Editing Latin (section)

{{Short description|Indo-European language of the Italic branch}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Distinguish|Ladin (disambiguation){{!}}Ladin}}
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{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2024}}
{{Infobox language
| states           = {{ublist|[[Latium]]|[[Ancient Rome]]}}
| ethnicity        = {{ublist|[[Latins (Italic tribe)|Latins]]|[[Roman people|Romans]]}}
| era              = As a native language, {{circa|7th century&nbsp;BC <!-- [[Praeneste fibula]] -->|8th century&nbsp;AD}}
| familycolor      = Indo-European
| fam2             = [[Italic languages|Italic]]
| fam3             = [[Latino-Faliscan]]
| ancestor         = [[Old Latin]]
| script           = [[Latin alphabet]] ([[Latin script]])
| agency           = [[Pontifical Academy for Latin]]
| iso1             = la
| iso2             = lat
| iso3             = lat
| glotto           = impe1234
| glottorefname    = Imperial Latin
| glotto2          = lati1261
| glottorefname2   = Latin
| lingua           = 51-AAB-aa, -ab, -ac
| image            = Rome Colosseum inscription 2.jpg
| imagecaption     = Latin inscription on a stone inside the [[Colosseum]] in [[Rome]], Italy
| mapscale         = 1
| map              = Roman Empire Trajan 117AD.png
| mapcaption       = Greatest extent of the Roman Empire under Emperor [[Trajan]] ({{circa|117&nbsp;AD}}) and the area governed by Latin speakers. Many languages other than Latin were spoken within the empire.
| notice           = IPA
| name             = Latin
| nativename       = {{lang|la|lingua Latina}}, {{lang|la|Latinum}}{{efn-ur|name=IPA|{{IPA|la|[ˈlɪŋɡʷa ɫaˈtiːna]}}, {{IPA|la|[ɫaˈtiːnʊ̃]|label=}}}}
| pronunciation    = {{IPA|la|[ɫaˈtiːnʊ̃]}}
}}

'''Latin''' ({{lang|la|lingua Latina}} or {{lang|la|Latinum}}{{efn-ur|name=IPA}}) is a [[classical language]] belonging to the [[Italic languages|Italic branch]] of the [[Indo-European languages]]. Latin was originally spoken by the [[Latins (Italic tribe)|Latins]] in [[Latium]] (now known as [[Lazio]]), the lower [[Tiber]] area around [[Rome]], Italy.<ref>{{cite book |title=A companion to Latin studies |first=John Edwin |last=Sandys |publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]] |year=1910 |pages=811–812}}</ref> Through the expansion of the [[Roman Republic]], it became the dominant language in the [[Italian Peninsula]] and subsequently throughout the [[Roman Empire]]. It has greatly influenced many languages,  [[Latin influence in English|including English]], having contributed [[List of Latin words with English derivatives|many words]] to the English [[lexicon]], particularly after the [[Christianity in Anglo-Saxon England|Christianization of the Anglo-Saxons]] and the [[Norman Conquest]]. Latin [[Root (linguistics)|roots]] appear frequently in the technical vocabulary used by fields such as [[theology]], [[List of Latin and Greek words commonly used in systematic names|the sciences]], [[List of medical roots, suffixes and prefixes|medicine]], and [[List of Latin legal terms|law]].

By the late [[Roman Republic]], [[Old Latin]] had evolved into standardized [[Classical Latin]]. [[Vulgar Latin]] refers to the less prestigious [[colloquial register]]s, attested in inscriptions and some literary works such as those of the comic playwrights [[Plautus]] and [[Terence]]<ref>{{harvnb|Clark|1900|pp=1–3}}</ref> and the author [[Petronius]]. While often called a "dead language",<ref>{{Cite web |title=Why is Latin a dead language? |url=https://www.britannica.com/question/Why-is-Latin-a-dead-language |access-date=2024-08-05 |website=Encyclopædia Britannica}}</ref> Latin did not undergo [[language death]]. Between the 6th and 9th centuries, natural [[language change]] in the vernacular Latin of different regions evolved into distinct [[Romance languages]]. After the [[fall of the Western Roman Empire]], Latin remained the [[common language]] of [[international communication]], science, scholarship and [[academia]] in Europe into the early 19th century, by which time modern languages had supplanted it in common academic and political usage.

[[Late Latin]] is the literary form of the language from the 3rd century AD onward. No longer spoken as a native language, [[Medieval Latin]] was used across Western and Catholic Europe during the [[Middle Ages]] as a working and literary language from the 9th century to the [[Renaissance]], which then developed a classicizing form, called [[Renaissance Latin]]. This was the basis for [[Neo-Latin]], which evolved during the [[early modern period]]. Latin was taught to be written and spoken at least until the late seventeenth century, when spoken skills began to erode; [[Contemporary Latin]] is generally studied to be read rather than spoken. [[Ecclesiastical Latin]] remains the [[official language]] of the [[Holy See]] and the [[Roman Rite]] of the [[Catholic Church]].

[[Latin grammar]] is highly [[fusional language|fusional]], with classes of inflections for [[noun case|case]], [[Grammatical number|number]], [[Grammatical person|person]], [[grammatical gender|gender]], [[Latin tenses|tense]], [[Grammatical mood|mood]], [[voice (grammar)|voice]], and [[Grammatical aspect|aspect]]. The [[Latin alphabet]] is directly derived from the [[Etruscan alphabet|Etruscan]] and [[Greek alphabet]]s.

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