Did the ancient Romans speak Latin or Italian?

Answer 1

Latin. They invented the language. This was penned into my Latin textbook:

"Latin is a language,
As dead as it can be,
It killed the Ancient Romans,
And now it's killing me!"

Answer 2

Did Ancient Romans Speak Latin

Answer 3

Ancient Romans spoke Vulgar Latin, a Latin that is only similiar to classical Latin as we know it today. It was from Vulgar Latin that the "Romance" languages (French, Italian, Spanish) were derived eventually.

However, in the latter stages of the Roman empire, Greek was spoken and written more than Latin.

Answer 4

Latin

Answer 5

Latin

Answer 6

Latin

Answer 7

Latin, although there were two types - Classical Latin, a formulaic, almost artificial language used for official purposes, and Vulgar latin (Latin of the people). Italian is a language derived from Vulgar Latin, among all other Romance languages such as Spanish, French, Romanian etc. English is NOT derived from Latin.

Answer 8

They spoke latin--but rome was full of many languages, cultures, ect..here is a nice little piece on wikipedia about it.

The native language of the Romans was Latin, an Italic language that relies little on word order, conveying meaning through a system of affixes attached to word stems. Its alphabet, the Latin alphabet, is ultimately based on the Greek alphabet. Although surviving Latin literature consists almost entirely of Classical Latin, an artificial and highly stylized and polished literary language from the 1st century BC, the actual spoken language of the Roman Empire was Vulgar Latin, which significantly differed from Classical Latin in grammar and vocabulary, and eventually in pronunciation.

While Latin remained the main written language of the Roman Empire, Greek came to be the language spoken by the well-educated elite, as most of the literature studied by Romans was written in Greek. In the eastern half of the Roman Empire, which later became the Byzantine Empire, Greek eventually supplanted Latin as both the written and spoken language. The expansion of the Roman Empire spread Latin throughout Europe, and over time Vulgar Latin evolved and dialectized in different locations, gradually shifting into a number of distinct Romance languages.

Although Latin is an extinct language with very few remaining fluent speakers, it remains in use in many ways, such as through Ecclesiastical Latin, the traditional language of the Roman Catholic Church and the official language of the Vatican City. Additionally, even after fading from common usage Latin maintained a role as western Europe's lingua franca, an international language of academia and diplomacy. Although eventually supplanted in this respect by French in the 19th century and English in the 20th, Latin continues to see heavy use in religious, legal, and scientific terminology—it has been estimated that 80% of all scholarly English words derive directly or indirectly from Latin

Answer 9

Latin. Italian, much like many current languages, is a derivative of Latin. Some other languages would be English, Spanish, French, etc.

Answer 10

Latin. That was the language of the Romans at that time.