The Italian Language

Learn about the Italian language, grammar, vocabulary and culture

The Latin language

Latin, a descendant of the Indo-European languages, is believed to have originated in the II century BC. According to legend, the language, or at least the Romans, are descended from the Trojans, headed by Aeneas, who landed in Italy after the fall of Troy, though there is scant evidence to prove this. The most popular version of this story is Virgil's Aeneid. Like all other languages, it had its span of life, from the beginning of Roman civilisation until well after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. In its Classical form, with the addition of many new words, it is still in use by the Roman Catholic Church, besides being the language of science, biology in particular. It originated in Central Italy, in the area known as Latium (Lazio in Italian), hence its name Latin.
		Some of the ancient languages of the Italic Peninsula and Islands. As shown, Latin was only a minority language among many.

There were, even in Ancient times, two varieties of Latin: Classical Latin and Vulgar Latin. Let us examine them.

Prior to 14 BC we can talk of a single Latin, which only began to diverge after the establishment of Classical Latin as the standard educated language.

It was the vulgar speech which was taken to the new provinces first by the invading Roman legions and later by Roman settlers. Different waves of expansion of Roman power also meant that Latin was taken to these new provinces at different stages of its evolution, which might in part explain why so many different languages evolved from a single source.

Local conditions, influence of existing languages and the influence of the languages brought by the different invasions which followed the fall of the Western Roman Empire also played their part in the gradual differentiation of the dialects of Vulgar Latin in the various provinces of the Empire.

As time went on, the evolution of the popular language on the one hand and the timelessness of the literary language on the other became so pronounced it became more difficult for the average person to understand Classical Latin, till the point was reached when they became virtually two different tongues and proficiency in one did not mean the other could be readily understood. By 600 Vulgar Latin had become so different it was virtually impossible for its speakers to understand Classical Latin, unless they had studied it.

Perhaps from this date we can begin talking about a new language: Proto-Romance, as linguists call it, though there is some confusion about the use of the term. It is not yet any of the modern Romance languages, but it is too far removed from Latin to be still identified with it.

As an artificial language, it would have been difficult for Latin to have descendants and indeed it has none. it continued over the centuries — and still is — in its pure form to be a stylised means of expression, while the popular language has given origin, over time, to around 30 different languages.

Italian, like all other Romance languages, descends from this Vulgar tongue.