Latin language | Definition, Origin, Examples, Rules, & Facts

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Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). </div> <div class="type-menu"> <label for="feedback-type" class="label mb-10">Feedback Type</label> <select id="feedback-type" class="form-select mb-30" name="feedbackTypeId" required> <option value="" selected="selected">Select a type (Required)</option> <option value="1">Factual Correction</option> <option value="2">Spelling/Grammar Correction</option> <option value="3">Link Correction</option> <option value="4">Additional Information</option> <option value="5">Other</option> </select> </div> <label for="feedback" class="label mb-10">Your Feedback</label> <textarea id="feedback" class="form-control mb-30" name="feedback" maxlength="3000" rows="7" required></textarea> <button class="btn btn-blue" type="submit">Submit Feedback</button> </form> <div class="success-messaging d-none mt-30"> <div class="title">Thank you for your feedback</div> <p>Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.</p> </div> </div> </div> <div class="md-websites-modal size-lg d-none"> <div class="md-modal-body"> <div class="h2 font-serif pb-15 border-bottom font-weight-bold"> External Websites </div> <div class="pb-20"> <ul class="list-unstyled mt-20 lh-lg"> <li><a class="external" href="https://www.unrv.com/culture/latin-language.php" target="_blank" rel="noopener ">UNRV - Roman Latin Language</a></li> <li><a class="external" href="https://www.omniglot.com/writing/latin2.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow">Omniglot - Latin Language</a></li> <li><a class="external" href="https://www.livescience.com/did-latin-die.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener ">Live Science - Is Latin a dead language?</a></li> <li><a class="external" href="https://www.academia.edu/47002493/The_Latin_Language_as_a_Universal_Cultural_Code" target="_blank" rel="noopener ">Academia - The Latin Language as a Universal Cultural Code</a></li> <li><a class="external" href="https://linguistics.byu.edu/classes/Ling450ch/reports/latin.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener ">Brigham Young University - Department of Linguistics - The History of the Latin Language</a></li> <li><a class="external" href="https://lrc.la.utexas.edu/eieol/latol" target="_blank" rel="noopener ">The University of Texas at Austin - The College of Liberal Arts - Linguistic Research Center - Latin Online</a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="toc-header-marker"></div> <button class="ai-ask-button btn border-2 js-header-ai-ask-button d-none btn-sm btn-outline-red-400 border-red-400 mr-0 mr-lg-10 ml-5 ml-sm-10 ml-lg-0 p-10"> Ask the Chatbot a Question </button> <div class="caption alternate-titles">Also known as: lingua Latina</div> <div class="md-byline module-spacing "> <div class="font-serif font-12"> <span class="written-by text-gray-700"> Written by </span> <div class="editor-popover popover p-0"> <a class="d-block p-20 gtm-byline font-12 byline-contributor" href="/contributor/Marius-Sala/4307" > <div class="editor-title font-16 font-weight-bold">Marius Sala</div> <div class="editor-description font-12 font-serif mt-5 clamp-description text-black">Director, Institute of Linguistics, Bucharest, Romania. Coeditor of <i>Enciclopedia limbilor romanice.</i></div> </a> <div data-popper-arrow></div> </div> <span class="btn btn-link editor-link p-0 qa-byline-link gtm-byline font-12 byline-contributor text-decoration-underline"> Marius Sala</span>, <div class="editor-popover popover p-0"> <a class="d-block p-20 gtm-byline font-12 byline-contributor" href="/contributor/Rebecca-Posner/2356" > <div class="editor-title font-16 font-weight-bold">Rebecca Posner</div> <div class="editor-description font-12 font-serif mt-5 clamp-description text-black">Professor of Romance Languages, University of Oxford. Author of <em>The Romance Languages: A Linguistic Introduction</em> and others; editor of <em>Trends in Romance Linguistics and Philology </em>(5 vol.)<em>.</em></div> </a> <div data-popper-arrow></div> </div> <span class="btn btn-link editor-link p-0 qa-byline-link gtm-byline font-12 byline-contributor text-decoration-underline"> Rebecca Posner</span><span class="text-gray-700 mx-5">•</span><a class="see-all border-gray-700 gtm-byline" rel="nofollow" href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Latin-language/additional-info#contributors">All</a> </div> <div class="font-serif font-12 text-gray-700"> <span class="qa-fact-checked-by">Fact-checked by</span> <div class="editor-popover popover p-0"> <a class="d-block p-20 font-12" href="/editor/The-Editors-of-Encyclopaedia-Britannica/4419" > <div class="editor-title font-16 font-weight-bold">The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica</div> <div class="editor-description font-12 font-serif mt-5 text-black">Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors.</div> </a> <div data-popper-arrow></div> </div> <span class="btn btn-link editor-link p-0 qa-byline-link font-12 "> The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica</span></div> <div class="last-updated font-12 font-serif"> <span class="text-gray-700"> Last Updated: <time datetime="2024-10-22T00:00:00CDT" >Oct 22, 2024</time> •</span> <a class="byline-edit-history" href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Latin-language/additional-info#history" rel="nofollow">Article History</a> </div></div> </div> <button class="d-flex d-lg-none btn btn-outline-blue border rounded-sm shadow-sm mobile-toc-button gtm-mobile-toc-inline-button d-none d-sm-block js-sections-inline-button module-spacing btn d-lg-none"> <em class="material-icons mr-5 ml-n10 my-n5 md-icon" data-icon="toc"></em> Table of Contents </button> <div class="d-flex d-sm-none flex-row"> <button class="d-flex d-lg-none btn btn-outline-blue border rounded-sm shadow-sm mobile-toc-button gtm-mobile-toc-inline-button js-sections-inline-button module-spacing"> <em class="material-icons mr-5 ml-n10 my-n5 md-icon" data-icon="toc"></em> Table of Contents </button> <button class="ai-ask-button btn border-2 ai-ask-button btn border-2 module-spacing btn-sm js-inline-ai-ask-button btn-outline-red-400 border-red-400 p-10 ml-5"> Ask the Chatbot a Question </button> </div> <div class="js-qf-module qf-module px-40 px-sm-20 py-15 mx-auto module-spacing font-14 bg-gray-50 rounded"> <div class="facts-list mt-10"> <div class=""> <div class="js-fact mb-10 line-clamp clamp-3"> <dl> <dt>Latin: </dt> <dd>lingua Latina</dd> </dl> <button class="js-more-btn d-none btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-gray-50" aria-label="Toggle more/less fact data"> <em class="js-content link-blue">(Show more)</em> </button> </div> </div> <div class=""> <div class="js-fact mb-10 line-clamp clamp-3"> <dl> <dt>Key People: </dt> <dd><a href="/biography/Erasmus-Dutch-humanist" topicid="191015">Erasmus</a></dd> <dd><a href="/biography/Saint-Jerome" topicid="302749">St. Jerome</a></dd> <dd><a href="/biography/John-Amos-Comenius" topicid="127493">John Amos Comenius</a></dd> <dd><a href="/biography/Anicius-Manlius-Severinus-Boethius" topicid="71328">Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius</a></dd> <dd><a href="/biography/Nicholas-Oresme" topicid="431796">Nicholas Oresme</a></dd> </dl> <button class="js-more-btn d-none btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-gray-50" aria-label="Toggle more/less fact data"> <em class="js-content link-blue">(Show more)</em> </button> </div> </div> <div class=""> <div class="js-fact mb-10 line-clamp clamp-3"> <dl> <dt>Related Topics: </dt> <dd><a href="/topic/de-facto" topicid="2219689">de facto</a></dd> <dd><a href="/topic/Vulgar-Latin" topicid="633448">Vulgar Latin</a></dd> <dd><a href="/topic/de-jure" topicid="2219690">de jure</a></dd> <dd><a href="/topic/quid-pro-quo" topicid="2228887">quid pro quo</a></dd> <dd><a href="/topic/annus-horribilis" topicid="2216288">annus horribilis</a></dd> </dl> <button class="js-more-btn d-none btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-gray-50" aria-label="Toggle more/less fact data"> <em class="js-content link-blue">(Show more)</em> </button> </div> <div class="text-center"> <a class="btn btn-sm btn-link p-0" href="/facts/Latin-language"> See all related content </a> </div> </div> </div> </div><script type="application/ld+json"> { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "FAQPage", "mainEntity": [ { "@type" : "Question", "name" : "<div> What is the Latin language?<\/div><em><\/em>", "acceptedAnswer" : { "@type" : "Answer", "text" : "The Latin language is an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Indo-European-languages\">Indo-European language<\/a> in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Italic-languages\">Italic<\/a> group and is ancestral to the modern <a href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Romance-languages\">Romance languages<\/a>. During the Middle Ages and until comparatively recent times, Latin was the language most widely used in the West for scholarly and literary purposes." } } , { "@type" : "Question", "name" : "<div>Why is Latin a dead language?<\/div><em><\/em>", "acceptedAnswer" : { "@type" : "Answer", "text" : "A \u201Cdead\u201D language is one no longer learned as a first language or used in ordinary communication. Classical Latin, the language of Cicero and Virgil, became \u201Cdead\u201D after its form became fixed, whereas <a href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Vulgar-Latin\">Vulgar Latin<\/a>, the language most Romans ordinarily used, continued to evolve as it spread across the western Roman Empire, gradually becoming the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Romance-languages\">Romance languages<\/a>." } } , { "@type" : "Question", "name" : "<div>Why is Latin used for scientific taxonomy?<\/div><em><\/em>", "acceptedAnswer" : { "@type" : "Answer", "text" : "Latin was the lingua franca of scientific work in the West during the Middle Ages, so Western scientists used Latin for naming species of organisms. During the 18th century Swedish naturalist <a href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Carolus-Linnaeus\">Carolus Linnaeus<\/a> simplified this practice by creating <a href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/science\/binomial-nomenclature\">binomial nomenclature<\/a>, whereby an organism is identified by genus and species names, both of which are Latinized words." } } ] } </script> <div class="top-questions qa-accordion d-flex flex-column module-spacing"><div class="font-weight-bold font-14 mb-5"> Top Questions </div><div id="intent-accordion" class="md-intent-accordion"><div class="top-question bg-gray-50 rounded" data-value="1"> <h3 class="accordion--question font-14 font-weight-normal cursor-pointer rounded"><div class="pe-none d-flex justify-content-between align-items-center"><div> What is the Latin language?</div><em class="material-icons" data-icon="expand_more"></em></div></h3> <div class="accordion--answer hidden p-15 pt-5 font-16 mb-5"><div class="accordion--answer-copy"><p>The Latin language is an <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Indo-European-languages" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Indo-European language</a> in the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Italic-languages" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Italic</a> group and is ancestral to the modern <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Romance-languages" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Romance languages</a>. During the Middle Ages and until comparatively recent times, Latin was the language most widely used in the West for scholarly and literary purposes.</p></div></div> </div><div class="top-question bg-gray-50 rounded" data-value="2"> <h3 class="accordion--question font-14 font-weight-normal cursor-pointer rounded"><div class="pe-none d-flex justify-content-between align-items-center"><div>Why is Latin a dead language?</div><em class="material-icons" data-icon="expand_more"></em></div></h3> <div class="accordion--answer hidden p-15 pt-5 font-16 mb-5"><div class="accordion--answer-copy"><p>A “dead” language is one no longer learned as a first language or used in ordinary communication. Classical Latin, the language of Cicero and Virgil, became “dead” after its form became fixed, whereas <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Vulgar-Latin" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Vulgar Latin</a>, the language most Romans ordinarily used, continued to evolve as it spread across the western Roman Empire, gradually becoming the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Romance-languages" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Romance languages</a>.</p></div></div> </div><div class="top-question bg-gray-50 rounded" data-value="3"> <h3 class="accordion--question font-14 font-weight-normal cursor-pointer rounded"><div class="pe-none d-flex justify-content-between align-items-center"><div>Why is Latin used for scientific taxonomy?</div><em class="material-icons" data-icon="expand_more"></em></div></h3> <div class="accordion--answer hidden p-15 pt-5 font-16 mb-5"><div class="accordion--answer-copy"><p>Latin was the lingua franca of scientific work in the West during the Middle Ages, so Western scientists used Latin for naming species of organisms. During the 18th century Swedish naturalist <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Carolus-Linnaeus" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Carolus Linnaeus</a> simplified this practice by creating <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/binomial-nomenclature" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">binomial nomenclature</a>, whereby an organism is identified by genus and species names, both of which are Latinized words.</p></div></div> </div></div></div><span class="marker before-article"></span><section data-level="1" id="ref1"><span class="marker PREMOD1 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph"><strong><span id="ref15032"></span>Latin language</strong>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Indo-European-languages" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Indo-European language</a> in the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Italic-languages" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Italic</a> group and ancestral to the modern <span id="ref15033"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Romance-languages" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Romance languages</a>.</p><span class="marker MOD1 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD2 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Originally spoken by small groups of people living along the lower <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Tiber-River" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Tiber River</a>, Latin spread with the increase of Roman political power, first throughout <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Italy" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Italy</a> and then throughout most of western and southern Europe and the central and western <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Mediterranean-Sea" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Mediterranean</a> coastal regions of Africa. The modern Romance languages developed from the spoken Latin of various parts of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Roman-Empire" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Roman Empire</a>. During the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Middle-Ages" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Middle Ages</a> and until comparatively recent times, Latin was the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/language" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">language</a> most widely used in the West for scholarly and literary purposes. Until the latter part of the 20th century its use was required in the liturgy of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Roman-Catholicism" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Roman Catholic</a> Church.</p><span class="marker MOD2 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD3 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">The oldest example of Latin <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="extant" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/extant" data-type="MW">extant</a>, perhaps dating to the 7th century <span class="text-smallcaps">bce</span>, consists of a four-word inscription in <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Greek-alphabet" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Greek</a> characters on a <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/fibula-jewelry" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">fibula</a>, or <span id="ref15034"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Praeneste-Fibula" class="md-crosslink ">cloak pin</a>. It shows the preservation of full vowels in unstressed syllables—in contrast to the language in later times, which has reduced vowels. Early Latin had a stress accent on the first syllable of a word, in contrast to the Latin of the republican and imperial periods, in which the accent fell on either the next or second to the last syllable of a word.</p><a class="link-module shadow-sm d-block qa-quiz-module" href="/quiz/languages-alphabets" data-link-module-iframe-link=""> <img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.britannica.com/62/129562-131-63F782C3/wall-engravings-Buddhist-Thailand-Hands-society-history-2009.jpg" alt="Buddhist engravings on wall in Thailand. Hands on wall. Hompepage blog 2009, history and society, science and technology, geography and travel, explore discovery" class="rounded-sm mr-15" width="70" /> <div class="line-clamp clamp-5"> <div class="module-title bg-green">Britannica Quiz</div> <div class="font-weight-semi-bold mt-5">Languages & Alphabets</div> </div> </a><span class="marker MOD3 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD4 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Latin of the <span id="ref15035"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Classical-Latin" class="md-crosslink ">Classical</a> period had six regularly used <span id="ref15036"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/case-grammar" class="md-crosslink ">cases</a> in the declension of nouns and adjectives (nominative, vocative, genitive, dative, accusative, ablative), with traces of a locative case in some declensional classes of nouns. Except for the <em>i-</em>stem and consonant stem declensional classes, which it combines into one group (listed in <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/grammar" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">grammar</a> books as the third declension), Latin kept distinct most of the declensional classes inherited from Indo-European.</p><span class="marker MOD4 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD5 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">During the Classical period there were at least three types of Latin in use: Classical written Latin, Classical oratorical Latin, and the ordinary <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="colloquial" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/colloquial" data-type="MW">colloquial</a> Latin used by the average speaker of the language. Spoken Latin continued to change, and it diverged more and more from the Classical norms in grammar, pronunciation, and vocabulary. During the Classical and immediate post-Classical periods, numerous inscriptions provide the major source for spoken Latin, but, after the 3rd century <span class="text-smallcaps">ce</span>, many texts in a popular style, usually called <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Vulgar-Latin" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Vulgar Latin</a>, were written. Such writers as <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Jerome" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">St. Jerome</a> and St. Augustine, however, in the late 4th and early 5th centuries, wrote good literary Late Latin.</p><span class="marker MOD5 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD6 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Subsequent development of Latin continued in two ways. First, the language developed on the basis of local spoken forms and evolved into the modern Romance languages and <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="dialects" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dialects" data-type="MW">dialects</a>. Second, the language continued in a more or less standardized form throughout the Middle Ages as the language of religion and scholarship; in this form it had great influence on the development of the West European languages.</p><span class="marker MOD6 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD7 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Evidence for pronunciation of Classical Latin is often difficult to interpret. Orthography is conventionalized, and grammarians’ comments lack clarity, so that to a considerable extent it is necessary to <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="extrapolate" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/extrapolate" data-type="MW">extrapolate</a> from later developments in Romance in order to describe it.</p><div class="module-spacing"> <DIV class="marketing-INLINE_SUBSCRIPTION marketing-content" data-marketing-id="INLINE_SUBSCRIPTION"><style> .student-promo-banner-wrapper { container-type: inline-size; margin-bottom: 15px; } @container (min-width: 475px) { .student-promo-banner { flex-direction: row; } .student-promo-banner-img-wrapper { margin-bottom: 0; margin-right: 10px; justify-content: flex-start; } .student-promo-banner-text-wrapper { text-align: left; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 10px; } .student-promo-banner-button-wrapper { margin-right: 0; } }</style> <div class="student-promo-banner-wrapper"> <div class="student-promo-banner d-flex flex-column align-items-center bg-blue rounded p-20"> <div class="student-promo-banner-img-wrapper mb-20 mr-0 d-flex justify-content-center"> <img class="rounded" style="max-width: 100px; min-width: 80px" src="https://cdn.britannica.com/marketing/BlueThistle.webp" /> </div> <div class="student-promo-banner-text-wrapper ml-0 mb-10 text-center text-white"> <div class="h2 mb-10">Get Unlimited Access</div> <div class="h4 font-weight-semi-bold">Try Britannica Premium for free and discover more.</div> </div> <div class="student-promo-banner-button-wrapper d-flex justify-content-center align-items-center ml-auto mr-auto"> <a class="btn btn-m btn-orange" href="https://premium.britannica.com/premium-membership/?utm_source=premium&utm_medium=inline-cta&utm_campaign=black-friday-2024">Subscribe</a> </div> </div> </div> </DIV></div><span class="marker MOD7 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD8 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">The most important of the <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="ambiguities" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ambiguities" data-type="MW">ambiguities</a> bears on Latin intonation and <span id="ref603646"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/accent-linguistics" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">accentuation</a>. The way in which vowels developed in prehistoric Latin suggests the possibility of a stress accent on the first syllable of each word; in later times, however, the accent fell on the <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="penultimate" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/penultimate" data-type="MW">penultimate</a> syllable or, when this had “light” quantity, on the antepenultimate. The nature of this accent is hotly disputed: contemporary grammarians seem to suggest it was a musical, tonal accent and not a stress accent. Some scholars claim, however, that Latin grammarians were merely slavishly imitating their Greek counterparts and that the linking of the Latin accent with syllable vowel length makes it unlikely that such an accent was tonal. Probably it was a light stress accent that was normally accompanied by a rise in pitch; in later Latin, evidence suggests that the stress became heavier.</p><span class="marker MOD8 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD9 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">The system of <span id="ref603647"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/syllable" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">syllable</a> quantity, connected with that of <span id="ref603648"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/vowel" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">vowel</a> length, must have given Classical Latin distinctive <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb" data-term="acoustic" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/acoustic" data-type="EB">acoustic</a> character. Broadly speaking, a “light” syllable ended in a short vowel and a “heavy” syllable in a long vowel (or diphthong) or a consonant. The distinction must have been reflected to some extent in Late Latin or early Romance, for, even after the system of vowel length was lost, light, or “open,” syllables often developed in a different way from heavy, or “closed,” syllables.</p><span class="marker MOD9 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD10 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Because the system of vowel length was lost after the Classical period, it is not known with any certainty how vowels were pronounced at that period; but, because of later developments in Romance, the assumption is that the vowel-length distinctions were also associated with qualitative differences, in that short vowels were more open, or lax, than long vowels. Standard orthography did not distinguish between long and short vowels, although in early times various devices were tried to remedy that. At the end of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Roman-Republic-historical-territory-Italy-1798-1799" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Roman Republic</a> a so-called apex (one form looked somewhat like a hamza [ ʾ ]) often was used to mark the long vowel, but this mark was replaced in imperial times by an <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="acute" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/acute" data-type="MW">acute</a> accent (′ ). In Classical Latin the length system was an essential feature of verse, even popular verse, and mistakes in vowel length were regarded as barbarous. In later times, however, many poets were obviously unable to conform to the demands of classical prosody and were criticized for allowing accent to override length distinctions.</p><span class="marker MOD10 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD11 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Besides the long vowels <em>ā, ē, ī, ō, ū</em> and the short vowels <em>ă, ĕ, ĭ, ŏ, ŭ</em> educated speech during the Classical period also used a front rounded vowel, a sound taken from Greek upsilon and pronounced rather like French <em>u</em> (symbolized by <em>y</em> in the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/International-Phonetic-Alphabet" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">International Phonetic Alphabet</a>—IPA) in words borrowed from Greek; in popular speech this was probably pronounced like Latin <em>ŭ</em>, though in later times <em>ī</em> was sometimes substituted. A neutral <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb" data-term="vowel" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/vowel" data-type="EB">vowel</a> was probably used in some unaccented syllables and was written <em>u</em> or <em>i</em> (<em>optumus, optimus</em> ‘best’), but the latter rendering became standard. A long <em>ē</em>, from earlier <em>ei</em>, had probably completely merged with <em>ī</em> by the Classical period. Classical pronunciation also used some <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/diphthong" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">diphthongs</a> pronounced by educated Romans much as they are spelled, especially <em>ae</em> (earlier <em>ai</em>), pronounced perhaps as an open <em>ē</em> in rustic speech, <em>au</em> (rustic open <em>ō</em>), and <em>oe</em> (earlier <em>oi</em>, Late Latin <em>ē</em>).</p><span class="marker MOD11 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD12 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">The Classical Latin <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/consonant" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">consonant</a> system probably included a series of <span id="ref752014"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/labial-consonant" class="md-crosslink ">labial</a> sounds (produced with the lips) /p b m f/ and probably /w/; a <span id="ref752016"></span>dental or <span id="ref752017"></span>alveolar series (produced with the tongue against the front teeth or the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/alveolar-ridge" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">alveolar ridge</a> behind the upper front teeth) /t d n s l/ and possibly /r/; a <span id="ref752013"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/velar-consonant" class="md-crosslink ">velar</a> series (produced with the tongue approaching or contacting the velum or soft palate) /k g/ and perhaps /ŋ/; and a <span id="ref752015"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/labiovelar-stop" class="md-crosslink ">labiovelar</a> series (pronounced with the lips rounded) /k<sup>w</sup> g<sup>w</sup>/. The /k/ sound was written <em>c</em>, and the /k<sup>w</sup>/ and /g<sup>w</sup>/ were written <em>qu</em> and <em>gu</em>, respectively.</p><span class="marker MOD12 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD13 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Of these, /k<sup>w</sup>/ and /g<sup>w</sup>/ were probably single labialized velar <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb" data-term="consonants" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/consonants" data-type="EB">consonants</a>, not clusters, as they do not make for a heavy syllable; /g<sup>w</sup>/ occurs only after /n/, so only guesses can be made about its single consonant status. The sound represented by <em>ng</em> (pronounced as in English <em>sing</em> and represented in the IPA by /ŋ/), written <em>ng</em> or <em>gn</em>, may not have had phonemic status (in spite of the pair <em>annus</em>/<em>agnus</em> ‘year’/‘lamb,’ in which /ŋ/ may be regarded as a positional variant of /g/). The Latin letter <em><span id="ref752020"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/F-letter" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">f</a></em> probably represented by Classical times a labiodental sound pronounced with the lower lip touching the upper front teeth like its English equivalent, but earlier it may have been a bilabial (pronounced with the two lips touching or approaching one another). The so-called consonantal <em>i</em> and <em>u</em> were probably not true consonants but frictionless semivowels; Romance evidence suggests that they later became a <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/palatal" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">palatal</a> <span id="ref603652"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/fricative" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">fricative</a>, /j/ (pronounced with the tongue touching or approaching the hard palate and with incomplete closure) and a bilabial fricative, /β/ (pronounced with <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb" data-term="vibration" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/vibration" data-type="EB">vibration</a> of the lips and incomplete closure), but there is no suggestion of this during the Classical period. Some Romance scholars suggest that Latin <em>s</em> had a pronunciation like that of <em>z</em> in modern Castilian (with the tip, rather than the blade, raised behind the teeth, giving a lisping impression); in early Latin it was often weakened in final position, a feature that also characterizes eastern Romance languages. The <em>r</em> was probably a tongue trill during the Classical period, but there is earlier evidence that in some positions it may have been a fricative or a flap. There were two sorts of <em>l</em>, velar and palatal (“soft,” when followed by <em>i</em>).</p><span class="marker MOD13 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD14 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">The nasal consonants were probably weakly <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="articulated" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/articulated" data-type="MW">articulated</a> in some positions, especially medially before <em>s</em> and in final position; probably their medial or final position resulted in mere nasalization of the preceding vowel.</p><span class="marker MOD14 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD15 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">In addition to the consonants shown, educated Roman speakers probably used a series of voiceless aspirated stops, written <em>ph, th, ch</em>, originally borrowed from Greek words but also occurring in native words (<em>pulcher</em> ‘beautiful,’ <em>lachrima</em> ‘tears,’ <em>triumphus</em> ‘triumph,’ etc.) from the end of the 2nd century <span class="text-smallcaps">bce</span>.</p><span class="marker MOD15 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD16 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Another nonvocalic sound, /h/, was pronounced only by educated speakers even in the Classical period, and references to its loss in <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb" data-term="vulgar" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/vulgar" data-type="EB">vulgar</a> speech are frequent.</p><span class="marker MOD16 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD17 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Consonants written double in the Classical period were probably so pronounced (a distinction was made, for instance, between <em>anus</em> ‘old woman’ and <em>annus</em> ‘year’). When consonantal <em>i</em> appeared intervocalically, it was always doubled in speech. Before the 2nd century <span class="text-smallcaps">bce</span>, consonant gemination (doubling of sounds) was not shown in orthography but was probably current in speech. The eastern Romance languages, on the whole, retained Latin double consonants (as in Italian), whereas the western languages often simplified them.</p><span class="marker MOD17 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD18 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Latin reduced the number of Indo-European noun cases from eight to six by incorporating the sociative-instrumental (indicating means or agency) and, apart from isolated forms, the locative (indicating place or place where) into the ablative case (originally indicating the relations of separation and source). The dual number was lost, and a fifth noun <span id="ref603655"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/declension" class="md-crosslink ">declension</a> was developed from a <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="heterogeneous" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/heterogeneous" data-type="MW">heterogeneous</a> collection of nouns. Probably before the Romance period the number of cases was further reduced (there were two in Old French—nominative, used for the subject of a verb, and oblique, used for all other functions—and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Romanian-language" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Romanian</a> today has two, nominative-accusative, used for the subject and the direct object of a verb, and genitive-dative, used to indicate possession and the indirect object of a verb), and words of the fourth and fifth declension were absorbed into the other three or lost.</p><span class="marker MOD18 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD19 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Among verb forms, the Indo-European aorist (indicating simple occurrence of an action without reference to duration or completion) and perfect (indicating an action or state completed at the time of utterance or at a time spoken of) combined, and the conjunctive (expressing ideas contrary to fact) and optative (expressing a wish or hope) merged to form the subjunctive mood. New <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/tense" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">tense</a> forms that developed were the future in -<em>bō</em> and the imperfect in -<em>bam</em>; a passive in -<em>r</em>, also found in <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Celtic-languages" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Celtic</a> and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Tocharian-languages" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Tocharian</a>, was also developed. New <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="compound" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/compound" data-type="MW">compound</a> passive tenses were formed with the perfect participle and <em>esse</em> ‘to be’ (e.g., <em>est oneratus</em> ‘he, she, it was burdened’)—such compound tenses developed further in Romance. In general, the <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="morphology" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/morphology" data-type="MW">morphology</a> of the Classical period was codified and fluctuating forms rigidly fixed. In <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="syntax" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/syntax" data-type="MW">syntax</a>, too, earlier freedom was restricted; thus, the use of the accusative and infinitive in <em>oratio obliqua</em> (“indirect discourse”) became obligatory, and fine <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="discrimination" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/discrimination" data-type="MW">discrimination</a> was required in the use of the subjunctive. Where earlier writers might have used prepositional phrases, Classical authors preferred bare nominal-case forms as terser and more exact. Complex sentences with subtle use of distinctive conjunctions were a feature of the Classical language, and effective play was made with the possibilities offered by flexible word order.</p><span class="marker MOD19 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD20 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">In the post-Classical era, Ciceronian style came to be regarded as laboured and boring, and an epigrammatic compressed style was preferred by such writers as <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Lucius-Annaeus-Seneca-Roman-philosopher-and-statesman" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Seneca</a> and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Tacitus-Roman-historian" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Tacitus</a>. Contemporaneously and a little later, florid exuberant writing—often called African—came into fashion, exemplified especially by <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Lucius-Apuleius" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Apuleius</a> (2nd century <span class="text-smallcaps">ce</span>). Imitation of Classical and post-Classical models continued even into the 6th century, and there seems to have been <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="continuity" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/continuity" data-type="MW">continuity</a> of literary tradition for some time after the fall of the Western <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Roman-Empire" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Roman Empire</a>.</p><div class="one-good-fact-module"> </div><span class="marker MOD20 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD21 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">The growth of the empire spread Roman <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="culture" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/culture" data-type="MW">culture</a> across much of Europe and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/North-Africa" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">North Africa</a>. In all areas, even the outposts, it was not only the rough language of the legions that penetrated but also, it seems, the fine subtleties of Virgilian verse and Ciceronian prose. Research in the late 20th century suggested that in <span id="ref603656"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Britain" class="md-crosslink ">Britain</a>, for instance, Romanization was more widespread and more profound than hitherto suspected and that well-to-do Britons in the colonized region were thoroughly imbued with Roman values. How far these trickled down to the common people is difficult to tell. Because Latin died out in Britain, it is often thought that it had been used only by the elite, but some suggest that it was a result of wholesale <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb" data-term="slaughter" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/slaughter" data-type="EB">slaughter</a> of the Roman British. It is, however, more likely that the pattern of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Anglo-Saxon" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Anglo-Saxon</a> settlements was not in conflict with the Romano-Celtic and that the latter were gradually absorbed into the new society.</p><span class="marker MOD21 mod-inline"></span></section> <span class="md-signature"><a href="/contributor/Rebecca-Posner/2356">Rebecca Posner</a></span> <span class="md-signature"><a href="/contributor/Marius-Sala/4307">Marius Sala</a></span> <span class="md-signature"><a href="/editor/The-Editors-of-Encyclopaedia-Britannica/4419">The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica</a></span><span class="marker end-of-content"></span><span class="marker after-article"></span></div> <div id="chatbot-root"></div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="ai-dialog-placeholder"></div> </div> </div> <aside class="col-md-da-320"></aside> </div> </div> </div> </div> </article></div> </div></div> </div> </main> <div id="md-footer"></div> <noscript><iframe src="//www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=GTM-5W6NC8" height="0" width="0" style="display:none;visibility:hidden"></iframe></noscript> <script type="text/javascript" id="_informizely_script_tag"> var IzWidget = IzWidget || {}; (function (d) { var scriptElement = d.createElement('script'); scriptElement.type = 'text/javascript'; scriptElement.async = true; scriptElement.src = "https://insitez.blob.core.windows.net/site/f780f33e-a610-4ac2-af81-3eb184037547.js"; var node = d.getElementById('_informizely_script_tag'); node.parentNode.insertBefore(scriptElement, node); } )(document); </script>  <script> window.ap3c = window.ap3c || {}; var ap3c = window.ap3c; ap3c.cmd = ap3c.cmd || []; ap3c.cmd.push(function() { ap3c.init('ZO4siT4cLwnykPnzZWJtd3Byb2Q', 'https://engage.email.britannica.com/'); ap3c.track({v: 0}); }); ap3c.activity = function(act) { ap3c.act = (ap3c.act || []); ap3c.act.push(act); }; var s, t; s = document.createElement('script'); s.type = 'text/javascript'; s.src = "https://engage.email.britannica.com/app.js"; t = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; t.parentNode.insertBefore(s, t); </script> <script class="marketing-page-info" type="application/json"> {"pageType":"Topic","templateName":"DESKTOP","pageNumber":1,"pagesTotal":1,"pageId":331848,"pageLength":2193,"initialLoad":true,"lastPageOfScroll":false} </script> <script class="marketing-content-info" type="application/json"> [] </script> <script src="https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel-resources/3-130/js/libs/jquery-3.5.0.min.js?v=3.130.14"></script> <script type="text/javascript" data-type="Init Mendel Code Splitting"> (function() { $.ajax({ dataType: 'script', cache: true, url: 'https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel-resources/3-130/dist/topic-page.js?v=3.130.14' }); })(); </script> <script class="analytics-metadata" type="application/json"> {"leg":"A","adLeg":"A","userType":"ANONYMOUS","pageType":"Topic","pageSubtype":null,"articleTemplateType":"LARGE","gisted":false,"pageNumber":1,"hasSummarizeButton":false,"hasAskButton":false} </script> <script type="text/javascript"> EBStat={accountId:-1,hostnameOverride:'webstats.eb.com',domain:'www.britannica.com', json:''}; </script> <script type="text/javascript"> ( function() { $.ajax( { dataType: 'script', cache: true, url: '//www.britannica.com/webstats/mendelstats.js?v=1' } ) .done( function() { try {writeStat(null,EBStat);} catch(err){} } ); })(); </script> <div id="bc-fixed-dialogue"></div> </body> </html>

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Latin language | Definition, Origin, Examples, Rules, & Facts | Britannica