who owns the Latin language?

Question

Is there a difference between Itaian and Latin?

Answer 1

Italian is a descendent of Latin. So are Spanish, Portuguese, French, Romansch, Romanian, Corsican, Catalan, and a number of others.

Answer 2

No one "owns" the Latin language. No one can own a language. If you are asking wether there is a particular country where Latin is spoken, the answer is no. Spoken Latin is pretty much dead. The Vatican updates the language by translating new words like "computer" into Latin, but organizally speaking it's gone the way of the dodo.

Italian, which is a seperate language, is a dialect of Latin, as are French, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian and a bunch of other languages you've prolly never heard of.

Answer 3

Nobody owns the Latin language. It was the language of ancient Rome. For many hundreds of years it was also the language of the Christian church and of scholarship all over Medieval Europe and through the Renaissance. Until the mid-20th century Catholic services were all conducted in Latin no matter where in the world the service was held.

Italian might be thought of as modern Latin. It is the language which grew up out of Latin in Italy. But Latin is the basis for all the so-called Romance languages (Roman-ce).

The Reformation begun by Martin Luther was the beginning of the decline of the use of Latin. He put the Bible into vernacular German (the language the common people of Germany spoke.

Other men, like Tyndale and Wycliffe began putting the Bible into English.

Once the Bible began to be put into common languages other works began to be written in them as well.

Gutenberg's printing press allowed for mass production of literature (rather than hand copying) and this also encouraged writings in the vernaculars of the different countries.

Answer 4

Yes..Ancient Latin is also the root of Italian.

Latin is an ancient Indo-European language. It was originally spoken only in the region immediately surrounding Rome, called Latium. It gained wide currency as the formal language of the Roman Republic and Roman Empire, as well as, later, of medieval scholars and the Catholic Church. An inflectional and synthetic language, Latin relies little on word order, conveying meaning through a system of affixes attached to word stems. The Latin alphabet, derived from that of the Etruscans, remains the most widely-used alphabet in the world.

Although now widely considered to be an extinct language, with very few fluent speakers and almost no native ones (though Ecclesiastical Latin remains the official, 'national' language of Vatican City),

Answer 5

Only very few people nowadays are able to SPEAK Latin. There are estimations that not more than 1000 people worldwide are really able to speak and communicate in Latin. Most of them live in the Vatican.

Italian is derived from Latin as any other Roman language --> like English, French, Spanish, German, Romanian, etc. The closest used language nowadays is Rhaetoromanian which is a mixture between German and Latin. This language is spoken by about 10000 people in the Swiss Canton of "Graubünden".

Of course many million are able to read and translate Latin (e.g. me), as this is still taught in many high schools in Europe and I believe also in the US. And if you study law or medicine you need to take classes on Latin as there are many expressions in this fields which are Latin... e.g. human bones, illnesses, names of lawsuits (rei indication, actio ...). Therefore many people think that lawyers or doctors would be able to write or speak Latin which is not true. Even doctors do not write their prescriptions, etc. in Latin, they only use the Latin expressions for the disease or injury and abbreviate the rest so noone else is able to understand what they write... ;o)

Answer 6

Italian as a language developed from Latin and many words still exist in their Latin form, such as pesce (Latin form piscus).
However the only official use of Latin is now in the Vatican. It is used both in the archives and libraries, but also for official correspondance such as memos. It is also used in many Catholic ceremonies such as the Mass- it used to be a condition of many Catholic universities and colleges that students could understand Latin. The Bible also exists in Latin- the Biblia Sacra Vulgate.
There is an organiisation called SALVI which aims to promote Latin as a lingua franca between nations. members often attend conventions where only latin is spoken, and there is a book and newspaper.

Answer 7

Latin was the ancient ROMAN language used during antiquity.

Doctors use it to write prescriptions with and no one speaks it anymore.

Italian is very different but it has some of the same words... English has latin words, French has latin words...

Answer 8

Most western languages have, as their basis, Latin and Ancient Greek, with Celtic, Norse and Gaelic thrown in for good measure. It's fascinating area, but no one can OWN a language... a national language that is. If they want to develop their own then I guess the inventor owns it... I'm thinking computer codes and languages here.

Alternative meanings for words can be fun...
Himalaya = That's a hen, not a cockrell!
Maritime = Wedding day
Custard = swore prolifically

etc. etc. ad naus.

Answer 9

yes, just like french and spanish and other languages, italian derived from latin, but is not latin. latin was the language spoken by the romans, a nation that no longer exists.

Answer 10

yes there is a difference - Italian evolved from Latin. no one "owns" the latin language but the One who created it. no person can own such a thing - especially something thousands of years old.