Evolution of Latin
Latin was the official language of the Roman Empire . It was born as a dialect in the Lazio region of central Italy, but its evolution gradually led to it being used massively by the Romans. Latin spread throughout the empire as its armies did, and we can find two variants in it: Languages derived from Latin with elaboration
- Classical Latin : it was used mostly in administration and politics.
- Vulgar Latin : it was used by the conquered peoples.
The vulgar form of Latin survived beyond the fall of the empire contributing to the appearance of new variations that will give rise to the languages derived from it. These languages are known as Romance languages which, together with variations and mixing with other languages, have given rise to the languages we use today.
Latin and Romance languages
Most of the people in the world speak Romance languages and these can be categorized into two geographical areas: Languages derived from Latin with elaboration
We can say, therefore, that after the fall of the Roman Empire, a practically unified language was spoken to many languages that retained their Latin roots , but which acquired different variables when being in contact with other languages and peoples. That is to say, due to historical events, wars and conquests, the language changes to give rise to the different languages, which still retain a common root and which comes from primitive Latin.
Today, Latin can be considered as a dead language, as it is not officially spoken by any country. It is true that we know its grammar, its syntax and its vocabulary and that we still have many expressions. These above all have to do with specific subjects or branches of knowledge that use this type of cultism when writing texts.
It is frequent that in a text we can find the expression ad hoc , to refer to the fact that a certain action has been carried out according to the case in question and many other examples that we can find on a daily basis.
List of languages derived from Latin
First of all we are going to base ourselves on the classification made previously to start with the most important western languages.
Western Latin derived languages
Within this branch we find a geographical delimitation that is located in the west of the European continent. That is, the area comprised by France, Spain, Italy and Portugal . Therefore the languages from Latin within this branch would be:
- The French
- the Spanish
- The Italian
- Portuguese
Oriental Latin derived languages
On the other hand, the languages that come from Latin in the eastern part of Europe will have to do with the languages spoken mainly in two countries: Romania and Moldova. Within these countries we find four languages that retain their Latin roots. These languages are:
- Daco-romanian
- The Istro-Romanian
- The Aromanian
- The meglenoromanian
Examples of words derived from Latin
Next we are going to see some examples of words and how they are written in different languages. In addition to the original Latin word. In this way you will be able to verify that all of them are variations of the same language: Languages derived from Latin with elaboration
For example, if we focus on the word Lingua in Latin, we will see the following variations:
- Lingua (Italian)
- Spanish language)
- Limbǎ (Romanian)
- Lingua (Portuguese)
- Langue (French)
As you can see, the variations they present are very small and in languages such as Italian or Portuguese the same Latin form is preserved.
Let’s look at another example with the word Nocte in Latin. Translated into the same languages it would be as follows:
- Notte (Italian)
- Night (Spanish)
- Noapte (Romanian)
- Noite (Portuguese)
- Nuit (French)
If we take the Latin keyword as an example . This will be transformed in the different languages as follows:
- Chiave (Italian)
- Key (Spanish)
- Cheie (Romanian)
- Chave (Portuguese)
- Clé (French)
Another example could be the word platea in Latin , which would become the following words in the different languages we are dealing with: Languages derived from Latin with elaboration
- Piazza (Italian)
- Plaza (Spanish)
- Piaţǎ (Romanian)
- Praça (Portuguese)
- Place (French)
As you can see, there are many similarities in the way the different words are written in these languages. This indicates that the Romanization process led to Latin being considered as the language for the conquered peoples and that, therefore, the languages that were born after the fall of the Roman Empire took Latin as their base
