing, until 14 A.D., when
Augustus died;
- Silver Latin (a brilliant literary period), until 130 A.D.;
- Late Latin (also called Vulgar Latin);
- Medieval Latin (also called Christian Latin);
- Renaissance Latin (also called Erasmian Latin); and
- Modern Latin (also called Neo-Latin).
English speakers cannot avoid learning Latin vocabulary, even if they opt out
of a Latin language course in school. Half the English vocabulary comes from ancient Rome, and our
everyday communications are peppered with Latin phrases like et cetera and per
capita. However, because the Latin language is inflected, with words changing form to express
grammatical meaning, learning Latin grammar can be a challenge.
Traditional teaching methods often make matters worse. Just when you are resigned to
the fact that Latin nouns have something called an "absolute case," the
teacher announces that the absolute case can be subdivided into the "ablative
absolute," "ablative of attendant circumstance," "ablative of degree
of difference," "ablative of fine or penalty," "ablative of time
during which," etc.!
Wouldn't it be great to just plunge into the Latin language and have the all the Latin grammar explanations sitting off to the side, waiting to be read whenever you need
them? That was what we thought, too, which is why we designed LatinNow! to
be an effective, fun way to learn Latin.
Regular practice is necessary to learn to speak Latin well. That's why good Latin software programs and other Latin products can be so useful. It's easier than ever to learn Latin and to begin to speak Latin with the language
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pronunciation quickly. Best wishes as you learn Latin!
