1) Why is LATIN a DEAD language?

A. Why is Latin a dead language?

A language is called a dead language when it is no longer spoken by people as their main language. In contrast to
extinct languages that cease to have any speakers, dead languages may continue to be used in legal, scientific
and religious fields. Besides Latin, Sanskrit, Biblical Hebrew, Coptic, Avestan and Old Church Slavonic among
others are dead languages which are largely used for religious functions.
When did Latin become a dead language?
In the fourth century, Germanic invasions brought about changes in language .The decline of Latin probably took
place between the 5th-8th century when Latin evolved into other languages of Italian, French, Romanian,
Portuguese and Spanish. Medieval Latin however was still largely used in Europe right into the 18th century, in
the fields of administration, medicine and education among others. Gradually the use of Latin came to be
restricted to the Roman Catholic Church.
Who spoke Latin before it became a Dead language?
Latin is categorized as an Italic language spoken mainly in Ancient Rome. Apart from the roman citizens Latin was
also spoken by the Egyptians, Greeks and members of varied groups including those living in Modern Persia,
Turkey and Levant. Latin may be considered to be a dead language today but scholars and many members of the
Clergy are well versed in Latin, being the main language of the Catholic Church. Almost till the 19th
century Latin was used to write academic books and scholarly papers to reach audiences across America and
Europe.
How did Latin become a Dead language?
Latin is no longer the native language of any particular place and as such is not a developing language like the
other modern languages. All the same, it is an established fact that Latin is the root for more popular languages
used today. Among the various reasons leading to Latin becoming a dead language, is the fall of the Roman
Empire and the rise of other powers. When the Roman Empire dissolved, it saw the emergence of other
languages known as the Romance languages. These languages were primarily influenced by Roman culture and
include French, Spanish, Romanian, Portuguese and Italian languages. Thereafter Latin retained its use as a
church language and stopped being used as an everyday language.
Is Latin still used?
It is common to find Latin vocabulary in the fields of science, academics and law besides the largely ecclesiastical
use of Latin related to the Church. Up till the early 20th century Classical Latin formed an important part of the
study of Classics in schools. The Latin alphabet is still a widely used alphabet with terminology originating from
Latin words being widely used in diverse fields of religion, law, medicine, science and many other allied areas.
Students across the world can choose to study Latin as a subject since it is still taught in many universities. The
Roman Catholic Church continues to publish updated versions of Latin.
http://www.innovateus.net/innopedia/why-latin-dead-language
B. Calling Latin dead language is a matter of semantics. There are those who would suggest Latin is not dead, that it
lives on in everyday language used by billions of people across the globe. Others argue that because there are
routine updates to Latin published by the Roman Catholic Church, it is still alive and developing.
However, Latin is no longer used, on a daily basis, by the vast majority of people outside of specific religious
settings, where tradition dictates its use. It is no longer anyone's native language. While its use is still taught, Latin
is no longer considered to be a developing language to the degree of most modern languages.
The reasons for Latin dying out are numerous. Perhaps the most significant one has to do with the decline of the
Roman Empire. During the Roman time period, language was standardized to a greater extent. Just as learning
English is vital to those living in the United States today, to really succeed during the Roman times, one needed to
learn Latin.
Because Rome was the most powerful political entity in the western world at the time, most of those who had any
ambition to thrive within its vast system had a desire to learn Latin. As a result, the language spread rapidly.
However, that rapid expansion would eventually begin to plateau and finally decline.
Latin continued to be used during the Medieval time period. Throughout Europe, it remained the language of
choice. However, with nothing to unite the continent, there was no need for a uniform language. So slowly, over a
period of hundreds of years, Latin began to change as different regions developed their own dialects and
idiosyncrasies.
Eventually, these dialects would become unique enough to be named their own languages. Today, we know them
as the Romance languages. The most commonly spoken and recognizable of these related languages are:
Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and French. Romansh, a little-spoken languageused in a very small part of
Switzerland, may be the modern language that most closely resembles classical Latin.

Though not directly related to the Romance languages, Latin still has had an effect on many other languages.
English, for example, which is not one of the Romance languages but a Germanic one, can trace nearly two-thirds
of its words back to Latin roots. In addition to the Roman Catholic Church, Latin is also used in the science and
mathematic communities extensively.
http://www.wisegeek.com/why-did-latin-become-a-dead-language.htm
C. HISTORY OF LATIN
An irreverent but true chronology by Timothy J. Pulju.
753 BC Traditional date of the founding of the city of Rome by Romulus, a fictional character who killed his twin
brother Remus, populated his city with escaped convicts, and found wives for his subjects by kidnapping Sabine
women who had come for a visit. At this stage, Latin is the language spoken by several thousand people in and
near Rome.
6th century BC Earliest known Latin inscription, on a pin, which says "Manios me fhefhaked Numasioi",
meaning "Manius made me for Numerius". Only a few other inscriptions predate the 3rd century BC.
250-100 BC Early Latin. The first Latin literature, usually loose translations of Greek works or imitations of
Greek genres, stems from this period. Meanwhile, the Romans are conquering the Mediterranean world and
bringing their language with them.
100 BC-150 AD Classical Latin. Guys like Cicero, Caesar, Vergil, and Tacitus write masterpieces of Latin
literature. Also, Ovid writes a book on how to pick up women at the gladiator shows. The literary language
becomes fixed and gradually loses touch with the ever- changing popular language known today as Vulgar Latin.
200-550 Late Latin. Some varieties of literature adhere closely to the classical standard, others are less
polished or deliberately closer to the popular speech (e.g., St. Jerome's translation of the Bible into Latinthe
Vulgate). The western half of the empire is falling to pieces, but the Greek-speaking east, which is still in good
shape, keeps using Latin in official contexts until the end of this period.
600-750 Latin has become a dead language. Few people in the west outside of monasteries can read. The
spoken languages of Italy, France and Spain change rapidly. Monks, particularly in Ireland, read and write
classical Latin and preserve ancient texts as well as church documents. The Roman Catholic church continues to
use Late Latin in the liturgy, though they eventually decide to deliver homilies in the local popular language. The
Byzantines still call themselves Romans but have given up on the Latin language.
800-900 The Carolingian Renaissance. Charlemagne decides that education is a good thing and promotes it in
his kingdoms. After his death scholarship goes downhill a while, but never as far as it had before his reign.
1100-1300 Contact with the educated Arabs who have conquered North Africa and Spain leads to a revival of
learning, especially the study of Aristotle and other Greeks. Leading smart guys include St. Thomas "The Dumb
Ox" Aquinas and John "Dunce" Scotus, as well as Petrus Hispanus, a pope who was killed when a ceiling
collapsed on him. All learned writing is done in Latin, a practice which persisted until the 20th century at some
fairly silly universities.
Mid 14th century The Black Death kills a lot of people, including students, professors and other people who live
in crowded, unsanitary cities. This is bad for the educational system. Meanwhile, an Italian poet named Petrarch
decides that plague-infested professors and anyone else who doesn't write the classical Latin used by Cicero is a
moron. In fact, everyone between Cicero and Petrarch was a moron in the latter's opinion, so it was high time to
have a Renaissance and make fun of everything medieval.
1400-1650 During the Renaissance, which spreads from Italy to France and finally to England, people start
reading Latin classical authors and bringing Latin words into their languages. In England, this is called "aureate
diction" and is considered evidence of great learnedness. Furthermore, as science develops, Europeans find it
useful to have a universal Latinate terminology to facilitate international research.
up till 1900 Almost everyone who goes to college has to learn Latin, and most humanities majors have to study
Greek as well. Many of the Latin roots borrowed during the aureate diction period have come to seem native and
can be used in forming new words.
mid 1960s The Catholic Church decides that Latin is no longer the obligatory language of Catholic liturgies.
Meanwhile, what with free love and everything, most young people of the 60s figure they have better things to do
than learn Latin.
Today Nobody speaks Latin well, and few people can write it, but lots can read it. Many of them are tenured
professors, so they'd be hard to get rid of even if we wanted to.
http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~kemmer/Words04/structure/latin.html

2) Why is LATIN a PERFECT language?

Centuries after the early Church of Rome had adopted Latin as its official language (replacing Greek), Latin as the
popular language was now being succeeded just as it had replaced its predecessor. However, this time the
Church of Rome had only a position of inflexibility. Roman Catholic proponents offer basically two reasons why
the Roman church rejected all non-Latin Scripture and instead adhered to a language that fewer and fewer people
could understand.
1.) Latin is the foundation language of all other western languages. Some believed that this made Latin the perfect
language for speaking about the perfect God.
2.) The Church of Rome believed that the Bible was too important to promulgate into a language understandable
to the general public. This, as the reasoning goes, was because if Scripture was capable of being read by anyone,
then persons outside the Church of Rome's hierarchy might believe they too could understand it. By Rome's
perspective, the idea that anyone else could understand the Bible was simply not possible or, at the very least, not
guaranteed; thus it was prohibited.
The Church of Rome's adherence to preventing Scripture from being translated into a language people could
understand had a disastrous effect. It progressively disabled largely illiterate generations to read or hear the
gospel for themselves. Eventually, with little exception, the only access to Scripture the common man had was
through the priests of the Church of Rome.
Whether by chance or design, this suppression of an understandable Bible would later handily serve the Church
of Rome's doctrine of infallibility; one of two disputed doctrines that would one day help muster public support for
the Crusades and Inquisitions.
NOTE:
The declaration of Latin as the Church of Rome's official language was and still is its position as evidenced in
the Vatican Council II Conciliar and Post Conciliar documents:
The use of the Latin language, with due respect to particular law, is to be preserved in the Latin rites.
While the Second Vatican Council does go on to make limited exceptions for the use of a nation's popular
language, this conciliatory attitude by the Church of Rome was not always that of agents acting, or claiming to act,
on its behalf.