Language/Latin/Culture/The-language-of-ancient-Rome

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The Language of the Roman Empire
Drapeau-Empire-Romain.jpg

The language[edit | edit source]

During the 2nd millennium BC, Indo-European populations progressed towards southern and western Europe. Their language evolved according to the regions and local populations encountered; it is not known directly, but it constitutes the common core of the many languages ​​which subsequently developed in Europe and partly in Asia: Slavic, Germanic and Scandinavian languages, Baltic languages, Celtic languages, ancient Greek, languages italics, Sanskrit and Persian in Asia, Hittite in the Near East.

In what is today Italy, the languages ​​of the arrivals evolved in various ways between the Oskis, Umbrians, Falisques, Venetians and Latins. Let us remember that the language of the Etruscans remains of another origin.

Thus, in the 8th century BC. AD, Latin is the language of the inhabitants of Lazio, the region where Rome is located (which according to legend was founded in 753 BC). They imposed their language as their authority was exercised over neighboring regions, but Latin also evolved with their contact.

Throughout Roman history, but especially from the 3rd century BC. J.C., the Latin language exerts an increasingly strong hold on the territories of Western Europe, in North Africa and in the Danubian regions. It is the administrative and official language of the conquered territories, even if Greek remains well established around the eastern Mediterranean.

During this long epic, Latin of course evolved, and we usually distinguish between archaic Latin, classical Latin and low Latin. Archaic latin The oldest inscriptions in Latin date from the 6th century BC. J.C. They are difficult to understand in this archaic language. The Greek historian Polybius, in the middle of the republican era, evokes the first treaty between Rome and Carthage (452 ​​av. JC) and declares that the text "can only partially be understood, by putting a lot of application and by the smartest men. "

Until the 3rd century BC. J.C., the language evolved gradually, but it is difficult to know under which influences, because very few works of this time have reached us. These are often texts freely translated from Greek or written in imitation of Greek. A Roman of the imperial era, however, can still read most of the later texts dating from the Republic. The limit between archaic Latin and classical Latin is generally estimated to be the year 75 BC, without this date of course manifesting itself in a sudden break. For this period, we will retain the writings of Plautus, Cato the Elder, Terence.

Classical Latin[edit | edit source]

This term mainly refers to the Latin used in Imperial Rome. The period which goes approximately from the 1st century BC. J. - C. at the beginning of the 1st century after J.C., will be called "golden age of Latin literature", with authors like Catullus, Salluste, Virgil, Horace, Livy, Ovid, Vitruvius, etc.

The first century AD is the time of Seneca, Pliny the Elder, Plutarch, Tacitus, Pliny the Younger, Juvenal, Suetonius. However, from about the year 20 and until the 2nd century, some consider that the literature becomes of a less brilliant literary level, and one speaks then of "the silver age" or "post-. Augustinian ". Today, the literary language derived from archaic Latin is generally called "classical Latin", from which it has however departed.

In reality, on a daily basis, the inhabitants of the Roman Empire, and in particular from the second century onwards, speak much less literary, which is called vulgar Latin and which differs from it both in terms of vocabulary and grammar. and, over time, by pronunciation.

Vulgar Latin[edit | edit source]

Also called popular Latin, it is the language used in the western provinces of the Roman Empire. It was he who marked the local dialects to the point of transforming them into Romance languages. The divergence is considered to have started around the 2nd century, accelerating after the fall of the empire and ending around the 9th century.

Written Latin, for its part, remained closer to the classical language without escaping the influence of the vulgar language. It evolved into Low Latin (postclassical Latin in its later stages) or Late Latin (the Latin language used by writers in the third to sixth centuries). From the 3rd to the 6th century, it remains the language of writing in the Romanized regions, that of the literati and later of Christian religious.

Source[edit | edit source]

https://anticopedie.fr/mondes/mondes-fr/rome-langue.html

Videos[edit | edit source]

Romanitas and the Latin Language - YouTube[edit | edit source]

Stuart McManus, "The Latin Language in 'Latin' America", Paideia ...[edit | edit source]

Classical Latin: the language of ancient Rome - YouTube[edit | edit source]

Contributors

Maintenance script, Vincent and Marianth


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