Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Mr. Estanislao
17 May 2016
Although not a single language is destined to die, languages never remain still and it is
inevitable that [a]ll languages change over time (Pulju 1:51-1:53). Indeed, this was the case of
the Latin language, which was once a prosperous language that had a vital and resounding
influence in the courts, the church, and the daily lives of artisans and laymen alike. In fact, Latin
still has a vital, but underlying influence in societys consciousness and in the English language.
So, what happened? Why is Latin considered a dead language in contemporary society even
though Latin is the syntactic, phonetic, and morphemic basis for many of the spoken European
languages extant today? Publications such as The Inheritance of Rome: Illuminating the Dark
Ages 400-1000, in which the author discusses the adverse effects of the Barbaric Invasions on
Roman colonies in the Western Roman Empire, Brand Luther, in which the author emphasizes
the centrality of the printing press as a means to rapidly spread secular works in the vernacular
throughout the Protest Reformation, and Latin Alive: The Survival of Latin in English and the
Romance Languages, in which the author describes the resonance of Latin morphologies in
Romance languages and Latin prefixes in the English language, demonstrate how the Latin
language steadily lost its influence as a spoken language. The Latin language declined
throughout the millennia since its Golden Age primarily because the Western Roman Empire
collapsed and the Romance languages formed. It also declined because the members of the
Catholic Church advocated the use of common vernaculars in church liturgy as opposed to the
Approximately 200 years after Rome was established in 753 B.C.E, the Romans
overthrew their Etruscan rulers and became a republic. Around the early third century B.C.E., the
Romans had conquered most of the Italian Peninsula, and they continued to expand their
territories at an unprecedented rate throughout the subsequent centuries. As the Roman Empire
extended its influence throughout Europe, northern Africa, and what is now modern day Turkey
and northwestern Saudi Arabia, the Latin language flourished, and its Golden Age of literature
began. This period of Latin literature spanned throughout the late first century B.C.E and lasted
until the early first century C.E. While Latin flourished as a written and spoken vernacular
during this age of territorial expansion, a large influx of Roman authors and poets produced the
literary paragons of Classical Latin such as Ciceros orations, Virgils Aeneid, recognized as the
greatest work of Latin literature, Horaces Odes and Satires, and Ovids Metamorphoses
(Rowell 106). Each of these pieces of literature formed a cornerstone of Classical Latin because
they all emphasized the formalities and grammatical conventions of the time. Thus, the literary
remnants of this era profoundly impacted many scholars understanding of Latin grammar and
Nearly three centuries after the culmination of Latins Golden Age, the Roman Empire
began to waver as it spiraled into a chaotic state, threatened by external and internal problems.
The foremost external issue stemmed from the invasions by the barbarians, starting around the
fifth century C.E., who encroached upon Roman boundaries by invading Roman colonies. Since
the Western Roman Empire could not effectively govern their conquered provinces, they were
not able to fend off the inundation of invading Germanic tribes. Internally, the massive extent of
the Roman Empires territories, the instability within the Roman government, and corruption of
Roman political leaders splintered the once indomitable empire. In turn, these external and
internal problems were the catalyst of the fragmentation of the Western Roman Empire, the
When the Visigothic, Gothic, Ostrogothic, Anglo-Saxon, Frankish, Vandalic, and Hunnic
tribes invaded the Roman Empire throughout the early first millennium, Romes formerly
colonized inhabitants formed provinces throughout countries such as Britain, Gaul, and Spain.
(Wickham 90). These newly-formed provinces resulted in isolated communities which became
more localized in terms of their economies (Wickham 95). Evidently, these economic
simplifications suggest that formerly Western Roman societies, now liberated from Roman rule,
began to diverge from the lineaments and influences of Rome. Additionally, the localization of
these exchanges and foreign trade brought upon an isolation from other countries, which resulted
During their imperialistic expansion in the early centuries of the first millennium, the
Romans spread a colloquialized form of Latin known as the sermo vulgaris, or Vulgar Latin,
throughout each province they conquered. Each province adapted Vulgar Latin to reflect words
or features of pronunciation from the [native] language of the conquered country (Hall 397).
After centuries of societal fragmentation, isolation, and geographical separation in countries such
as Gaul, Spain, Italy, and modern day Romania, the French, Spanish and Portuguese, Italian, and
Romanian languages emerged as regional products of Vulgar Latin. As the Western Roman
Empire continued to decline, these languages, collectively known as the Romance languages,
became more prominent and distinct throughout Europe. They generally replaced Latin as the
vernacular. In fact, as early as the Carolingian Renaissance that spanned from the late eighth
century until the beginning of the tenth century in Europe, European authors saw French as a
distinguishable and separate language for the the first time (Wickham 413).
Unlike countries such as Gaul, Spain, and Italy, Latin hardly retained any of its influence
in the country of Britain after the Angles and the Saxons displaced the Roman population during
the fifth century. Although the Romans once had an overwhelming presence throughout Britain,
when the Barbaric Invasions isolated Britain from the rest of the Roman Empire, Germanic
cultures and languages flourished on the island and replaced the Latin language almost entirely.
According to Latin Alive: The Survival of Latin in English and the Romance Languages, the
author, Joseph Solodow, a professor of the Classics at the University of Yale, attributes the
success of these Germanic tribes to the Germans who had settled earlier on the island, [and]
partly to an epidemic in the sixth century, which may have wiped out many Latin speakers
(Solodow 32-33). Similarly, Latin also declined in Africa and Spain when the Arab conquests
began during the seventh century and displaced Roman colonies. According to Professor
Solodow, most traces of the Latin language in central in western north Africa were wiped out
[in the] conquest. The [thoroughly Romanized and Christianized] native population, however. . .
did retain a number of words they adopted from Latin into their Berber language (Solodow 51).
For example, akartassu cork (< Latin corticea bark), akiker chickpea (< cicer), asentil
rye (< centenum), grana frog (< rana), imik crumb (< mica) were a few of the many
words that the Arabs incorporated into their language (Solodow 51). Nevertheless, around the
eighth century, Latin had effectively become an esoteric language predominantly restricted to the
liturgies and masses of the Catholic Church, universities, and the literate aristocratic lites of
European society.
Nearly a millennium after the Western Roman Empire collapsed, circa 1450, Latin
continued to be the most widely used language in the highest echelon of European society and in
the Catholic Church. This remained true until the beginning of the sixteenth century and the
advent of the Protestant Reformation. When Johannes Gutenberg invented his revolutionary
printing press during the middle of the fifteenth century, Latin was the predominant language of
the use of vernaculars in their publications, which, in turn, increased the dissemination of
literature at New York University, as the cost of printing came down and print-runs increased,
books began to become accessible to the ever-larger segments of the public. . . [and] the
vernacular grew in status as a viable and dignified alternative to Latin (Cox 31).
Unquestionably, printers produced more literature in the popular European vernaculars to appeal
to more Europeans so that they could generate more revenue. However, in doing so, they also
indirectly diminished Latins influence in the literature of the late Renaissance. More
importantly, as the Renaissance came to a close, the contention brewing in European society,
particularly between Germans and the Catholic Church, grew as a result of the Catholic Churchs
sale of Indulgences which were Catholic forms of atonement that reduced a persons penance and
their time spent in Purgatory in return for a monetary fee. Several groups of northern Europeans
also resented the taxes they had to pay to the Church. Paired with the humanist ideologies of
Renaissance, the printing press propagated secular works which challenged the authority of the
The Protestant Reformation began on October 31st, 1517 when Martin Luther, a Catholic
monk, affixed his Ninety-Five Theses on the front door of a Catholic Church in Wittenberg,
Germany. Martin Luther created his Ninety-Five Theses as a protestation against the corruption
of the clergy and the Pope, who condoned the sale of Indulgences. Although the Catholic Church
endorsed the sale of Indulgences as a way to finance the construction [of] St. Peters Basilica
located in Rome, many people found the sale of Indulgences inexcusable, and they condemned
the Catholic Church for exploiting the desperation of its lay members who sought repentance
(Bishop 5). Many citizens across Europe, including Martin Luther, believed that the Catholic
Church generated an immense profit from its immoral participation in selling Indulgences. Thus,
many Europeans began to question the authority of the clergy and the Pope, who was the final
and infallible interpreter of Scripture (Pettegree 126). In addition, many urged for the
At the beginning of the Reformation, from about 1517 to 1520, Latin had maintained a
large presence in Europe and in the Catholic Church, but this presence within European society
heavily decreased from 1521 to 1526. During this time period, the vernacular steadily replaced
Latin in printed literature throughout Europe, and it assumed a more prominent role in the
Catholic Church. One of the core ideologies of the Protestant Reformation was a each persons
right to a private judgement, which meant that an individual could interpret and judge the
Scripture for himself (Burkle 735). Since the Catholic Church functioned in Latin, many
members of the Church could not comprehend the liturgy, and they could not interpret the Bible
for themselves. Since many could not understand the Vulgate, many Europeans advocated the
use of a common vernacular within the Catholic Church. In an effort to make the Catholic laity
more independent from the papal and clerical interpretations of the Bible, Martin Luther
translated the Vulgate, the Latin translation of the Bible, into German during the Protestant
Reformation. By doing so, the majority of the lay audience could interpret the Bible for
themselves.
Before the Protestant Reformation, Latin was a centralized part of Catholicism which
[maintained] unity in the [Catholic Church] and a uniformity in her services (Moorman 52).
However, after the Protestant Reformation ended in 1648, the Roman Catholic Church divided
and the Protestant branch of Christianity emerged. Although the Roman Catholic Church
maintained the use of Latin in its liturgies, the Protestant religion incorporated the vernacular
into its liturgies and Latin lost its influence in the newly formed branch of Catholicism.
Since the the Roman Catholic Church continued to use the Latin language in its liturgies
after the end of the Protestant Reformation in 1648, many members of the Church were still
unable to fully understand its liturgies and actively participate in mass. More recently, Peter
Schineller, a Jesuit priest, described his discomfort during a Tridentine Mass as follows: [e]ven
though I was very familiar with the Tridentine Mass from my childhood, it seemed remote and
distant. The Mass seemed to focus on the priest whose words for the most part could not be heard
(they were in Latin anyway!) and who rarely faced the people (Schineller). In many ways,
citizens around the world empathized with Schinellers sentiments in the nineteenth century, and
urged the Catholic Church to modify the outdated Tridentine Mass and create a modernized and
On October 20th, 1958, a group of cardinals who formed a papal conclave convened and
elected Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli as the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church. Nearly three
months after Angelo Roncalli became the Pope under the name of John XXIII on October 28th,
1958, he astonished the world. On January 25th, 1959, Pope John XXIII called for the creation of
a second Vatican Council roughly ninety years after the First Vatican Council ended. By calling
this council, the Pope hoped to reform the Catholic Church in order to make make the message
of faith more relevant to people in the twentieth century and he hoped that the Vatican Council
would eventually pave the way for Christian unity (Vatican II). When the Second Vatican
Council began on October 11th, 1962, the council began to resolve the problems of the outdated
Tridentine Mass. After approximately three years, the Second Vatican Council modified the
Tridentine Mass and helped shape the modern Catholic Church today.
The legacy of the Second Vatican Council profoundly affected the Latin language as the
ecclesiastic vernacular. Before the Second Vatican Council first convened on October 11th, 1962,
the Catholic Church used Latin as the vernacular in its masses and liturgies. However, in the
decades after the Second Vatican ended on December 8th, 1965, although Latin still was the
official language of the Catholic Church, Catholic churches around the world began to use the
vernacular of their society in place of Latin. This is partially because the council members
authorized the use of the vernacular, or mother-tongue, not only for parts of the Mass but also
for the administration of every sacrament and sacramental, and because the Council stipulated
that, . . . in individual cases, where Latin is an obstacle, bishops and other superiors may
authorize the recitation of the Office in the vernacular (The Second Vatican Ecumenical
Council). In turn, Latin . . . essentially dropped everywhere, completely and not just in the
liturgy. The collapse was so complete in fact that [in Autumn of 2014], Italian replaced Latin as
Throughout the ages, it is inevitable that change will occur and interrupt the status quo.
Undoubtedly, a language which has existed for over 2,500 years will not be identical to the same
language roughly 2,500 years later; although Latin had been the most widely used vernacular of
the Catholic Church, Latin also underwent many provincial changes throughout its lifespan
which formed the Romance languages. In addition, as the European society drastically changed
during the Middle Ages, the Latin language declined as a vernacular in European society and in
the Catholic Church. In spite of this, Latin still maintained a fundamental role in Catholicism.
Today, what can be said about Latins influence and its prominence in the future? Will Latin still
exist in five hundred years? The answer is yes. As long as the Catholic Church upholds the use of
the Latin language, educational institutions continue to teach Latin as a discipline, and Latin is
used in medicine, astronomy, and law, Latin will continue to survive as a language, an underlying
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