The Family of Languages That Developed From Latin Are Called What
Past John McWhorter, Ph.D, Columbia University
Recent research has shown that all languages may exist able to trace their roots dorsum to a common tongue spoken thousands of years agone. Merely how does the process of language creation have identify? Information technology can be clearly illustrated by taking a expect at Latin and its daughters: The Romance languages.
Latin, spoken in what is now Italy, was 1 of many Indo-European languages from a commonage group called Italic, and is the only one to accept survived. It happened that the peoples who created the Roman Empire spoke Latin. This Italic variant moved around much more than the typical language did or fifty-fifty does today.
This is a transcript from the video series The Story of Human Language. Watch information technology now, Wondrium
The Roman Empire was relatively unique in that equally the Romans spread and conquered beyond their original boundaries, they imposed their language on other people—a relatively new concept at the time. An empire could prosper without subjects speaking the linguistic communication. That has often been the case throughout human history. Compared to the Romans, the Western farsi Empire, now Iran, used to exist a major geopolitical player in the world. It extended west all the way to the shores of Greece and a considerable degree east of present-solar day Iran. If subjects were brought to Persia, then they probably learned Persian. But equally far as other parts of their territories, Western farsi was used only for very official purposes. Every bit rulers, the Persians accommodated the languages of their subjects.
Larn more most how changes proceeded differently in each area where the Romans brought Latin
Latin Variations Get the Romance languages
The Romans, even so, were interested in spreading Roman culture and Latin. As Latin spread to various Western and Eastern European locations, it was imposed upon those who spoke other languages. All of a sudden Latin was all over this vast region. This means that Latin was not but developing from point A to point B in Italy, only evolving in Gaul, Kingdom of spain, other parts of Italia, and in Romania. New versions of Latin were developing in dissimilar directions beyond the empire.
The big five Romance languages are French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and Romanian.
Once that process was started, the Latin varieties evolved so differently from each other they became new languages. That's how the languages nosotros know as the Romance languages came to exist. The big 5, every bit they are known, are French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and Romanian. Great evidence reveals their relation; if you lot learn one, learning one of the others is fairly piece of cake.
Learn more about how the meaning of a word changes over time
The Fragile H
To understand how Latin transitioned to today's Romance languages, let's look at the evolution of one discussion. The discussion for grass in Latin was herba. Information technology'southward our English word for herb with ana at the end. That same word exists in French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and Romanaian, but over the centuries a sound change has created a unlike rendition of the give-and-take in each language. As a result, nosotros have a diversity of forms. In French it'southherbe, in Spanish it'southwardhierba, in Italian it'serba, in Portuguese it'serva, and in Romanaian information technology'siarbã.
All of these words, even when you just hear them, are clearly related, simply they're different. For case, Latin hadherba, which began with anh—simply in all five of these languages theh is gone. French and Spanish kept it in the spelling; the French spell the give-and-take h-east-r-b-east, but the h hasn't been pronounced for a long time. Spanish has the word hierba; the h sound is long gone.
H is fragile and has a way of disappearing in languages. In Pygmalion (My Fair Lady), poor Eliza Doolittle drop her h'southward and says 'orse instead of equus caballus. She's typical in this worldwide. If you see h's at the ancestry of words, chances are theh is frail and in some closely related language, thoseh'due south aren't going to exist there. Or, if yous oftentimes deal with speakers of the language, you observe they often drib theh's.
The same affair happened to our discussion. At that place'south noh in any of the variations. We're left with erba. Italian, of the five Romance languages, is closest to Latin. Italian is what'due south called a bourgeois linguistic communication; information technology hasn't gone as far in its changes as some of the others, such as French and Romanian.
Latin: herba
Italian: erba
French:herbe
Portuguese:erva
Spanish:hierba
Romanian: iarbã
Aside from dropping the h, the Latin herba became the Italian erba.
Learn more about how sounds evolve
Other languages, though, take gone a little farther. In French, information technology's herbe. Not but is the h dropped in pronunciation, simply the letter of the alphabet a is dropped at the stop. It's spelled with an east at the cease that is not pronounced, similar the silent e at the terminate of words in English.
And then, you lot accept in Portuguese erva. The b changed to a v.
In Portuguese y'all have erva. The b transformed to a v. In the Latin alphabet,b is near the start, andv is downward at the cease. If you think about information technology, b and v are related in terms of how they are pronounced in the mouth. But as at will often become ad, yous can experience ad equally a version oft in pronunciation, merely with a picayune bit more abdomen in it. Ab is often going to become av; in that location's a relationship in how the sounds are created.
For those who know Spanish, call up about the pronunciation ofb equallyv in many Spanish dialects. That's not an accident. The Spanishhierba in Portuguese iserva. Spanish and Romanaian use unusual manipulations with the vowels. In Spanish the "her-" has become a "hier-" with a silent h, so you accept "hierba" instead of the "erba" of Italian.
Romanaian has gone fifty-fifty further with iarbã, the discussion for grass. Instead of "her-" to "hier-," information technology's "her-" to "iar-." Talk most the great vowel shift where the vowels simply lurch and change. Instead of an –a at the cease (herb-a/erb-a), it's made into an indistinct kind of sound. What is that? Is it ana, e, i, o,or u in terms of how it's said?
All of this goes back toherba. To review, nosotros takeerba,herbe,erva,hierba, andiarbã all from the originalherba. This type of lingual shift happens to every word in the language. Very few words in any of these languages trace back to Latin in anything like an unbroken grade.
A Latin speaker who listened to any of them would be baffled. If they could get whatsoever of it, they would think that something had gone terribly wrong.
Equally a issue you have what'south apparently a new language. None of the people who speak these five languages could make their way in Latin. They'd accept to learn it in school. A Latin speaker who listened to any of them would be baffled. If they could get whatever of it, they would recollect that something had gone terribly wrong. At that place couldn't be a conversation.
These are brand-new languages. That'due south how i word became 5—from Latin to the Romance languages.
Common Questions Near the Evolution of Latin
Q: How did Latin become a dead language?
Latin did not die just evolved into the five Romance languages: French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and Romanian.
Q: What did Latin evolve from?
Latin evolved from the Etruscan, Greek, and Phoenician alphabets. It was widely spoken throughout the Roman Empire.
Q: How did Latin evolve into Italian?
Italia became a unified nation in 1861, but merely a small portion of the population spoke Italian. Citizens mostly spoke local dialects. World War I and II helped to unify Italians and, by extension, the Italian language.
Q: Why should I learn Latin?
Latin is a valuable language to learn because many widely spoken languages including English, Italian, and Castilian, contain Latin words and root words. Therefore, Latin can enable you to acquire a new language or expand your vocabulary.
This article was updated on August 26, 2019
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