when did people stop speaking Latin?

Question

as a main language

yeah i know that duh, I was asking why people stopped speaking it
that would be like the english language dissapearing

ubi et puella et pueri in schola

Answer 1

Jonathan,

Latin became less and less a spoken language by the everyday person in what was formerly the Roman Empire after the final fall of Rome in the early Ffith Century. The non-Latin speaking tribes that were moving into the lands once held by the great empire mixed their own tongues with Latin--and this process had been going on long before the fall of Rome. What began to emerge were dialects of Latin that became more and more distinct languages by the early Middle Ages, until they developed into the Norman tongue (French), Italian, Spanish, Romansch.

The change from Latin to dialects of Latin, and then to distinct languages, did not happen quickly.

In the 11th to the 13th Centuries you could hear French troubador songs that were not quite modern French and were definitely not Latin, but were on the way to becoming French as we think of it today. Think of the first serious writer of Italian, Dante, (1265 to 1321), who wrote the 'Divine Comedy' in Italian. By his time, Latin was so changed that it become distinctly Italian.

Now, please keep in mind that while the common folk of Europe were developing their own language hybrids out of Latin that grew to become the modern languages we know today, it was always the case that the educated classes (the courts, the law courts, the universities) continued to use Latin right in to the beginning of the Eighteenth Century in Europe. Educated people thought of Latin as the universal language of communication, and scholars and scientists would write to each other in Latin and would publish their works in Latin because they wanted their works widely read. As an example, Queen Elizabeth I was completely fluent in Latin and Greek, among other languages.

But almost all the educated people of Europe were fluent in Latin almost down to the Nineteenth Century. They prided themselves on this knowledge because Latin opened up to them the great works of the ancient world, and gave the educated a common language across Europe. This held true until French became the universal language of the educated.

The Catholic Church held on to Latin as the only language to be used in sacred liturgies until the 1960s when the Second Vatican Council permitted people to celebrate the liturgy in their own languages.

(Just as an aside note, here: when I was studying philosophy and theology in the 1960s, my textbooks were in Latin, the classes were held in Latin, and we were tested in Latin. And this was in the United States.)

Even today, all the Pope's official writings are written in Latin, and then translated to other languages. Many older priests in Europe and the Americas will still occasionally chat in Latin.

In short, Latin had a gradual downward slide through many centuries from being the premier language of Europe to what it is today, the Mother of Italian, French, Spanish, Portugese, Romansch, and others.

Now, another little side-note: The ancient Roman educated classes preferred to speak in classical Greek, not Latin, because they felt Latin was too common and that classical Greek was the better language. I guess this goes to show that everything changes--given enough time.

I hope this little romp through history has been helpful to you, Jonathan.

Vale! (Farewell!)

Answer 2

They didn't stop.

Languages evolve. Latin slowly evolved during Roman times but more quickly as the empire split apart and the large, free flows of people ended, turning into a trickle. Trickles do not spread current fashion in language well and so the different areas began to diverge in the way Latin evolved. In additon, each was influenced by the peoples conquering in them. Most took up the Latin language of the area but with their own takes on how to use it.

For instance, Latin has no word for "yes." In Italy and Spain, the phrase used for yes became something like 'this is so' one word of which is "si." So they evolved to saying yes with si. In France, at least three usages evolved in the same way with the one around Paris winning out. The Latin word in the phrase that drove the form of yes was, I think, "hui" — pronounced "wee" over time and so "oui" today.

Wikipedia has some very nice articles on the Yes thing.

In fringe areas, the conquerors did not accept Latin in place of their own languages but rather used it for formal things that already existed, like church. Conquering flowed back and forth so influences became complicated, but the point is that they did not stop speaking Latin in a large part of the old empire, it's just 2,000 years older now.

And changed though not beyond recognition.

Answer 3

They didn't stop so much as get lazy about it, sorta. Latin evolved into the Romance languages, like French, Italian, and Spanish. It happened over time after the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century CE. Latin remained the language of scholars and of the Church for many centuries, though scholars were writing in the vernacular well before the Church caught on.

Answer 4

Not sure.
Some people still speak Latin, like in churches.
But populations stoped around the renaissance.

Answer 5

greek....replaced it...greek had vowels

more people spoke and understood grrek..
as romans conquered the greeks..and settled..greek overpowered latin-- and from 300bc to time of christ about 4bc

greek had become the universal language...

Answer 6

Espanol es latin de hoy.....??

Answer 7

huh do you mean spanish cuz latin was spoken more then a thousand years ago like when jesus was around duh!!!!

Answer 8

que?