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| VOCABULARY DATABASE > LATIN > INFORMATION |
Latin is an Italic language. It was the official language of the Roman Empire. Vulgar Latin was spoken by the majority of the population and over time gave birth to the so-called Romance languages, e.g. to Spanish and French. Latin is extinct as a first (and by large as a spoken) language, although it acted as a lingua franca in Europe for more than a thousand years (until the 18th century), especially among educated people. Many Latin words were incorporated into English and many other languages, and scientific names for living things and many medical descriptions are furnished in Latin.
Literature in Latin is extensive. The earliest known records of written language date back to the 7th c. BC, and early examples of Latin literature were heavily influenced by Greek literature. Even after the fall of the Roman Empire, (western) Christian thinkers continued to write their works in this language. It was only after the Renaissance period (15th-16th c.) that European vernacular languages started to compete with Latin, and it was not until the 18th century that it was superseded as the language of education and culture.
Latin is an inflected language. It has several models for noun declension, articulated into six cases, and a complex verb system. There are several standard forms for literary Latin, since Classical Latin continued to evolve during the Middle Ages and later. The Latin stock of vocabulary of the present includes words for modern notions such as "automobile".
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