About the Language of Latin

Learning Latin is a great starting place for those interested in becoming multilingual, especially since so many different languages, especially the Romance Languages, are derived from the ancient language. Learning Latin may also be useful to those looking to enter medical or legal professions, since much medical and legal terminology comes from Latin.

Types

There were two main types of Latin: Vulgar Latin and Classical Latin. Vulgar Latin was the form of the language that was spoken by everyday people. It is from Vulgar Latin that the Romance Languages descended. Pronunciation, grammar and and vocabulary are all areas in which the two types of Latin differed from one another. Classical Latin was the form of the language that was used in literature and was very proper and polished.

Learning

When Latin is taught at the high school and collegiate level, the focus is usually placed on learning to translate Latin in the written form rather than on students being able to speak the language or understand spoken Latin, since it is a dead language. There are still, however, some schools that offer Latin courses that teach students to speak it as well as understand spoken Latin along with learning to translate it in the written form.

Geography

Latin derived from a language used by a migrating tribe. Originally it was used in Latium and Ancient Rome, but was later spread through Europe during Roman conquests and continued to be used through a large part of Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire. Although no longer a spoken language, Latin is still studied all over the world and Latin phrases and terms are used in medical and legal fields, as well as in philosophy.

Significance

The Romance Languages--which include English, Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese, among others--originate from Latin. Latin also played a major role in the Catholic church as it was the main language used by the church with many words used within the church today having been derived from Latin, such as "mass" and "sacrament." Sometimes Latin is still used by the church for mass, especially at the Vatican.

Nouns

There are six different cases of nouns in Latin, with the case of a noun indicating its role in a sentence. It is because of this that the form of a sentence in Latin is not important, meaning that the words of a sentence don't necessarily appear in any particular order like they might in English. The six cases of Latin nouns and their main uses are nominative (subject or subject predicate), genative (possessor), dative (indirect object), accusative (direct object), ablative (preposition nouns) and vocative (direct address).

Verbs

Latin verbs have four conjugations that are classified by their active infinitive forms. The first conjugation ends in "āre," the second conjugation ends in "ēre," the third conjugation ends in "ere" with some exceptions ending in "iō," and the fourth conjugation ends in "īre." Latin verbs have six tenses: imperfect, perfect, future, future perfect and pluperfect. They have two numbers (singular and plural) and two voices active and passive. Latin verbs have three persons: first second and third. Latin verbs have six moods: participle, gerund, subjunctive, indicative, gerundive and imperative. Latin verbs also have the aspects perfect and imperfect.