Translation Latin English

Information

Latin is a language of the Indo-European family that appeared in Italy in the 5^th century BC. Today, it is only used by the Roman Catholic Church in the form of Ecclesiastical Latin, which makes it the official national language of the Vatican. It is also still being used to furnish the names used in the scientific classification of living things.

Latin appeared as one of many Italic languages spoken in central Italy. It was spoken in Latium and Rome was one of Latium towns. The earliest known inscriptions in Latin date from the 6th century BC and were written using an alphabet adapted from the Etruscan one. With the increase of Rome’s influence over other parts of Italy and then with the formation of the Roman Empire, Latin spread over a large part of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. Latin was used throughout the empire as the language of law, administration and more and more as the language of everyday life. However, the language used in literature, classical Latin, differed in many ways from colloquial Latin or vulgar Latin.

Over the centuries Latin evolved into the Romance languages we know today: Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian, Catalan, etc.

Latin is not an extinct language, but it is a dead language. Therefore, there are very few people who can master it and translate from it.