Death for a language is not the same as death for a living being; when death is final - an end. In linguistics, language death occurs when a language loses its last native speaker (but still used in specific contexts). Sankrit is another dead language besides Latin in this case.
Latin was king of the world: the language of international communication, scholarship, and science. When the Catholic Church gained influence in ancient Rome, Latin became the official language of the sprawling Roman Empire. Latin was the dominant lingua franca at that time used by the most strata. How did it become dead?
This post is a layperson autopsy of the Latin language.
The Romans
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Fun fact (maybe not that fun): In Roman mythology, the city of Rome was founded by two brothers. One of them was named Romulus (the other Remus). The last Roman Emperor was Romulus Augustulus, so the Empire begins and ends with a Romulus.
Roman empire was actually so good at conquering new territory. After a few generations, Latin gradually became the vernacular language of the peoples the Romans had subjugated (which were a lot). Roman expansion spelled the death of many languages (and people). It is not even known exactly how many languages were erased by Rome’s imperial march. But in the end, the Empire fell.
Another fun fact: Roman last emperor Romulus was deposed by a Germanic barbarian named Odoacer. Then he made himself the King of Italy. Now every ruler in Italy’s many states was Germanic, not Roman.
The Germanic tribes winning over the Romans did not simply plunder the empire, burn the houses, enslave the people, and go back home. Instead, they moved in. At this point, you’re probably thinking that this must have been when Latin died. But the truth is more interesting.
We don’t know much about the Germanic languages they used at that time because they all disappeared. In history, the trend is the conquered adopt the speech of the conquerors. In Rome at this time, the reverse happened: The Germanic invaders start speaking Latin (again, puzzling since the language of the invaders would have been the closest to power).
So when did Latin die? Simplifying the matter, Latin began to die out in the 6th century shortly after the fall of Rome in 476 A.D. The fall of Rome precipitated the fragmentation of the empire, which allowed distinct local Latin dialects to develop, dialects which eventually transformed into the modern Romance languages. By the end of the sixth century, people from different sections of the former empire could no longer understand each other. Latin had died as a living language.
Another reason that Latin fell out of common usage is because, as a language, it's incredibly complex. Classical Latin is highly inflected, meaning that nearly every word is potentially modified based on tense, case, voice, aspect, person, number, gender and mood. To give you the idea, Latin has three distinct genders, six or seven noun cases, five declensions, four verb conjugations, six tenses, three persons, three moods, two voices, two or three aspects, and two numbers. Can you imagine that?
So, Latin did not essentially "die out" with the fall of the Roman Empire, but transformed — first into a simplified version of itself called Vulgar Latin, and then gradually into the Romance languages ("Rome" is the root term): Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese and Romanian.
All five of these languages incorporate grammar, tenses and specific intricacies from Latin. In addition, not coincidentally, each language was developed in former territories of the Western Roman Empire. Eastern and Western Rome pursued their own interests instead of working in concert toward shared goals. Both halves were known as The Roman Empire although, in time, the Eastern Empire would adopt Greek instead of Latin as its official language and would lose much of the character of the traditional Roman Empire (not to be confused with The Holy Roman Empire). In the Eastern Roman Empire, which became the Byzantine Empire, the Greek Koine of Hellenism remained current and was never replaced by Latin.
The Survival
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| De Agri Cultura (On Agriculture) by Marcus Porcius Cato one of the very oldest books which exists in Latin |
Today, Latin is known for its literary elegance, but in its early centuries it was not. Romans are great in farming and war, but didn't bother much with writing. When it came to literature, education, philosophy, science, art, and music, the Romans did not produce much at first. It would then change after as Rome continued to expand, it came into contact with the Greeks and eventually conquered them. Walking into a Greek city, the Romans were awed by what they found. Greece was an advanced culture. This contact would lead to a great development of Romans and the Latin language.
Quoted from Britannica:
By 265 Rome had conquered Magna Graecia, in the south of the Italian Peninsula, and had begun to absorb Greek literary and cultural ideals. Poetic language was especially influenced by Greek until Latin poetry reached its zenith with Virgil.
Turns out that The Romans were prodigious. Their thriving civilization has a lasting legacy in the world history. Roman advancements in many fields remained unequaled for centuries. Fun fact for the bookworms: for most of human history, literature took the form of unwieldy clay tablets and scrolls. The Romans streamlined the medium by creating the codex, a stack of bound pages that is recognized as the earliest incarnation of the book.
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| The Romans left more than words |
So how did Latin survive until today?
- Centuries after centuries, late Latin became the equal of Greek as a language of literature, philosophy, science, and theology. When the Roman Empire collapsed, Latin carried on. Even after no one spoke it as a first language, it continued to be spoken as the official language of educated discourse.
- Do not forget the fact that Roman Empire also had a great impact on religion in Europe through the spread of Christianity. As the Roman Empire weakened in the centuries leading up to its collapse, Christianity grew stronger. Christian missionaries were making inroads into neighboring tribes, re-establishing connections that had been lost when the Empire fell. No matter where it was, the Church was worshipping in Latin, even until today. Latin has remained the official language of the Roman Catholic Church and as such has been in constant use by most Romance speakers; it was only within the last half of the 20th century that church services began to be conducted in the vernacular. If you visit Vatican City today, you will find the Roman Catholic Church still publishes all major documents and decisions in Latin.
- It also remained as a language - at least, as a language that is studied and recognized, due to European culture's continued respect, not to say adoration, for the classical culture of ancient Rome. Throughout history, cultural movements and political powers strove to legitimize their own cultures and authority by appealing to the memory of ancient Rome. I don't wanna elaborate here, but you can search about Charlemagne (The Holy Roman Empire) and how people during the Renaissance in Italy sought to give their artistic works a greater authority by returning to the models of ancient Roman culture.
In his book Orthodoxy (to be read with his other book Heretics and both are excellent), Chesterton once made an interesting retort to the detraction of Latin as a dead language.
It is the question of a dead language and a dying language. Every living language is a dying language, even if it does not die. Parts of it are perpetually perishing or changing their sense; there is only one escape from that flux; and a language must die to be immortal.
Looking at the overwhelming prevalence of Latin in early Western literature, medicine and science, and how it is used today, Latin as a language of antiquity might continue to carry on its immortality.
References:
- https://www.britannica.com/topic/Latin-language
- https://www.ancient.eu/Western_Roman_Empire/
- https://www.britannica.com/topic/Romance-languages/Latin-and-the-development-of-the-Romance-languages
- https://www.britannica.com/topic/Romance-languages/The-language-of-religion-and-culture
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin
- https://www.history.com/news/10-innovations-that-built-ancient-rome
