Latin was originally spoken in the area around Rome, known as Latium. Through the power of the Roman Republic, it became the dominant language in Italy, and subsequently throughout the western Roman Empire, before eventually becoming a dead language.
Latin is probably the easiest of the older languages for speakers of English to learn, both because of their earlier relationship and because of the long use of Latin as the language of educational, ecclesiastical, legal and political affairs in western culture.
Moreover, we use the Latin alphabet, so that the language is read without difficulty. On the other hand, the sentence structure and number of forms require a great deal of attention, since the words of sentences are placed for their emphasis, rather than in accordance with a pattern like that of the English Subject-Verb-Object sentence. It is essential, then, to learn the basic inflections of nouns and verbs. The Latin alphabet was taken over from the Greek through Etruscan. The order of the letters is therefore much the same as in Greek, as is also true of most of their pronunciation.
You may have heard that Latin is a dead language. This is a strong, negative pronouncement to most ears. Scholars, however, use the term in a technical sense that leaves plenty of room for life. A “dead” language is one that is no longer the native language of any community, even if it is still in use in other ways. An extinct language, by contrast, is one that no longer has any speakers or any written use.
Some languages are also called liturgical languages, because they continue to be used in religious contexts, or classical languages, which continue to be studied and read through a rich body of ancient literature. Greek, Latin, Chinese, Arabic, and Sanskrit are all considered classical languages.
Latin also has not died because it was reborn and renamed as French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Romanian—the five Romance languages. About 90 percent of the vocabulary of these languages comes from Latin. These Romance languages are actually forms of Latin that have evolved over the centuries in various regions with some interaction from other local tongues.
Many may say that Latin lessons are expensive, and this language is not useful because it is not spoken, however Latin is the basis for the majority of the European languages and can give you a better understanding of the structure of all Indo-European languages. With this in your skillset you will have a much easier time acquiring new languages in the future.
On top of that a large part of the scientific and juduícial terminology is in Latin and is often confusing and hard to learn for the uninitiated. The price for lessons with the TutorExtra platform varies between £20-65 which is a very good bang for your buck, considering the wide range of fields where you can apply your newly acquired skills. On our platform you can browse and choose the teacher you like the most. Some of them can offer you a first lesson free of charge.
✅ Experts available : | 71 |
✅ Average price : | £30/hr |
✅ Session format : | Face-to-Face or Online |
✅ First lesson free : | Yes |