View source for Latin

{{Short description|Indo-European language of the Italic branch}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Distinguish|Ladin (disambiguation){{!}}Ladin}}
{{pp-pc}}
{{pp-move}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2024}}
{{Infobox language
| states           = {{ublist|[[Latium]]|[[Ancient Rome]]}}
| ethnicity        = {{ublist|[[Latins (Italic tribe)|Latins]]|[[Roman people|Romans]]}}
| era              = As a native language, {{circa|7th century&nbsp;BC <!-- [[Praeneste fibula]] -->|8th century&nbsp;AD}}
| familycolor      = Indo-European
| fam2             = [[Italic languages|Italic]]
| fam3             = [[Latino-Faliscan]]
| ancestor         = [[Old Latin]]
| script           = [[Latin alphabet]] ([[Latin script]])
| agency           = [[Pontifical Academy for Latin]]
| iso1             = la
| iso2             = lat
| iso3             = lat
| glotto           = impe1234
| glottorefname    = Imperial Latin
| glotto2          = lati1261
| glottorefname2   = Latin
| lingua           = 51-AAB-aa, -ab, -ac
| image            = Rome Colosseum inscription 2.jpg
| imagecaption     = Latin inscription on a stone inside the [[Colosseum]] in [[Rome]], Italy
| mapscale         = 1
| map              = Roman Empire Trajan 117AD.png
| mapcaption       = Greatest extent of the Roman Empire under Emperor [[Trajan]] ({{circa|117&nbsp;AD}}) and the area governed by Latin speakers. Many languages other than Latin were spoken within the empire.
| notice           = IPA
| name             = Latin
| nativename       = {{lang|la|lingua Latina}}, {{lang|la|Latinum}}{{efn-ur|name=IPA|{{IPA|la|[ˈlɪŋɡʷa ɫaˈtiːna]}}, {{IPA|la|[ɫaˈtiːnʊ̃]|label=}}}}
| pronunciation    = {{IPA|la|[ɫaˈtiːnʊ̃]}}
}}

'''Latin''' ({{lang|la|lingua Latina}} or {{lang|la|Latinum}}{{efn-ur|name=IPA}}) is a [[classical language]] belonging to the [[Italic languages|Italic branch]] of the [[Indo-European languages]]. Latin was originally spoken by the [[Latins (Italic tribe)|Latins]] in [[Latium]] (now known as [[Lazio]]), the lower [[Tiber]] area around [[Rome]], Italy.<ref>{{cite book |title=A companion to Latin studies |first=John Edwin |last=Sandys |publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]] |year=1910 |pages=811–812}}</ref> Through the expansion of the [[Roman Republic]], it became the dominant language in the [[Italian Peninsula]] and subsequently throughout the [[Roman Empire]]. It has greatly influenced many languages,  [[Latin influence in English|including English]], having contributed [[List of Latin words with English derivatives|many words]] to the English [[lexicon]], particularly after the [[Christianity in Anglo-Saxon England|Christianization of the Anglo-Saxons]] and the [[Norman Conquest]]. Latin [[Root (linguistics)|roots]] appear frequently in the technical vocabulary used by fields such as [[theology]], [[List of Latin and Greek words commonly used in systematic names|the sciences]], [[List of medical roots, suffixes and prefixes|medicine]], and [[List of Latin legal terms|law]].

By the late [[Roman Republic]], [[Old Latin]] had evolved into standardized [[Classical Latin]]. [[Vulgar Latin]] refers to the less prestigious [[colloquial register]]s, attested in inscriptions and some literary works such as those of the comic playwrights [[Plautus]] and [[Terence]]<ref>{{harvnb|Clark|1900|pp=1–3}}</ref> and the author [[Petronius]]. While often called a "dead language",<ref>{{Cite web |title=Why is Latin a dead language? |url=https://www.britannica.com/question/Why-is-Latin-a-dead-language |access-date=2024-08-05 |website=Encyclopædia Britannica}}</ref> Latin did not undergo [[language death]]. Between the 6th and 9th centuries, natural [[language change]] in the vernacular Latin of different regions evolved into distinct [[Romance languages]]. After the [[fall of the Western Roman Empire]], Latin remained the [[common language]] of [[international communication]], science, scholarship and [[academia]] in Europe into the early 19th century, by which time modern languages had supplanted it in common academic and political usage.

[[Late Latin]] is the literary form of the language from the 3rd century AD onward. No longer spoken as a native language, [[Medieval Latin]] was used across Western and Catholic Europe during the [[Middle Ages]] as a working and literary language from the 9th century to the [[Renaissance]], which then developed a classicizing form, called [[Renaissance Latin]]. This was the basis for [[Neo-Latin]], which evolved during the [[early modern period]]. Latin was taught to be written and spoken at least until the late seventeenth century, when spoken skills began to erode; [[Contemporary Latin]] is generally studied to be read rather than spoken. [[Ecclesiastical Latin]] remains the [[official language]] of the [[Holy See]] and the [[Roman Rite]] of the [[Catholic Church]].

[[Latin grammar]] is highly [[fusional language|fusional]], with classes of inflections for [[noun case|case]], [[Grammatical number|number]], [[Grammatical person|person]], [[grammatical gender|gender]], [[Latin tenses|tense]], [[Grammatical mood|mood]], [[voice (grammar)|voice]], and [[Grammatical aspect|aspect]]. The [[Latin alphabet]] is directly derived from the [[Etruscan alphabet|Etruscan]] and [[Greek alphabet]]s.

{{TOC limit}}

== History ==
{{Main|History of Latin}}

[[File:Linguistic Landscape of Central Italy.png|thumb|left|upright=1.5|The linguistic landscape of central Italy at the beginning of Roman expansion]]

A number of phases of the language have been recognized, each distinguished by subtle differences in vocabulary, usage, spelling, and syntax. There are no hard and fast rules of classification; different scholars emphasize different features. As a result, the list has variants, as well as alternative names.

In addition to the historical phases, [[Ecclesiastical Latin]] refers to the styles used by the writers of the [[Roman Catholic Church]] from [[Late Antiquity|late antiquity]] onward, as well as by [[Protestant]] scholars.

=== Old Latin ===
{{Main|Old Latin}}
[[File:Lapis-niger.jpg|thumb|right|The [[Lapis Niger]], probably the oldest extant Latin inscription, from Rome, {{Circa|600 BC|lk=no}} during the semi-legendary [[Roman Kingdom]]]]

The earliest known form of Latin is Old Latin, also called Archaic or Early Latin, which was spoken from the [[Roman Kingdom]], traditionally founded in 753 BC, through the later part of the [[Roman Republic]], up to 75 BC, i.e. before the age of [[Classical Latin]].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Archaic Latin |encyclopedia=The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition}}</ref> It is attested both in inscriptions and in some of the earliest extant Latin literary works, such as the comedies of [[Plautus]] and [[Terence]]. The [[Latin alphabet]] was devised from the [[Etruscan alphabet]]. The writing later changed from what was initially either a [[Right-to-left script|right-to-left]] or a [[boustrophedon]]<ref>{{harvnb|Diringer|1996|pp=533–534}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=Collier's Encyclopedia: With Bibliography and Index |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H9xLAQAAMAAJ |publisher=Collier |date=1 January 1958 |page=412 |quote=In Italy, all alphabets were originally written from right to left; the oldest Latin inscription, which appears on the lapis niger of the seventh century BC, is in boustrophedon, but all other early Latin inscriptions run from right to left. |access-date=15 February 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160421225204/https://books.google.com/books?id=H9xLAQAAMAAJ |archive-date=21 April 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref> script to what ultimately became a strictly left-to-right script.<ref>{{cite book |first=David |last=Sacks |year=2003 |title=Language Visible: Unraveling the Mystery of the Alphabet from A to Z |location=London |publisher=Broadway Books |page=[https://archive.org/details/languagevisibleu00sack/page/80 80] |isbn=978-0-7679-1172-6 |url=https://archive.org/details/languagevisibleu00sack/page/80}}</ref>

=== Classical Latin ===
{{Main|Classical Latin}}
During the late republic and into the first years of the empire, from about 75 BC to AD 200, a new [[Classical Latin]] arose, a conscious creation of the orators, poets, historians and other [[literate]] men, who wrote the great works of [[classical literature]], which were taught in [[grammar]] and [[rhetoric]] schools. Today's instructional grammars trace their roots to such [[Roman school|schools]], which served as a sort of informal language academy dedicated to maintaining and perpetuating educated speech.<ref>{{cite book |page=3 |title=From Latin to modern French with especial consideration of Anglo-Norman; phonology and morphology |first=Mildred K |last=Pope |author-link=Mildred Pope |location=Manchester |publisher=Manchester university press |series=Publications of the University of Manchester, no. 229. French series, no. 6 |year=1966}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Source book of the history of education for the Greek and Roman period |first=Paul |last=Monroe |location=London, New York |publisher=[[Macmillan & Co.]] |year=1902 |pages=346–352}}</ref>

=== Vulgar Latin ===
{{Main|Vulgar Latin}}

Philological analysis of Archaic Latin works, such as those of [[Plautus]], which contain fragments of everyday speech, gives evidence of an informal register of the language, Vulgar Latin (termed {{lang|la|sermo vulgi}} 'the speech of the masses', by [[Cicero]]). Some linguists, particularly in the nineteenth century, believed this to be a separate language, existing more or less in parallel with the literary or educated Latin, but this is now widely dismissed.<ref>{{harvnb|Herman|2000|p=5}} "Comparative scholars, especially in the nineteenth century ... tended to see Vulgar Latin and literary Latin as two very different kinds of language, or even two different languages altogether ... but [this] is now out of date"</ref>

The term 'Vulgar Latin' remains difficult to define, referring both to informal speech at any time within the history of Latin, and the kind of informal Latin that had begun to move away from the written language significantly in the post-Imperial period, that led ultimately to the [[Romance languages]].

During the Classical period, informal language was rarely written, so philologists have been left with only individual words and phrases cited by classical authors, inscriptions such as [[Curse tablets]] and those found as [[Roman graffiti|graffiti]]. In the [[Late Latin]] period, language changes reflecting spoken (non-classical) norms tend to be found in greater quantities in texts.<ref>{{harvnb|Herman|2000|pp=17–18}}</ref>
As it was free to develop on its own, there is no reason to suppose that the speech was uniform either diachronically or geographically. On the contrary, Romanised European populations developed their own [[Dialects of Latin|dialects]] of the language, which eventually led to the differentiation of [[Romance languages]].<ref>{{harvnb|Herman|2000|p=8}}</ref>

=== Late Latin ===
{{Main|Late Latin}}

Late Latin is a kind of written Latin used in the 3rd to 6th centuries. This began to diverge from Classical forms at a faster pace. It is characterised by greater use of prepositions, and word order that is closer to modern Romance languages, for example, while grammatically retaining more or less the same formal rules as Classical Latin.

Ultimately, Latin diverged into a distinct written form, where the commonly spoken form was perceived as a separate language, for instance early French or Italian dialects, that could be transcribed differently. It took some time for these to be viewed as wholly different from Latin however.

After the [[Western Roman Empire]] fell in 476 and [[Barbarian kingdoms|Germanic kingdoms]] took its place, the [[Germanic people]] adopted Latin as a language more suitable for legal and other, more formal uses.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |title=History of Europe – Barbarian migrations and invasions |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/history-of-Europe |access-date=2021-02-06 |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia Britannica}}</ref>

=== Romance languages ===
{{Main|Romance languages}}
{{See also|Lexical changes from Classical Latin to Proto-Romance}}
While the written form of Latin was increasingly standardized into a fixed form, the spoken forms began to diverge more greatly. Currently, the five most widely spoken Romance languages by number of native speakers are [[Spanish language|Spanish]], [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]], [[French language|French]], [[Italian language|Italian]], and [[Romanian language|Romanian]]. Despite dialectal variation, which is found in any widespread language, the languages of Spain, France, Portugal, and Italy have retained a remarkable unity in phonological forms and developments, bolstered by the stabilising influence of their common [[Christians|Christian]] (Roman Catholic) culture.

It was not until the [[Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula]] in 711, cutting off communications between the major Romance regions, that the languages began to diverge seriously.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Pei |first1=Mario |last2=Gaeng |first2=Paul A. |title=The story of Latin and the Romance languages |edition=1st |year=1976 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/storyoflatinroma0000peim/page/76 76–81] |location=New York |publisher=Harper & Row |isbn=978-0-06-013312-2 |url=https://archive.org/details/storyoflatinroma0000peim/page/76}}</ref> The spoken Latin that would later become Romanian diverged somewhat more from the other varieties, as it was largely separated from the unifying influences in the western part of the Empire.

Spoken Latin began to diverge into distinct languages by the 9th century at the latest, when the earliest extant Romance writings begin to appear. They were, throughout the period, confined to everyday speech, as Medieval Latin was used for writing.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |url=https://www.ruf.rice.edu/~kemmer/Words04/structure/latin.html |title=History of Latin |last=Pulju |first=Timothy |website=Rice University |access-date=3 December 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Romance-languages/Latin-and-the-development-of-the-Romance-languages#ref74713 |title=Romance Languages |last1=Posner |first1=Rebecca |last2=Sala |first2=Marius |date=1 August 2019 |website=Encyclopædia Britannica |access-date=3 December 2019}}</ref>

For many Italians using Latin, though, there was no complete separation between Italian and Latin, even into the beginning of the [[Renaissance]]. [[Petrarch]] for example saw Latin as a literary version of the spoken language.<ref>See Introduction, {{harvnb|Deneire|2014|pp=10–11}}</ref>

=== Medieval Latin ===
{{Main|Medieval Latin}}
[[File:Calligraphy.malmesbury.bible.arp.jpg|thumb|upright=1.13|The Latin Malmesbury Bible from 1407]]
Medieval Latin is the written Latin in use during that portion of the post-classical period when no corresponding Latin [[vernacular]] existed, that is from around 700 to 1500 AD. The spoken language had developed into the various Romance languages; however, in the educated and official world, Latin continued without its natural spoken base. Moreover, this Latin spread into lands that had never spoken Latin, such as the Germanic and Slavic nations. It became useful for international communication between the member states of the [[Holy Roman Empire]] and its allies.

Without the institutions of the Roman Empire that had supported its uniformity, Medieval Latin was much more liberal in its linguistic cohesion: for example, in classical Latin {{lang|la|sum}} and {{lang|la|eram}} are used as auxiliary verbs in the perfect and pluperfect passive, which are compound tenses. Medieval Latin might use {{lang|la-x-medieval|fui}} and {{lang|la-x-medieval|fueram}} instead.<ref name=thorley13-15>{{cite book |pages=13–15 |title=Documents in medieval Latin |first=Moe |last=Elabani |location=Ann Arbor |publisher=University of Michigan Press |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-472-08567-5}}</ref> Furthermore, the meanings of many words were changed and new words were introduced, often under influence from the vernacular. Identifiable individual styles of classically incorrect Latin prevail.<ref name=thorley13-15 />

=== Renaissance and Neo-Latin ===
{{Main|Renaissance Latin|Neo-Latin}}
[[File:Incunabula distribution by language.png|thumb|Most 15th-century printed books ([[incunabula]]) were in Latin, with the [[vernacular language]]s playing only a secondary role.<ref name="ISTC">{{cite web |url=https://www.bl.uk/catalogues/istc/index.html |title=Incunabula Short Title Catalogue |publisher=[[British Library]] |access-date=2 March 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110312185857/https://www.bl.uk/catalogues/istc/index.html |archive-date=12 March 2011 |url-status=live}}</ref>]]

Renaissance Latin, in use from around 1300 to 1500, and the classicised Latin that followed through to the present are often grouped together as ''Neo-Latin'', or New Latin, which have in recent decades become a focus of [[Neo-Latin studies|renewed study]], given their importance for the development of European culture, religion and science.<ref>"When we talk about "Neo-Latin", we refer to the Latin ... from the time of the early Italian humanist Petrarch (1304–1374) up to the present day" {{harvnb|Knight|Tilg|2015|p=1}}</ref><ref>"Neo-Latin is the term used for the Latin which developed in Renaissance Italy ... Its origins are normally associated with Petrarch" {{Cite web |url=http://www.mml.cam.ac.uk/neo-latin |title=What is Neo-Latin? |access-date=2016-10-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161009191707/http://www.mml.cam.ac.uk/neo-latin |archive-date=2016-10-09 |url-status=dead}}</ref> The vast majority of written Latin belongs to this period, but its full extent is unknown.<ref>{{harvnb|Demo|2022|p=3}}</ref>

The [[Renaissance]] reinforced the position of Latin as a spoken and written language by the scholarship by the [[Renaissance Humanism|Renaissance humanists]]. [[Petrarch]] and others began to change their usage of Latin as they explored the texts of the Classical Latin world. Skills of textual criticism evolved to create much more accurate versions of extant texts through the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and some important texts were rediscovered. Comprehensive versions of authors' works were published by [[Isaac Casaubon]], [[Joseph Scaliger]] and others.<ref>''Latin Studies'' in {{harvnb|Bergin|Law|Speake|2004|p=272}}</ref> Nevertheless, despite the careful work of Petrarch, [[Politian]] and others, first the demand for manuscripts, and then the rush to bring works into print, led to the circulation of inaccurate copies for several centuries following.<ref>''Criticism, textual'' in {{harvnb|Bergin|Law|Speake|2004|p=272}}</ref>

Neo-Latin literature was extensive and prolific, but less well known or understood today. Works covered poetry, prose stories and early novels, occasional pieces and collections of letters, to name a few. Famous and well regarded writers included Petrarch, Erasmus, [[Salutati]], [[Conrad Celtes|Celtis]], [[George Buchanan]] and [[Thomas More]].<ref>''Neo-Latin literature'' in {{harvnb|Bergin|Law|Speake|2004|pp=338–339}}</ref> Non fiction works were long produced in many subjects, including the sciences, law, philosophy, historiography and theology. Famous examples include [[Isaac Newton]]'s ''[[Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica|Principia]]''. Latin was also used as a convenient medium for translations of important works first written in a vernacular, such as those of [[Descartes]].

Latin education underwent a process of reform to classicise written and spoken Latin. Schooling remained largely Latin medium until approximately 1700. Until the end of the 17th century, the majority of books and almost all diplomatic documents were written in Latin.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Helander |first=Hans |date=2012-04-01 |title=The Roles of Latin in Early Modern Europe |url=https://journals.openedition.org/annuaire-cdf/1783 |journal=L'Annuaire du Collège de France. Cours et travaux |volume=111 |issue=111 |pages=885–887 |doi=10.4000/annuaire-cdf.1783 |s2cid=160298764 |issn=0069-5580}}</ref> Afterwards, most diplomatic documents were written in French (a [[Romance language]]) and later native or other languages.<ref>Laureys, Marc, ''Political Action'' in {{harvnb|Knight|Tilg|2015|p=356}}</ref> Education methods gradually shifted towards written Latin, and eventually concentrating solely on reading skills. The decline of Latin education took several centuries and proceeded much more slowly than the decline in written Latin output.

=== Contemporary Latin ===
{{Main|Contemporary Latin|Ecclesiastical Latin}}

Despite having no native speakers, Latin is still used for a variety of purposes in the contemporary world.

==== Religious use ====
[[File:Wallsend platfom 2 02.jpg|thumb|The signs at [[Wallsend Metro station]] are in English and Latin, as a tribute to [[Wallsend]]'s role as one of the outposts of the [[Roman Empire]], as the eastern end of [[Hadrian's Wall]] (hence the name) at [[Segedunum]].]]

The largest organisation that retains Latin in official and quasi-official contexts is the [[Catholic Church]]. The Catholic Church required that Mass be carried out in Latin until the [[Second Vatican Council]] of 1962–1965, which permitted the use of the [[vernacular language|vernacular]]. Latin remains the language of the [[Roman Rite]]. The [[Tridentine Mass]] (also known as the Extraordinary Form or Traditional Latin Mass) is celebrated in Latin. Although the [[Mass of Paul VI]] (also known as the Ordinary Form or the Novus Ordo) is usually celebrated in the local vernacular language, it can be and often is said in Latin, in part or in whole, especially at multilingual gatherings. It is the official language of the [[Holy See]], the primary language of its [[public journal]], the {{lang|la|[[Acta Apostolicae Sedis]]}}, and the working language of the [[Roman Rota]]. [[Vatican City]] is also home to the world's only [[automatic teller machine]] that gives instructions in Latin.<ref>{{cite news |last=Moore |first=Malcolm |title=Pope's Latinist pronounces death of a language |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1540843/Popes-Latinist-pronounces-death-of-a-language.html |work=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |date=28 January 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090826081734/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1540843/Popes-Latinist-pronounces-death-of-a-language.html |archive-date=26 August 2009 |url-status=live}}</ref> In the [[pontifical university|pontifical universities]] postgraduate courses of [[Canon law]] are taught in Latin, and papers are written in the same language.

There are a small number of Latin services held in the Anglican church. These include an annual service in Oxford, delivered with a Latin sermon; a relic from the period when Latin was the normal spoken language of the university.<ref>{{cite web |title=University Sermons |url=https://www.universitychurch.ox.ac.uk/content/university-sermons |website=University Church Oxford |access-date=25 March 2023}}</ref>

[[File:Former logo of the European Council and Council of the European Union (2009).svg|thumb|right|The polyglot [[European Union]] has adopted Latin names in the logos of some of its institutions for the sake of linguistic compromise, an "ecumenical nationalism" common to most of the continent and as a sign of the continent's heritage (such as the [[Council of the European Union|EU Council]]: {{lang|la|Consilium}}).]]

==== Use of Latin for mottos ====
In the Western world, many organizations, governments and schools use Latin for their mottos due to its association with formality, tradition, and the roots of [[Western culture]].<ref>{{Cite web |title="Does Anybody Know What 'Veritas' Is?" {{!}} Gene Fant |url=https://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2011/08/e2809cdoes-anybody-know-what-veritas-ise2809d |access-date=2021-02-19 |website=First Things |date=August 2011}}</ref>

Canada's motto {{lang|la|[[A mari usque ad mare]]}} ("from sea to sea") and most [[list of Canadian provincial and territorial symbols|provincial mottos]] are also in Latin. The [[Victoria Cross (Canada)|Canadian Victoria Cross]] is modelled after the British [[Victoria Cross]] which has the inscription "For Valour". Because Canada is officially bilingual, the Canadian medal has replaced the English inscription with the Latin {{lang|la|Pro Valore}}.

Spain's motto {{lang|la|[[Plus ultra]]}} 'even further', or figuratively "Further!", is also Latin in origin.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.lamoncloa.gob.es/espana/simbolosdelestado/Paginas/index.aspx |title=La Moncloa. Símbolos del Estado |website=www.lamoncloa.gob.es |language=es |access-date=2019-09-30}}</ref> It is taken from the personal motto of [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor|Charles V]], Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain (as Charles I), and is a reversal of the original phrase {{lang|la|Non terrae plus ultra}} ("No land further beyond", "No further!"). According to legend, this phrase was inscribed as a warning on the [[Pillars of Hercules]], the rocks on both sides of the [[Strait of Gibraltar]] and the western end of the known, Mediterranean world. Charles adopted the motto following the discovery of the New World by Columbus, and it also has metaphorical suggestions of taking risks and striving for excellence.

In the United States the unofficial national motto until 1956 was {{lang|la|[[E pluribus unum]]}} meaning "Out of many, one". The motto continues to be featured on the [[Great Seal of the United States|Great Seal]]. It also appears on the flags and seals of both houses of congress and the flags of the states of Michigan, North Dakota, New York, and Wisconsin. The motto's 13 letters symbolically represent the original Thirteen Colonies which revolted from the British Crown. The motto is featured on all presently minted coinage and has been featured in most coinage throughout the nation's history.

Several states of the United States [[list of U.S. state and territory mottos|have Latin mottos]], such as:
* [[Arizona]]'s {{lang|la|Ditat deus}} ("God enriches");
* [[Connecticut]]'s {{lang|la|Qui transtulit sustinet}} ("He who transplanted sustains");
* [[Kansas]]'s {{lang|la|[[Per aspera ad astra|Ad astra per aspera]]}} ("Through hardships, to the stars");
* [[Colorado]]'s {{lang|la|Nil sine numine}} ("Nothing without providence");
* [[Idaho]]'s {{lang|la|[[Esto perpetua]]}} ("Let it be perpetual");
* [[Michigan]]'s {{lang|la|Si quaeris peninsulam amoenam, circumspice}} ("If you seek a pleasant peninsula, look about you"), is based on that of Sir [[Christopher Wren]], in [[St. Paul's Cathedral]];
* [[Missouri]]'s {{lang|la|[[Salus populi suprema lex esto]]}} ("The health of the people should be the highest law");
* [[New York (state)|New York]]'s {{lang|la|[[Coat of arms of New York|Excelsior]]}} ("Ever upward");
* [[North Carolina]]'s {{lang|la|[[Esse Quam Videri]]}} ("To be rather than to seem");
* [[South Carolina]]'s {{lang|la|[[Dum spiro spero]]}} ("While I breathe, I hope");
* [[Virginia]]'s {{lang|la|[[Sic semper tyrannis]]}} ("Thus always to [[tyrant]]s"); and
* [[West Virginia]]'s {{lang|la|[[Montani Semper Liberi]]}} ("Mountaineers [are] always free").

Many military organizations today have Latin mottos, such as:
* {{lang|la|[[Semper Paratus]]}} ("always ready"), the motto of the [[United States Coast Guard]];
* {{lang|la|[[Semper Fidelis]]}} ("always faithful"), the motto of the [[United States Marine Corps]];
* [[Semper supra|''Semper Supra'']] ("always above"), the motto of the [[United States Space Force]];
* {{lang|la|[[Per ardua ad astra]]}} ("Through adversity/struggle to the stars"), the motto of the [[Royal Air Force]] (RAF); and
* {{lang|la|Vigilamus pro te}} ("We stand on guard for thee"), the motto of the [[Canadian Armed Forces]].

Some law governing bodies in the Philippines have Latin mottos, such as:
* {{lang|la|Justitiae Pax Opus}} ("The work of Justice is Peace"), the motto of the [[Department of Justice (Philippines)]];

Some colleges and universities have adopted Latin mottos, for example [[Harvard University]]'s motto is {{lang|la|[[Veritas]]}} ("truth"). Veritas was the goddess of truth, a daughter of Saturn, and the mother of Virtue.

==== Other modern uses ====
Switzerland has adopted the country's Latin short name {{lang|la|[[Helvetia]]}} on coins and stamps, since there is no room to use all of the nation's [[Languages of Switzerland|four official languages]]. For a similar reason, it adopted the international vehicle and internet code ''CH'', which stands for {{lang|la|Confoederatio Helvetica}}, the country's full Latin name.

Some film and television in ancient settings, such as ''[[Sebastiane]]'', ''[[The Passion of the Christ]]'' and ''[[Barbarians (2020 TV series)]]'', have been made with dialogue in Latin. Occasionally, Latin dialogue is used because of its association with religion or philosophy, in such film/television series as ''[[The Exorcist (film)|The Exorcist]]'' and ''[[Lost (2004 TV series)|Lost]]'' ("[[Jughead (Lost)|Jughead]]"). Subtitles are usually shown for the benefit of those who do not understand Latin. There are also [[list of songs with Latin lyrics|songs written with Latin lyrics]]. The libretto for the opera-oratorio {{lang|la|[[Oedipus rex (opera)|Oedipus rex]]}} by [[Igor Stravinsky]] is in Latin.

The continued instruction of Latin is seen by some as a highly valuable component of a liberal arts education. Latin is taught at many high schools, especially in Europe and the Americas. It is most common in British [[public school (United Kingdom)|public schools]] and grammar schools, the Italian {{lang|it|[[liceo classico]]}} and {{lang|it|[[liceo scientifico]]}}, the German {{lang|de|Humanistisches [[Gymnasium (Germany)|Gymnasium]]}} and the Dutch {{lang|nl|[[gymnasium (school)|gymnasium]]}}.

[[File:QDP Ep 84 - De Ludo "Mysterium".webm|thumb|QDP Ep 84 – De Ludo "Mysterium": A Latin-language podcast]]
Occasionally, some media outlets, targeting enthusiasts, broadcast in Latin. Notable examples include [[Radio Bremen]] in Germany, [[YLE]] radio in Finland (the [[Nuntii Latini]] broadcast from 1989 until it was shut down in June 2019),<ref name=RTE2019-06-24a>{{cite news |url=https://www.rte.ie/news/world/2019/0624/1057298-latin/ |title=Finnish broadcaster ends Latin news bulletins |publisher=[[RTÉ News]] |date=24 June 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190625001655/https://www.rte.ie/news/world/2019/0624/1057298-latin/ |archive-date=25 June 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref> and Vatican Radio & Television, all of which broadcast news segments and other material in Latin.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.radiobremen.de/nachrichten/latein/ |title=Latein: Nuntii Latini mensis lunii 2010: Lateinischer Monats rückblick |publisher=Radio Bremen |language=la |access-date=16 July 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100618130408/https://www.radiobremen.de/nachrichten/latein/ |archive-date=18 June 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/6079852.stm |title=Finland makes Latin the King |last=Dymond |first=Jonny |date=24 October 2006 |work=[[BBC Online]] |access-date=29 January 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110103171037/https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/6079852.stm |archive-date=3 January 2011 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.yle.fi/radio1/tiede/nuntii_latini/ |title=Nuntii Latini |publisher=YLE Radio 1 |language=la |access-date=17 July 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100718065851/https://www.yle.fi/radio1/tiede/nuntii_latini/ |archive-date=18 July 2010 |url-status=live}}</ref>

A variety of organisations, as well as informal Latin {{lang|la|circuli}} 'circles', have been founded in more recent times to support the use of spoken Latin.<ref>{{Cite web |date=13 September 2015 |title=About us |url=https://www.circuluslatinuslondiniensis.co.uk/in-english/ |access-date=2021-06-29 |website=Circulus Latínus Londiniénsis |language=la |archive-date=10 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230210114430/https://www.circuluslatinuslondiniensis.co.uk/in-english/ |url-status=usurped}}</ref> Moreover, a number of university classics departments have begun incorporating communicative pedagogies in their Latin courses. These include the University of Kentucky, the University of Oxford and also Princeton University.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Active Latin at Jesus College |publisher=Oxford Latinitas Project |url=https://oxfordlatinitas.org/2020/12/01/active-latin-at-jesus-college/ |access-date=2021-06-29}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Institute for Latin Studies  |url=https://mcl.as.uky.edu/latin-institute |access-date=2021-06-29 |website=mcl.as.uky.edu}}</ref>

There are many websites and forums maintained in Latin by enthusiasts. The [[Latin Wikipedia]] has more than 140,000 articles.

== Legacy ==
[[Italian language|Italian]], [[French language|French]], [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]], [[Spanish language|Spanish]], [[Romanian language|Romanian]], [[Catalan language|Catalan]], [[Romansh language|Romansh]], [[Sardinian language|Sardinian]] and other [[Romance languages]] are direct descendants of Latin. There are also many Latin [[loanword]]s in English and [[Albanian language|Albanian]],<ref name="Sawicka">[[Irena Natalia Sawicka|Sawicka, Irena]]. [https://ispan.waw.pl/journals/index.php/ch/article/view/ch.2013.006/117 "A Crossroad Between West, East and Orient–The Case of Albanian Culture."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210927124146/https://ispan.waw.pl/journals/index.php/ch/article/view/ch.2013.006/117|date=27 September 2021}} Colloquia Humanistica. No. 2. Instytut Slawistyki Polskiej Akademii Nauk, 2013. Page 97: "Even according to Albanian linguists, Albanian vocabulary is composed in 60 percent of Latin words from different periods... When albanological studies were just emerging, it happened that Albanian was classified as a Romance language. Already there exists the idea of a common origin of both Albanian and Rumanian languages. The Rumanian grammar is almost identical to that of Albanian, but it may be as well the effect of later convergence within the Balkan Sprachbund.."</ref> as well as a few in [[German language|German]], [[Dutch language|Dutch]], [[Norwegian language|Norwegian]], [[Danish language|Danish]] and [[Swedish language|Swedish]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.ezglot.com/etymologies.php?l2=lat |title=List of words of Latin origin}}</ref> Latin is still spoken in Vatican City, a city-state situated in Rome that is the seat of the [[Catholic Church]].

=== Literature ===
[[File:Commentarii de Bello Gallico.jpg|thumb|upright=1.36|[[Julius Caesar]]'s {{lang|la|[[Commentarii de Bello Gallico]]}} is one of the most famous classical Latin texts of the Golden Age of Latin. The unvarnished, journalistic style of this [[patrician (ancient Rome)|patrician]] general has long been taught as a model of the urbane Latin officially spoken and written in the [[floruit]] of the [[Roman Republic]].]]
The works of several hundred ancient authors who wrote in Latin have survived in whole or in part, in substantial works or in fragments to be analyzed in [[philology]]. They are in part the subject matter of the field of [[classics]]. Their works were published in manuscript form before the invention of printing and are now published in carefully annotated printed editions, such as the [[Loeb Classical Library]], published by [[Harvard University Press]], or the [[Oxford Classical Texts]], published by [[Oxford University Press]].{{Citation needed|date=February 2025}}

[[Latin translations of modern literature]] such as: ''[[The Hobbit]]'', ''[[Treasure Island]]'', ''[[Robinson Crusoe]]'', ''[[Paddington Bear]]'', ''[[Winnie the Pooh]]'', ''[[The Adventures of Tintin]]'', ''[[Asterix]]'', ''[[Harry Potter]]'', {{lang|fr|[[The Little Prince|Le Petit Prince]]}}, ''[[Max and Moritz]]'', ''[[How the Grinch Stole Christmas!]]'', ''[[The Cat in the Hat]]'', and a book of fairy tales, {{lang|la|fabulae mirabiles}}, are intended to garner popular interest in the language. Additional resources include phrasebooks and resources for rendering everyday phrases and concepts into Latin, such as [[Meissner's Latin Phrasebook]].{{Citation needed|date=February 2025}}

=== Inscriptions ===
Some inscriptions have been published in an internationally agreed, monumental, multivolume series, the {{lang|la|[[Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum]]}} (CIL). Authors and publishers vary, but the format is about the same: volumes detailing inscriptions with a critical apparatus stating the [[provenance]] and relevant information. The reading and interpretation of these inscriptions is the subject matter of the field of [[epigraphy]]. About 270,000 inscriptions are known.

=== Influence on present-day languages ===
The [[Latin influence in English]] has been significant at all stages of its insular development. In the [[Middle Ages]], borrowing from Latin occurred from ecclesiastical usage established by Saint [[Augustine of Canterbury]] in the 6th century or indirectly after the [[Norman Conquest]], through the [[Anglo-Norman language]]. From the 16th to the 18th centuries, English writers cobbled together huge numbers of new words from Latin and Greek words, dubbed "[[inkhorn term]]s", as if they had spilled from a pot of ink. Many of these words were used once by the author and then forgotten, but some useful ones survived, such as ''imbibe'' and ''extrapolate''. Many of the most common [[polysyllabic]] English words are of Latin origin through the medium of [[Old French]]. Romance words make respectively 59%, 20% and 14% of English, German and Dutch vocabularies.<ref>{{cite book |last=Finkenstaedt |first=Thomas |author2=Dieter Wolff |title=Ordered Profusion; studies in dictionaries and the English lexicon |publisher=C. Winter |year=1973 |isbn=978-3-533-02253-4}}</ref><ref>Uwe Pörksen, German Academy for Language and Literature's Jahrbuch [Yearbook] 2007 (Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen 2008, pp. 121–130)</ref><ref name="Walter">{{cite book |url=https://pure.knaw.nl/ws/files/475024/Van_der_Sijs_Loanwords_in_the_World's_Languages.pdf |title=Loanwords in the World's Languages: A Comparative Handbook |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=HnKeVbwTwyYC&pg=PA370 370] |publisher=Walter de Gruyter |year=2009 |access-date=9 February 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170326062334/https://pure.knaw.nl/ws/files/475024/Van_der_Sijs_Loanwords_in_the_World%27s_Languages.pdf |archive-date=26 March 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref> Those figures can rise dramatically when only non-compound and non-derived words are included.
[[File:Romance 20c en (cropped).png|thumb|Range of the Romance languages, the modern descendants of Latin, in Europe]]
The influence of Roman governance and [[Roman technology]] on the less-developed nations under Roman dominion led to the adoption of Latin phraseology in some specialized areas, such as science, technology, medicine, and law. For example, [[Linnaean taxonomy|the Linnaean system]] of plant and animal classification was heavily influenced by ''[[Natural History (Pliny)|Historia Naturalis]]'', an encyclopedia of people, places, plants, animals, and things published by [[Pliny the Elder]]. Roman medicine, recorded in the works of such physicians as [[Galen]], established that today's [[medical terminology]] would be primarily derived from Latin and Greek words, the Greek being filtered through the Latin. Roman engineering had the same effect on [[scientific terminology]] as a whole. Latin law principles have survived partly in a long [[list of Latin legal terms]].

The [[Logudorese]] dialect of the [[Sardinian language]] and [[Italian language|Standard Italian]] are the two closest contemporary languages to Latin.<ref>{{cite book |title=Story of Language |last=Pei |first=Mario |author-link=Mario Pei |page=28 |year=1949 |publisher=Lippincott |isbn=978-0-397-00400-3}}</ref>

=== Education ===
[[File:Latin dictionary.jpg|thumb|A multivolume Latin dictionary in the [[University of Graz Library]] in Austria]]

Throughout European history, an education in the classics was considered crucial for those who wished to join literate circles. This also was true in the United States where many of the nation's founders obtained a classically based education in grammar schools or from tutors.<ref>Of the eighty-nine men who signed the Declaration of Independence and attended the Constitutional Convention, thirty-six went to a Colonial college, all of which offered only the classical curriculum. Richard M. Gummere, The American Colonial Mind and the Classical Tradition, p.66 (1963).</ref> Admission to Harvard in the Colonial era required that the applicant "Can readily make and speak or write true Latin prose and has skill in making verse"<ref>Meyer Reinhold, Classica Americana: The Greek and Roman Heritage in the United States, p.27 (1984). Harvard's curriculum was patterned after those of Oxford and Cambridge, and the curricula of other Colonial colleges followed Harvard's. Lawrence A. Cremin, American Education: The Colonial Experience, 1607–1783, pp. 128–129 (1970), and Frederick Rudolph, Curriculum: A History of the American Undergraduate Course of Study Since 1636, pp.31–32 (1978).</ref> Latin Study and the classics were emphasized in American secondary schools and colleges well into the Antebellum era.<ref>Id. at 104.</ref>

[[Instruction in Latin]] is an essential aspect. In today's world, a large number of Latin students in the United States learn from ''Wheelock's Latin: The Classic Introductory Latin Course, Based on Ancient Authors''. This book, first published in 1956,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.wheelockslatin.com/ |title=The Official Wheelock's Latin Series Website |first=Richard A. |last=LaFleur |year=2011 |publisher=The Official Wheelock's Latin Series Website |access-date=17 February 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110208122304/https://www.wheelockslatin.com/ |archive-date=8 February 2011 |url-status=live}}</ref> was written by [[Frederic M. Wheelock]]. ''Wheelock's Latin'' has become the standard text for many American introductory Latin courses.

The numbers of people studying Latin varies significantly by country. In the United Kingdom, Latin is available in around 2.3% of state primary schools, representing a significant increase in availability.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Woolcock |first1=Nicola |title=Latin is now fourth most-taught language in primary schools |url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/education/article/latin-language-lessons-uk-primary-schools-2023-wrqrtfj0s |access-date=20 August 2023 |work=[[The Times]] |date=29 June 2023}}</ref> In Germany, over 500,000 students study Latin each year, representing a decrease from over 800,000 in 2008. Latin is still required for some University courses, but this has become less frequent.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Breitenbach |first1=Dagmar |title=Why Latin should not become extinct in school |url=https://www.dw.com/en/why-latin-should-not-become-extinct-in-school/a-66373904 |access-date=20 August 2023 |publisher=Deutsche Welle |date=27 July 2023}}</ref>

The [[Living Latin]] movement attempts to teach Latin in the same way that living languages are taught, as a means of both spoken and written communication. It is available in Vatican City and at some institutions in the US, such as the [[University of Kentucky]] and [[Iowa State University]]. The British [[Cambridge University Press]] is a major supplier of Latin textbooks for all levels, such as the [[Cambridge Latin Course]] series. It has also published a subseries of children's texts in Latin by Bell & Forte, which recounts the adventures of a mouse called [[Minimus]].

In the United Kingdom, the [[Classical Association]] encourages the study of antiquity through various means, such as publications and grants. The [[University of Cambridge]],<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.cambridgescp.com/ |title=Latin Course |website=Cambridgescp.com |access-date=2014-04-23 |publisher=University of Cambridge School Classics Project }}</ref> the [[Open University]],<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www3.open.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/course/a297.htm |title=Open University Undergraduate Course – Reading classical Latin |publisher=.open.ac.uk |access-date=2014-04-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140427094907/https://www3.open.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/course/A297.htm |archive-date=27 April 2014 |url-status=live}}</ref> a number of independent schools, for example [[Eton College|Eton]], [[Harrow School|Harrow]], [[Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School]], [[Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood|Merchant Taylors' School]], and [[Rugby School|Rugby]], and The Latin Programme/Via Facilis,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.thelatinprogramme.co.uk/ |title=The Latin Programme |publisher=Thelatinprogramme.co.uk |access-date=2014-04-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140429163517/https://www.thelatinprogramme.co.uk/ |archive-date=29 April 2014 |url-status=live}}</ref> a London-based charity, run Latin courses. In the United States and in Canada, the [[American Classical League]] supports every effort to further the study of classics. Its subsidiaries include the [[National Junior Classical League]] (with more than 50,000 members), which encourages high school students to pursue the study of Latin, and the [[National Senior Classical League]], which encourages students to continue their study of the classics into college. The league also sponsors the [[National Latin Exam]]. Classicist [[Mary Beard (classicist)|Mary Beard]] wrote in ''[[The Times Literary Supplement]]'' in 2006 that the reason for learning Latin is because of what was written in it.<ref name="timesonline train the brain">{{cite web |url=https://timesonline.typepad.com/dons_life/2006/07/does_latin_trai.html |title=Does Latin "train the brain"? |work=[[The Times Literary Supplement]] |date=10 July 2006 |author=Beard, Mary |quote=No, you learn Latin because of what was written in it – and because of the sexual side of life direct access that Latin gives you to a literary tradition that lies at the very heart (not just at the root) of Western culture. |author-link=Mary Beard (classicist) |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120114185439/https://timesonline.typepad.com/dons_life/2006/07/does_latin_trai.html |archive-date=14 January 2012}}</ref>

=== Official status ===
Latin was or is the official language of several European states. It had official status in the [[Kingdom of Hungary]] from the 11th to mid-19th centuries, when [[Hungarian language|Hungarian]] became the exclusive official language in 1844.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Zemplényi |first=Lili |date=13 November 2023 |title=The Day of the Hungarian Language |url=https://www.hungarianconservative.com/articles/culture_society/the-day-of-the-hungarian-language/ |magazine=Hungarian Conservative |location=Budapest |access-date=7 November 2023}}</ref> The best known Latin language poet of Hungarian origin was [[Janus Pannonius]].
* {{flag|Croatia}} – Latin was the official language of [[Croatian Parliament]] from the 13th to the 19th century (1847).<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--not stated--> |date=23 November 2021 |title=Croatian declared official language 174 years ago |url=https://www.croatiaweek.com/croatian-declared-official-language-174-years-ago/ |work=Croatia Week |location= |access-date=18 November 2023}}</ref> The oldest preserved records of the parliamentary sessions ({{lang|la|Congregatio Regni totius Sclavonie generalis}}){{snd}}held in Zagreb ({{lang|la|Zagabria}}), Croatia{{snd}}date from 19 April 1273. An extensive [[Croatian Latin literature]] exists. Latin was used on Croatian coins on even years until 1 January 2023, when Croatia adopted the Euro as its official currency.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.hnb.hr/en/currency/coins |title=Coins |date=30 September 2016 |website=[[Croatian National Bank]] |access-date=15 November 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171116041640/https://www.hnb.hr/en/currency/coins |archive-date=16 November 2017 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

In the [[Kingdom of Poland]] Latin was officially recognised and widely used<ref>Who only knows Latin can go across the whole Poland from one side to the other one just like he was at his own home, just like he was born there. So great happiness! I wish a traveler in England could travel without knowing any other language than Latin!, Daniel Defoe, 1728</ref><ref>Anatol Lieven, The Baltic Revolution: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and the Path to Independence, Yale University Press, 1994, {{ISBN|0-300-06078-5}}, Google Print, p.48</ref><ref>Kevin O'Connor, Culture And Customs of the Baltic States, Greenwood, 2006, {{ISBN|0-313-33125-1}}, Google Print, p.115</ref><ref name="Friedrich">Karin Friedrich et al., ''The Other Prussia: Royal Prussia, Poland and Liberty, 1569–1772'', Cambridge University Press, 2000, {{ISBN|0-521-58335-7}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=qsBco40rMPcC&dq=Latin+language+szlachta&pg=PA88 Google Print, p.88] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150915150106/https://books.google.com/books?id=qsBco40rMPcC&pg=PA88&dq=Latin+language+szlachta&as_brr=3&ei=J44rR5_XFZXC7AK4xeGVBQ&sig=3ecP0DjPuCLnTaEdVI76Ck8xSE8 |date=15 September 2015 }}</ref> between the 10th and 18th centuries, commonly used in foreign relations and popular as a second language among some of the [[szlachta|nobility]].<ref name="Friedrich" />

== Phonology ==
{{Main|Latin phonology and orthography}}
[[File:Pronunciation of Latin (Text).ogg|thumb|Audio of a person with a German accent reading in Latin]]
[[File:Ave Maria in Latin language.ogg|thumb|[[Ave Maria]] read in Ecclesiastical Latin]]

The ancient pronunciation of Latin has been reconstructed; among the data used for reconstruction are explicit statements about pronunciation by ancient authors, misspellings, puns, ancient etymologies, the spelling of Latin loanwords in other languages, and the historical development of Romance languages.<ref>{{harvnb|Allen|1978|pp=viii–ix}}</ref>

=== Consonants ===
The consonant [[phoneme]]s of Classical Latin are as follows:<ref>{{cite book |first=Andrew L. |last=Sihler |title=New Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IeHmqKY2BqoC |year=1995 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-508345-3 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161109231225/https://books.google.com/books?id=IeHmqKY2BqoC |archive-date=9 November 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref>

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
! colspan="2" rowspan="2" |
! rowspan="2" | [[Labial consonant|Labial]]
! rowspan="2" | [[Dental consonant|Dental]]
! rowspan="2" | [[Palatal consonant|Palatal]]
! colspan="2" | [[Velar consonant|Velar]]
! rowspan="2" | [[Glottal consonant|Glottal]]
|-
! plain
! [[Labialisation|labial]]
|-
! rowspan="2" | [[Plosive consonant|Plosive]]
! <small>[[voice (phonetics)|voiced]]</small>
| {{IPA link|b}}
| {{IPA link|d}}
|
| {{IPA link|ɡ}}
| {{IPA link|ɡʷ}}
|
|-
! <small>[[voicelessness|voiceless]]</small>
| {{IPA link|p}}
| {{IPA link|t}}
|
| {{IPA link|k}}
| {{IPA link|kʷ}}
|
|-
! rowspan="2" | [[Fricative consonant|Fricative]]
! <small>[[voice (phonetics)|voiced]]</small>
|
| ({{IPA link|z}})
|
|
|
|
|-
! <small>[[voicelessness|voiceless]]</small>
| {{IPA link|f}}
| {{IPA link|s}}
|
|
|
| {{IPA link|h}}
|-
! colspan="2" | [[Nasal consonant|Nasal]]
| {{IPA link|m}}
| {{IPA link|n}}
|
| ({{IPA link|ŋ}})
|
|
|-
! colspan="2" | [[Rhotic consonant|Rhotic]]
|
| {{IPA link|r}}
|
|
|
|
|-
! colspan="2" | [[Approximant consonant|Approximant]]
|
| {{IPA link|l}}
| {{IPA link|j}}
|
| {{IPA link|w}}
|
|}

{{IPA|/z/}} was not native to Classical Latin. It appeared in Greek loanwords starting {{circa|the 1st century&nbsp;BC|lk=no}}, when it was probably pronounced (at least by educated speakers) {{IPA|[z]}} initially and [[Gemination|doubled]] {{IPA|[zz]}} between vowels, in accordance with its pronunciation in [[Koine Greek]]. In Classical Latin poetry, the letter {{angbr|{{sqc|z}}}} between vowels always counts as two consonants for metrical purposes.<ref>{{Harvnb|Levy|1973|p=150}}</ref><ref name="Allen Z">{{Harvnb|Allen|1978|pp=45, 46}}</ref> The consonant ⟨b⟩ usually sounds as [b]; however, when ⟨t⟩ or ⟨s⟩ follows ⟨b⟩ then it is pronounced as in [pt] or [ps]. In Latin, ⟨q⟩ is always followed by the [[vowel]] ⟨u⟩. Together they make a [kʷ] sound.<ref name="Wheelock 7th ed.">{{Cite book |last=Wheelock |first=Frederic M. |title=Wheelock's Latin |others=LaFleur, Richard A. |date=7 June 2011 |isbn=978-0-06-199721-1 |edition=7th |location=New York |publisher=HarperCollins}}</ref>

In Old and Classical Latin, the Latin alphabet had no distinction between [[letter case|uppercase and lowercase]], and the letters {{angbr|J U W}} did not exist. In place of {{angbr|J U}}, {{angbr|I V}} were used, respectively; {{angbr|I V}} represented both vowels and consonants. Most of the letter forms were similar to modern uppercase, as can be seen in the inscription from the Colosseum shown at the top of the article.

The spelling systems used in Latin dictionaries and modern editions of Latin texts, however, normally use {{angbr|j u}} in place of Classical-era {{angbr|i v}}. Some systems use {{angbr|j v}} for the consonant sounds {{IPA|/j w/}} except in the combinations {{angbr|gu su qu}} for which {{angbr|v}} is never used.

Some notes concerning the mapping of Latin phonemes to English graphemes are given below:

{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders"
|+ Notes
! scope="col" | Latin<br />grapheme !!  scope="col" | Latin<br />phoneme !! scope="col" | English examples
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | {{angbr|c}}, {{angbr|k}}
! style="text-align:center;font-weight:normal" | {{IPAblink|k}}
| Always as ''k'' in ''sky'' ({{IPA|/skaɪ/}})
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | {{angbr|t}}
! style="text-align:center;font-weight:normal" | {{IPAblink|t}}
| As ''t'' in ''stay'' ({{IPA|/steɪ/}})
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | {{angbr|s}}
! style="text-align:center;font-weight:normal" | {{IPAblink|s}}
| As ''s'' in ''say'' ({{IPA|/seɪ/}})
|-
! scope="rowgroup" style="text-align:center" rowspan="2" | {{angbr|g}}
! scope="row" style="text-align:center;font-weight:normal" | {{IPAblink|ɡ}}
| Always as ''g'' in ''good'' ({{IPA|/ɡʊd/}})
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center;font-weight:normal" | {{IPAblink|ŋ}}
| Before {{angbr|n}}, as ''ng'' in ''sing'' ({{IPA|/sɪŋ/}})
|-
! scope="rowgroup" style="text-align:center" rowspan="2" | {{angbr|n}}
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | {{IPAblink|n}}
| As ''n'' in ''man'' ({{IPA|/mæn/}})
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | {{IPAblink|ŋ}}
| Before {{angbr|c}}, {{angbr|x}}, and {{angbr|g}}, as ''ng'' in ''sing'' ({{IPA|/sɪŋ/}})
|-
! scope="rowgroup" style="text-align:center" rowspan="2" | {{angbr|l}}
! style="text-align:center;font-weight:normal" | {{IPAblink|l}}
| When doubled {{angbr|ll}} and before {{angbr|i}}, as [[Voiced dental, alveolar and postalveolar lateral approximants|"light L"]], {{IPAblink|l̥}} in ''link'' ({{IPA|[l̥ɪnk]}}) ({{lang|la|l exilis}})<ref>{{harvnb|Sihler|2008|p=174}}.</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Allen|1978|pp=33–34}}</ref>
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | {{IPAblink|ɫ}}
| In all other positions, as [[Voiced dental, alveolar and postalveolar lateral approximants|"dark L"]], {{IPAblink|ɫ}} in ''bowl'' ({{IPA|[boʊɫ]}}) ({{lang|la|l pinguis}})
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | {{angbr|qu}}
! style="text-align:center;font-weight:normal" | {{IPAblink|kʷ}}
| Similar to ''qu'' in ''squint'' ({{IPA|/skwɪnt/}})
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | {{angbr|u}}
! style="text-align:center;font-weight:normal" | {{IPAblink|w}}
| Sometimes at the beginning of a syllable, or after {{angbr|g}} and {{angbr|s}}, as {{IPAslink|w}} in ''wine'' ({{IPA|/waɪn/}})
|-
! scope="rowgroup" style="text-align:center" rowspan="2" | {{angbr|i}}
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | {{IPAblink|j}}
| Sometimes at the beginning of a syllable, as ''y'' ({{IPAslink|j}}) in ''yard'' ({{IPA|/jɑɹd/}})
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | {{IPA|[ij]}}
| "y" ({{IPAslink|j}}), in between vowels, becomes "i-y", being pronounced as parts of two separate syllables, as in {{lang|la|capiō}} ({{IPA|/kapiˈjo:/}})
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | {{angbr|x}}
! style="text-align:center;font-weight:normal" | {{IPA|[ks]}}
| A letter representing {{angbr|c}} + {{angbr|s}}: as ''x'' in English ''axe'' ({{IPA|/æks/}})
|}

In Classical Latin, as in modern Italian, double consonant letters were pronounced as [[Gemination|long]] consonant sounds distinct from short versions of the same consonants. Thus the ''nn'' in Classical Latin {{lang|la|annus}} 'year' (and in Italian {{lang|it|anno}}) is pronounced as a doubled {{IPA|/nn/}} as in English ''unnamed''. (In English, distinctive consonant length or doubling occurs only at the boundary between two words or [[morpheme]]s, as in that example.)

=== Vowels ===

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
|+ Simple vowels<ref>{{Cite web |last=Calabrese |first=Andrea |date=2005 |title=On the Feature [ATR] and the Evolution of the Short High Vowels of Latin into Romance, in A View from Arjona. University of Connecticut Working Papers in Linguistics |url=http://homepages.uconn.edu/~anc02008/Papers/On%20the%20evolution%20of%20short%20high%20vowels%20of%20Latin%20into%20Romance.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121113002933/http://homepages.uconn.edu/~anc02008/Papers/On%20the%20evolution%20of%20short%20high%20vowels%20of%20Latin%20into%20Romance.pdf |archive-date=13 November 2012 |website=University of Connecticut |access-date=1 September 2024 }}</ref><ref>Andrea, figure 18</ref>
! !! scope="col" | Front !! scope="col" | Central !! scope="col" | Back
|-
! scope="row" | Close
| {{IPA link|i}} {{IPA link|iː}} || || {{IPA link|u}} {{IPA link|uː}}
|-
! scope="row" | Mid
| {{IPA link|ɛ}} {{IPA link|ɛː}}|| || {{IPA link|ɔ}} {{IPA link|ɔː}}
|-
! scope="row" | Open
| || {{IPA link|a}} {{IPA link|aː}} ||
|}

In Classical Latin, {{angbr|U}} did not exist as a letter distinct from {{angbr|V}}; the written form {{angbr|V}} was used to represent both a vowel and a consonant. {{angbr|Y}} was adopted to represent [[upsilon]] in loanwords from [[Greek language|Greek]], but it was pronounced like {{angbr|u}} and {{angbr|i}} by some speakers. It was also used in native Latin words by confusion with Greek words of similar meaning, such as {{lang|la|sylva}} and {{lang|grc|ὕλη}} {{tlit|grc|hū́lē}}.

Classical Latin distinguished between [[vowel length|long and short vowels]]. Then, long vowels, except for {{angbr|i}}, were frequently marked using the [[apex (diacritic)|apex]], which was sometimes similar to an [[acute accent]] {{angbr|Á É Ó V́ Ý}}. Long {{IPA|/iː/}} was written using a taller version of {{angbr|I}}, called {{lang|la|i longa}} '[[long I|long ''I'']]': {{angbr|ꟾ}}. In modern texts, long vowels are often indicated by a [[macron (diacritic)|macron]] {{angbr|ā ē ī ō ū}}, and short vowels are usually unmarked except when it is necessary to distinguish between words, when they are marked with a [[breve]] {{angbr|ă ĕ ĭ ŏ ŭ}}. However, they would also signify a long vowel by writing the vowel larger than other letters in a word or by repeating the vowel twice in a row.<ref name="Wheelock 7th ed." /> The acute accent, when it is used in modern Latin texts, indicates stress, as in Spanish, rather than length.

Although called long vowels, their exact quality in Classical Latin is different from short vowels. The difference is described in the table below:

{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders"
|+ Pronunciation of Latin vowels
! scope="col" | Grapheme
! scope="col" | Phone
! scope="col" | Modern examples
|-
! rowspan="2" scope="rowgroup" style="text-align:center" | {{angbr|a}}
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | {{IPA|[a]}}
| Similar to the ''a'' in ''part'' (/paɹt/)
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | {{IPA|[aː]}}
| Similar to the ''a'' in ''father'' (/fɑːðəɹ/)
|-
! rowspan="2" scope="rowgroup" style="text-align:center" | {{angbr|e}}
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | {{IPA|[ɛ]}}
| As ''e'' in ''pet'' (/pɛt/)
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | {{IPA|[ɛː]}}
| ɛ but longer
|-
! rowspan="2" scope="rowgroup" style="text-align:center" | {{angbr|i}}
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | {{IPA|[i]}}
| iː but shorter
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | {{IPA|[iː]}}
| Similar to ''i'' in ''machine'' (/məʃiːn/)
|-
! rowspan="2" scope="rowgroup" style="text-align:center" | {{angbr|o}}
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | {{IPA|[ɔ]}}
| As ''o'' in ''port'' (/pɔɹt/)
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | {{IPA|[ɔː]}}
| ɔ but longer
|-
! rowspan="2" scope="rowgroup" style="text-align:center" | {{angbr|u}}
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | {{IPA|[u]}}
| uː but shorter
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | {{IPA|[uː]}}
| Similar to ''ue'' in ''true'' (/tɹuː/)
|-
! rowspan="2" scope="rowgroup" style="text-align:center" | {{angbr|y}}
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | {{IPA|[ʏ]}}
| Does not exist in English, closest approximation is the ''u'' in ''mule''
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align:center" | {{IPA|[ʏː]}}
| ʏ but longer.
|}

This difference in quality is posited by [[W. Sidney Allen]] in his book ''Vox Latina''. However, [[Andrea Calabrese]] has disputed this assertion, based in part upon the observation that in Sardinian and some Lucanian dialects, each long and short vowel pair merged, as opposed to in Italo-Western languages in which short /i/ and /u/ merged with long {{IPA|/eː/}} and /o:/ ({{cf.}} Latin {{lang|la|siccus}}, Italian {{lang|it|secco}}, and Sardinian {{lang|sc|siccu}}).<ref>{{Cite web |last=Calabrese |first=Andrea |date=2003 |title=On the Evolution of Short High Vowels of Latin into Romance |url=http://homepages.uconn.edu/~anc02008/Papers/On%20the%20evolution%20of%20short%20high%20vowels%20of%20Latin%20into%20Romance.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121113002933/http://homepages.uconn.edu/~anc02008/Papers/On%20the%20evolution%20of%20short%20high%20vowels%20of%20Latin%20into%20Romance.pdf |archive-date=November 13, 2012 |access-date=September 1, 2024 |website=University of Connecticut}}</ref>

A vowel letter followed by {{angbr|m}} at the end of a word, or a vowel letter followed by {{angbr|n}} before {{angbr|s}} or {{angbr|f}}, represented a short [[nasal vowel]], as in {{lang|la|monstrum}} {{IPA|[mõːstrũ]}}.

==== Diphthongs ====
Classical Latin had several [[diphthong]]s. The two most common were {{angbr|ae au}}. The former is pronounced like the ''i'' in ''mine'', and the latter like the ''ow'' in ''power''. {{angbr|oe}} was fairly rare, and {{angbr|ui eu ei}} were very rare, at least in native Latin words.<ref name="classical diphthongs">{{Harvnb|Allen|1978|pp=60–63}}</ref> There has also been debate over whether {{angbr|ui}} is truly a diphthong in Classical Latin, due to its rarity, absence in works of Roman grammarians, and the roots of Classical Latin words (e.g. {{lang|la|hui ce}} to {{lang|la|huic}}, {{lang|la|quoi}} to {{lang|la|cui}}) not matching or being similar to the pronunciation of classical words if {{angbr|ui}} were to be considered a diphthong.<ref>{{cite journal |jstor=282713 |title=The Diphthong -ui in Latin |journal=Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association |volume=41 |pages=19–23 |last=Husband |first=Richard |date=1910 |doi=10.2307/282713 |issn=0065-9711}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref>

The sequences sometimes did not represent diphthongs. {{angbr|ae}} and {{angbr|oe}} also represented a sequence of two vowels in different syllables in {{lang|la|aēnus}} {{IPA|[aˈeː.nʊs]}} 'bronze' and {{lang|la|coēpit}} {{IPA|[kɔˈeː.pɪt]}} 'began', and {{angbr|au ui eu ei ou}} represented sequences of two vowels or of a vowel and one of the semivowels {{IPA|/j w/}}, in {{lang|la|cavē}} {{IPA|[ˈka.weː]}} 'beware!', {{lang|la|cuius}} {{IPA|[ˈkʊj.jʊs]}} 'whose', {{lang|la|monuī}} {{IPA|[ˈmɔn.ʊ.iː]}} 'I warned', {{lang|la|solvī}} {{IPA|[ˈsɔɫ.wiː]}} 'I released', {{lang|la|dēlēvī}} {{IPA|[deːˈleː.wiː]}} 'I destroyed', {{lang|la|eius}} {{IPA|[ˈɛj.jʊs]}} 'his', and {{lang|la|novus}} {{IPA|[ˈnɔ.wʊs]}} 'new'.

Old Latin had more diphthongs, but most of them changed into long vowels in Classical Latin. The Old Latin diphthong {{angbr|ai}} and the sequence {{angbr|āī}} became Classical {{angbr|ae}}. Old Latin {{angbr|oi}} and {{angbr|ou}} changed to Classical {{angbr|ū}}, except in a few words whose {{angbr|oi}} became Classical {{angbr|oe}}. These two developments sometimes occurred in different words from the same root: for instance, Classical {{lang|la|poena}} "punishment" and {{lang|la|pūnīre}} "to punish".<ref name="classical diphthongs" /> Early Old Latin {{angbr|ei}} usually monophthongized to a later Old Latin {{angbr|ē}}, to Classical {{angbr|ī}}.<ref>{{Harvnb|Allen|1978|pp=53–55}}</ref>

By the late Roman Empire, {{angbr|ae oe}} had merged with {{angbr|e ē}}. During the Classical period this sound change was present in some rural dialects, but deliberately avoided by well-educated speakers.<ref name="classical diphthongs" />

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
|+ Diphthongs classified by beginning sound
! !! Front !! Back
|-
! Close
| || ui {{IPA|/ui̯/}}
|-
! Mid
| ei {{IPA|/ei̯/}}<br />eu {{IPA|/eu̯/}} || oe {{IPA|/oe̯/}}<br />ou {{IPA|/ou̯/}}
|-
! Open
| colspan="2" | ae {{IPA|/ae̯/}}<br />au {{IPA|/au̯/}}
|}

=== Syllables ===
[[Syllable]]s in Latin are signified by the presence of diphthongs and [[vowel]]s. The number of syllables is the same as the number of vowel sounds.<ref name="Wheelock 7th ed." />

Further, if a consonant separates two vowels, it will go into the syllable of the second vowel. When there are two consonants between vowels, the last consonant will go with the second vowel. An exception occurs when a [[Phonetic transcription|phonetic]] stop and liquid come together. In this situation, they are thought to be a single consonant, and as such, they will go into the syllable of the second vowel.<ref name="Wheelock 7th ed." />

==== Length ====
Syllables in Latin are considered either [[Syllable weight#Basic definitions|long or short]] (less often called "heavy" and "light" respectively). Within a word, a syllable may either be long by nature or long by position.<ref name="Wheelock 7th ed." /> A syllable is long by nature if it has a diphthong or a long vowel. On the other hand, a syllable is long by position if the vowel is followed by more than one consonant.<ref name="Wheelock 7th ed." />

==== Stress ====
There are two rules that define which syllable is [[Stress (linguistics)|stressed]] in Classical Latin.<ref name="Wheelock 7th ed." />

# In a word with only two syllables, the emphasis will be on the first syllable.
# In a word with more than two syllables, there are two cases.
#* If the second-to-last syllable is long, that syllable will have stress.
#* If the second-to-last syllable is not long, the syllable before that one will be stressed instead.<ref name="Wheelock 7th ed." />

== Orthography ==
{{Main|Latin alphabet}}
[[File:Duenos inscription.jpg|thumb|The [[Duenos Inscription]], from the 6th century&nbsp;BC, is one of the earliest known [[Old Latin]] texts. It was found on the [[Quirinal Hill]] in Rome.]]

Latin was written in the Latin alphabet ([[A]], [[B]], [[C]], [[D]], [[E]], [[F]], [[G]], [[H]], [[I]], [[K]], [[L]], [[M]], [[N]], [[O]], [[P]], [[Q]], [[R]], [[S]], [[T]], [[V]], [[X]]), derived from the [[Etruscan alphabet]], which was in turn drawn from the [[Greek alphabet]] and ultimately the [[Phoenician alphabet]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Diringer|1996|pp=451, 493, 530}}</ref> This alphabet has continued to be used over the centuries as the script for the Romance, Celtic, Germanic, Baltic, Finnic and many Slavic languages ([[Polish language|Polish]], [[Slovak language|Slovak]], [[Slovene language|Slovene]], [[Croatian language|Croatian]], [[Bosnian language|Bosnian]], [[Serbian language|Serbian]] and [[Czech language|Czech]]); and it has been adopted by many languages around the world, including [[Vietnamese language|Vietnamese]], the [[Austronesian languages]], many [[Turkic languages]], and most languages in [[sub-Saharan Africa]], the Americas and Oceania, making it by far the world's single most widely used writing system.

The number of letters in the Latin alphabet has varied. When it was first derived from the Etruscan alphabet, it contained only 21 letters.<ref>{{Harvnb|Diringer|1996|p=536}}</ref> Later, ''G'' was added to represent {{IPA|/ɡ/}}, which had previously been spelled ''C'', and ''Z'' ceased to be included in the alphabet, as the language then had no [[voiced alveolar fricative]].<ref name=D538>{{Harvnb|Diringer|1996|p=538}}</ref> The letters K, ''Y,'' and ''Z'' were later added to represent Greek letters [[kappa]], [[upsilon]], and [[zeta]] respectively, in Greek loanwords.<ref name=D538 />

''W'' was created in the 11th century from ''VV'' in some areas and ''UU'' in others. It represented {{IPA|/w/}} in Germanic languages, not Latin, which still uses ''V'' for the purpose. ''J'' was distinguished from the original ''I'' only during the late Middle Ages, as was the letter ''U'' from ''V''.<ref name=D538 /> Although some Latin dictionaries use ''J'', it is rarely used for Latin text, as it was not used in classical times, but many other languages use it.

=== Punctuation ===
Classical Latin did not contain sentence [[punctuation]], letter case,<ref>{{Harvnb|Diringer|1996|p=540}}</ref> or [[interword spacing]], but [[apex (diacritic)|apices]] were sometimes used to distinguish length in vowels and the [[interpunct]] was used at times to separate words.

The first line of [[Catullus 3]] ("Mourn, O [[Venus (mythology)|Venuses]] and [[Cupid]]s") was originally written as:

{| class="wikitable"
! simply
| {{sm|lv́géteóveneréscupidinésqve}}
|-
! with [[long I]]
| {{Smallcaps|lv́géteóveneréscupIdinésqve}}
|-
! with interpunct
| {{sm|lv́géte·ó·venerés·cupidinésqve}}
|}

It would be rendered in a modern edition as:

{| class="wikitable"
! simply
| {{lang|la|Lugete, o Veneres Cupidinesque}}
|-
! with macrons
| {{lang|la|Lūgēte, ō Venerēs Cupīdinēsque}}
|-
! with apices
| {{lang|la|Lúgéte, ó Venerés Cupídinésque}}
|}

[[File:Hocgracili.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|A modern Latin text written in the Old Roman Cursive inspired by the [[Vindolanda tablets]], the oldest surviving handwritten documents in Britain. The word {{lang|la|Romani}} 'Romans' is at bottom left.]]

The [[Roman cursive]] script is commonly found on the many [[wax tablet]]s excavated at sites such as forts, an especially extensive set having been discovered at Vindolanda on [[Hadrian's Wall]] in Britain. Most notable is the fact that while most of the [[Vindolanda tablets]] show spaces between words, spaces were avoided in monumental inscriptions from that era.

=== Alternative scripts ===
Occasionally, Latin has been written in other scripts:
* The [[Praeneste fibula]] is a 7th-century&nbsp;BC pin with an Old Latin inscription written using the Etruscan script.
* The rear panel of the early 8th-century [[Franks Casket]] has an inscription that switches from [[Old English]] in [[Anglo-Saxon runes]] to Latin in Latin script and to Latin in runes.

== Grammar ==
{{Main|Latin grammar|Latin syntax}}
[[File:Iohannesviditpuellam.jpg|thumb|alt=An educational diagram displaying the syntax of the Latin sentence {{lang|la|Iohannes vidit illam puellam}} with nodes representing ''John'', ''sees'', and ''girl,'' aiding in understanding language structure.|Syntactical structure of the Latin sentence {{lang|la|Iohannes vidit illam puellam}}, meaning 'John sees the girl']]
Latin is a [[synthetic language|synthetic]], [[fusional language]] in the terminology of linguistic typology. Words involve an objective semantic element and markers (usually suffixes) specifying the grammatical use of the word, expressing [[grammatical gender|gender]], [[grammatical number|number]], and [[grammatical case|case]] in [[adjective]]s, [[noun]]s, and [[pronoun]]s (''[[declension]]'') and verbs to denote [[grammatical person|person]], [[grammatical number|number]], [[grammatical tense|tense]], [[grammatical voice|voice]], [[grammatical mood|mood]], and [[grammatical aspect|aspect]] (''[[grammatical conjugation|conjugation]]''). Some words are uninflected and undergo neither process, such as adverbs, prepositions, and [[Latin_interjections|interjections]].

Latin inflection can result in words with much ambiguity: For example, {{lang|la|amābit}} 'he/she/it will love', is formed from {{lang|la|amā-}}, a future tense morpheme {{lang|la|-bi-}} and a third person singular morpheme, {{lang|la|-t}}, the last of which {{lang|la|-t}} does not express masculine, feminine, or neuter gender. A major task in understanding Latin phrases and clauses is to clarify such ambiguities by an analysis of context. [[Latin word order]] is relatively free because inflections disambiguate semantic connections, but different word orders can indicate different nuances of meaning.

=== Nouns ===
{{Main|Latin declension}}
A regular Latin noun belongs to one of five main declensions, a group of nouns with similar inflected forms. The declensions are identified by the genitive singular form of the noun.
* The first declension, with a predominant ending letter of ''a'', is signified by the genitive singular ending of ''-ae''.
* The second declension, with a predominant ending letter of ''us'', is signified by the genitive singular ending of ''-ī''.
* The third declension, with a predominant ending letter of ''i'', is signified by the genitive singular ending of ''-is''.
* The fourth declension, with a predominant ending letter of ''u'', is signified by the genitive singular ending of ''-ūs''.
* The fifth declension, with a predominant ending letter of ''e'', is signified by the genitive singular ending of ''-eī''.

There are seven Latin noun cases, which also apply to adjectives and pronouns and mark a noun's syntactic role in the sentence by means of inflections. Thus, [[Latin word order|word order in Latin]] is not as important as it is in English, which is less inflected. The general structure and word order of a Latin sentence can therefore vary. The cases are as follows:

# [[Nominative case|Nominative]] – used when the noun is the [[Subject (grammar)|subject]] or a [[predicate nominative]]. The thing or person acting: the girl ran: {{lang|la|puella cucurrit}}, or {{lang|la|cucurrit puella}}
# [[Genitive case|Genitive]] – used when the noun is the possessor of or connected with an object: "the horse of the man", or "the man's horse"; in both instances, the word ''man'' would be in the [[genitive case]] when it is translated into Latin. It also indicates the [[partitive]], in which the material is quantified: "a group of people"; "a number of gifts": ''people'' and ''gifts'' would be in the genitive case. Some nouns are genitive with special verbs and adjectives: The cup is full of wine. ({{lang|la|Pōculum plēnum vīnī est.}}) The master of the slave had beaten him. ({{lang|la|Dominus servī eum verberāverat.}})
# [[Dative case|Dative]] – used when the noun is the indirect object of the sentence, with special verbs, with certain prepositions, and if it is used as agent, reference, or even possessor: The merchant hands the [[stola]] to the woman. ({{lang|la|Mercātor fēminae stolam trādit.}})
# [[Accusative case|Accusative]] – used when the noun is the direct object of the subject, as the object of a preposition demonstrating place to which, and sometimes to indicate a duration of time: The man killed the boy. ({{lang|la|Vir puerum necāvit.}})
# [[Ablative case|Ablative]] – used when the noun demonstrates separation or movement from a source, cause, [[agent (grammar)|agent]] or [[instrumental case|instrument]] or when the noun is used as the object of certain prepositions, and to indicate a specific place in time.; adverbial: You walked with the boy. ({{lang|la|Cum puerō ambulāvistī.}})
# [[Vocative case|Vocative]] – used when the noun is used in a direct address. The vocative form of a noun is often the same as the nominative, with the exception of second-declension nouns ending in {{lang|la|-us}}. The {{lang|la|-us}} becomes an {{lang|la|-e}} in the vocative singular. If it ends in {{lang|la|-ius}} (such as {{lang|la|fīlius}}), the ending is just {{lang|la|-ī}} ({{lang|la|filī}}), as distinct from the nominative plural ({{lang|la|filiī}}) in the vocative singular: "Master!" shouted the slave. ({{lang|la|"Domine!" clāmāvit servus.}})
# [[Locative case|Locative]] – used to indicate a location (corresponding to the English ''in'' or ''at''. It is far less common than the other six cases of Latin nouns and usually applies to cities and small towns and islands along with a few common nouns, such as the words {{lang|la|domus}} 'house', {{lang|la|humus}} 'ground', and {{lang|la|rus}} 'country'. In the singular of the first and second declensions, its form coincides with the genitive ({{lang|la|Roma}} becomes {{lang|la|Romae}} 'in Rome'. In the plural of all declensions and the singular of the other declensions, it coincides with the ablative ({{lang|la|Athēnae}} becomes {{lang|la|Athēnīs}}, 'at Athens'. In the fourth-declension word {{lang|la|domus}}, the locative form, {{lang|la|domī}} 'at home' differs from the standard form of all other cases.

Latin lacks both definite and indefinite [[article (grammar)|articles]] so {{lang|la|puer currit}} can mean either 'the boy is running' or 'a boy is running'.

=== Adjectives ===
{{Main|Latin declension#Adjectives}}

There are two types of regular Latin adjectives: first- and second-declension and third-declension. They are so-called because their forms are similar or identical to first- and second-declension and third-declension nouns, respectively. Latin adjectives also have [[comparative and superlative]] forms. There are also a number of Latin [[participles]].

Latin numbers are sometimes declined as adjectives; see {{slink||Numbers}}.

<em>First- and second-declension adjectives</em> are declined like first-declension nouns for the feminine forms and like second-declension nouns for the masculine and neuter forms. For example, for {{lang|la|mortuus, mortua, mortuum}} 'dead', {{lang|la|mortua}} is declined like a regular first-declension noun (such as {{lang|la|puella}} 'girl', {{lang|la|mortuus}} is declined like a regular second-declension masculine noun (such as {{lang|la|dominus}} 'lord, master', and {{lang|la|mortuum}} is declined like a regular second-declension neuter noun (such as {{lang|la|auxilium}} 'help'.

<em>Third-declension adjectives</em> are mostly declined like normal third-declension nouns, with a few exceptions. In the plural nominative neuter, for example, the ending is ''-ia'' ({{lang|la|omnia}} 'all, everything', and for third-declension nouns, the plural nominative neuter ending is ''-a'' or ''-ia'' ({{lang|la|capita}} 'heads', {{lang|la|animalia}} 'animals'. They can have one, two or three forms for the masculine, feminine, and neuter nominative singular.

==== Participles ====
Latin participles, like English participles, are formed from a verb. There are a few main types of participles: Present Active Participles, Perfect Passive Participles, Future Active Participles, and Future Passive Participles.

=== Prepositions ===
Latin sometimes uses prepositions, depending on the type of prepositional phrase being used. Most prepositions are followed by a noun in either the accusative or ablative case: {{lang|la|apud puerum}} 'with the boy', with {{lang|la|puerum}} being the accusative form of {{lang|la|puer}} 'boy', and {{lang|la|sine puero}} 'without the boy'{{snd}}{{lang|la|puero}} being the ablative form. A few [[adposition]]s, however, govern a noun in the genitive, such as {{lang|la|gratia}} and {{lang|la|tenus}}.

=== Verbs ===
{{Main|Latin grammar|Latin conjugation}}

A regular verb in Latin belongs to one of four main [[Latin conjugation|conjugations]]. A conjugation is "a class of verbs with similar inflected forms".<ref>{{cite dictionary |title=Conjugation |dictionary=Webster's II new college dictionary |location=Boston |publisher=Houghton Mifflin |year=1999}}</ref> The conjugations are identified by the last letter of the verb's present stem. The present stem can be found by omitting the -{{lang|la|re}} (-{{lang|la|rī}} in deponent verbs) ending from the present infinitive form. The infinitive of the first conjugation ends in {{lang|la|-ā-re}} or {{lang|la|-ā-ri}} (active and passive respectively): {{lang|la|amāre}} 'to love', {{lang|la|hortārī}} 'to exhort'; of the second conjugation by {{lang|la|-ē-re}} or {{lang|la|-ē-rī}}: {{lang|la|monēre}} 'to warn', {{lang|la|verērī}} 'to fear', of the third conjugation by {{lang|la|-ere}}, {{lang|la|-ī}}: {{lang|la|dūcere}} 'to lead', {{lang|la|ūtī}} 'to use'; of the fourth by {{lang|la|-ī-re}}, {{lang|la|-ī-rī}}: {{lang|la|audīre}} 'to hear', {{lang|la|experīrī}} 'to attempt'.<ref name="Wheelock 2011">{{cite book |title=Wheelock's Latin |last=Wheelock |first=Frederic M. |publisher=CollinsReference |edition=7th |location=New York |date=2011}}</ref> The stem categories descend from [[Proto-Indo-European language|Indo-European]] and can therefore be compared to similar conjugations in other Indo-European languages.

[[Regular and irregular verbs|Irregular verbs]] are verbs that do not follow the regular conjugations in the formation of the inflected form. Irregular verbs in Latin are ''esse'' 'to be'; ''velle'' 'to want'; ''ferre'' 'to carry'; ''edere'' 'to eat'; ''dare'' 'to give 'ire 'to go'; ''posse'' 'to be able'; ''fieri'' 'to happen'; and their compounds.<ref name="Wheelock 2011" />

There are six simple [[grammatical tense|tenses]] in Latin (present, imperfect, future, perfect, pluperfect and future perfect), three [[grammatical mood|moods]] (indicative, imperative and subjunctive, in addition to the [[infinitive]], [[participle]], [[gerund]], [[gerundive]] and [[supine]]), three [[grammatical person|persons]] (first, second and third), two numbers (singular and plural), two [[grammatical voice|voices]] (active and passive) and two [[grammatical aspect|aspects]] ([[perfective and imperfective]]). Verbs are described by four principal parts:
# The first principal part is the first-person singular, present tense, active voice, indicative mood form of the verb. If the verb is impersonal, the first principal part will be in the third-person singular.
# The second principal part is the present active infinitive.
# The third principal part is the first-person singular, perfect active indicative form. Like the first principal part, if the verb is impersonal, the third principal part will be in the third-person singular.
# The fourth principal part is the supine form, or alternatively, the nominative singular of the perfect passive participle form of the verb. The fourth principal part can show one gender of the participle or all three genders (-''us ''for masculine, -''a'' for feminine and -''um'' for neuter) in the nominative singular. The fourth principal part will be the future participle if the verb cannot be made passive. Most modern Latin dictionaries, if they show only one gender, tend to show the masculine; but many older dictionaries instead show the neuter, as it coincides with the supine. The fourth principal part is sometimes omitted for intransitive verbs, but strictly in Latin, they can be made passive if they are used impersonally, and the supine exists for such verbs.

The six simple [[Latin tenses (semantics)|tenses of Latin]] are divided into two systems: the present system, which is made up of the present, imperfect and future forms, and the perfect system, which is made up of the perfect, pluperfect and future perfect forms. Each simple tense has a set of endings corresponding to the person, number, and voice of the subject. Subject (nominative) pronouns are generally omitted for the first (''I, we'') and second (''you'') persons except for emphasis.

The table below displays the common inflected endings for the indicative mood in the active voice in all six tenses. For the future tense, the first listed endings are for the first and second conjugations, and the second listed endings are for the third and fourth conjugations:

{| class="wikitable"
! rowspan=2|Tense !! colspan=3|Singular !! colspan=3|Plural
|-
! 1st Person !! 2nd Person !! 3rd Person !! 1st Person !! 2nd Person !! 3rd Person
|-
! Present
| -ō/m || -s || -t || -mus || -tis || -nt
|-
! Future
| -bō, -am || -bis, -ēs || -bit, -et || -bimus, -ēmus || -bitis, -ētis
| -bunt, -ent
|-
! Imperfect
| -bam || -bās || -bat || -bāmus || -bātis || -bant
|-
! Perfect
| -ī || -istī || -it || -imus || -istis || -ērunt
|-
! Future Perfect
| -erō || -eris/erīs || -erit || -erimus/-erīmus || -eritis/-erītis || -erint
|-
! Pluperfect
| -eram || -erās || -erat || -erāmus || -erātis || -erant
|}

==== Deponent verbs ====
Some Latin verbs are [[deponent verb|deponent]], causing their forms to be in the passive voice but retain an active meaning: {{lang|la|hortor, hortārī, hortātus sum}} 'to urge'.

== Vocabulary ==

As Latin is an Italic language, most of its vocabulary is likewise Italic, ultimately from the ancestral [[Proto-Indo-European language]]. However, because of close cultural interaction, the Romans not only adapted the Etruscan alphabet to form the Latin alphabet but also borrowed some [[Etruscan language|Etruscan]] words into their language, including {{lang|la|persona}} 'mask' and {{lang|la|histrio}} 'actor'.<ref name=H&S13>{{harvnb|Holmes|Schultz|1938|p=13}}</ref> Latin also included vocabulary borrowed from [[Oscan language|Oscan]], another Italic language.

After the [[History of Taranto|Fall of Tarentum]] in 272&nbsp;BC, the Romans began Hellenising, or adopting features of Greek culture, including the borrowing of Greek words, such as {{lang|la|camera}} 'vaulted roof', {{lang|la|sumbolum}} 'symbol', and {{lang|la|balineum}} 'bath'.<ref name=H&S13 /> This Hellenisation led to the addition of ''Y'' and ''Z'' to the alphabet to represent Greek sounds.<ref>{{cite book |first=David |last=Sacks |year=2003 |title=Language Visible: Unraveling the Mystery of the Alphabet from A to Z |location=London |publisher=Broadway Books |page=[https://archive.org/details/languagevisibleu00sack/page/351 351] |isbn=978-0-7679-1172-6 |url=https://archive.org/details/languagevisibleu00sack/page/351}}</ref> Subsequently, the Romans transplanted [[Greek art]], medicine, science and philosophy to Italy, paying almost any price to entice Greek skilled and educated persons to Rome and sending their youth to be educated in Greece. Thus, many Latin scientific and philosophical words were Greek loanwords or had their meanings expanded by association with Greek words, as {{tlit|el|ars}} 'craft' and {{tlit|grc|tekhne}} 'art'.<ref name=H&S14>{{harvnb|Holmes|Schultz|1938|p=14}}</ref>

Because of the Roman Empire's expansion and subsequent trade with outlying European tribes, the Romans borrowed some northern and central European words, such as {{lang|la|beber}} 'beaver', of Germanic origin, and {{lang|la|bracae}} 'breeches', of Celtic origin.<ref name=H&S14 /> The specific dialects of Latin across Latin-speaking regions of the former Roman Empire after its fall were influenced by languages specific to the regions. The dialects of Latin evolved into different Romance languages.

During and after the adoption of Christianity into Roman society, Christian vocabulary became a part of the language, either from Greek or Hebrew borrowings or as Latin neologisms.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Norberg |first1=Dag |translator-last1=Johnson |translator-first1=Rand H. |title=Manuel pratique de latin médiéval |chapter-url=https://homepages.wmich.edu/~johnsorh/MedievalLatin/Norberg/NORBINTR.html |chapter=Latin at the End of the Imperial Age |orig-year=1980 |year=2004 |publisher=University of Michigan |access-date=20 May 2015 |archive-date=4 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304084225/http://homepages.wmich.edu/~johnsorh/MedievalLatin/Norberg/NORBINTR.html |url-status=dead}}</ref> Into the Middle Ages, Latin incorporated many more words from surrounding languages, including [[Old English]] and other [[Germanic languages]].

Over the ages, Latin-speaking populations produced new adjectives, nouns, and verbs by [[affix]]ing or [[compound (linguistics)|compounding]] meaningful [[segment (linguistics)|segments]].<ref>{{harvnb|Jenks|1911|pp=3, 46}}</ref> For example, the compound adjective, {{lang|la|omnipotens}} 'all-powerful', was produced from the adjectives {{lang|la|omnis}} 'all', and {{lang|la|potens}} 'powerful', by dropping the final ''s'' of {{lang|la|omnis}} and concatenating. Often, the concatenation changed the part of speech, and nouns were produced from verb segments or verbs from nouns and adjectives.<ref>{{harvnb|Jenks|1911|pp=35, 40}}</ref>

== Numbers ==
{{Unreferenced section|date=May 2020}}
{{further|Latin numerals (linguistics)}}
In ancient times, numbers in Latin were written only with letters. Today, the numbers can be written with the [[Arabic numerals|Arabic numbers]] as well as with [[Roman numerals]]. The numbers 1, 2 and 3 and every whole hundred from 200 to 900 are declined as nouns and adjectives, with some differences.

{| class="wikitable"
| {{lang|la|ūnus, ūna, ūnum}} (masculine, feminine, neuter)
| I
| one
|-
| {{lang|la|duo, duae, duo}} (m., f., n.)
| II
| two
|-
| {{lang|la|trēs, tria}} (m./f., n.)
| III
| three
|-
| {{lang|la|quattuor}}
| IIII <small>or</small> IV
| four
|-
| {{lang|la|quīnque}}
| V
| five
|-
| {{lang|la|sex}}
| VI
| six
|-
| {{lang|la|septem}}
| VII
| seven
|-
| {{lang|la|octō}}
| IIX <small>or</small> VIII
| eight
|-
| {{lang|la|novem}}
| VIIII <small>or</small> IX
| nine
|-
| {{lang|la|decem}}
| X
| ten
|-
| {{lang|la|quīnquāgintā}}
| L
| fifty
|-
| {{lang|la|centum}}
| C
| one hundred
|-
| {{lang|la|quīngentī, quīngentae, quīngenta}} (m., f., n.)
| D
| five hundred
|-
| {{lang|la|mīlle}}
| M
| one thousand
|}

The numbers from 4 to 100 do not change their endings. As in modern descendants such as Spanish, the gender for naming a number in isolation is masculine, so that "1, 2, 3" is counted as {{lang|la|ūnus, duo, trēs}}.

== Example text ==

{{lang|la|[[Commentarii de Bello Gallico]]}}, also called {{lang|la|De Bello Gallico}} (''The Gallic War''), written by [[Julius Caesar|Gaius Julius Caesar]], begins with the following passage:

{{blockquote|{{langr|la|Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres, quarum unam incolunt Belgae, aliam Aquitani, tertiam qui ipsorum lingua Celtae, nostra Galli appellantur. Hi omnes lingua, institutis, legibus inter se differunt. Gallos ab Aquitanis Garumna flumen, a Belgis Matrona et Sequana dividit. Horum omnium fortissimi sunt Belgae, propterea quod a cultu atque humanitate provinciae longissime absunt, minimeque ad eos mercatores saepe commeant atque ea quae ad effeminandos animos pertinent important, proximique sunt Germanis, qui trans Rhenum incolunt, quibuscum continenter bellum gerunt. Qua de causa Helvetii quoque reliquos Gallos virtute praecedunt, quod fere cotidianis proeliis cum Germanis contendunt, cum aut suis finibus eos prohibent aut ipsi in eorum finibus bellum gerunt. Eorum una pars, quam Gallos obtinere dictum est, initium capit a flumine Rhodano, continetur Garumna flumine, Oceano, finibus Belgarum; attingit etiam ab Sequanis et Helvetiis flumen Rhenum; vergit ad septentriones. Belgae ab extremis Galliae finibus oriuntur; pertinent ad inferiorem partem fluminis Rheni; spectant in septentrionem et orientem solem. Aquitania a Garumna flumine ad Pyrenaeos montes et eam partem Oceani quae est ad Hispaniam pertinet; spectat inter occasum solis et septentriones.}}}}

The same text may be marked for all long vowels (before any possible elisions at word boundary) with [[apex (diacritic)|apices]] over vowel letters, including customarily before ''nf'' and ''ns'' where a long vowel is automatically produced:

<!-- Vowel lengths are per the 2016 edition of Gaffiot esp. for proper names, and per LaNe, and de Vaan -->
{{blockquote|{{langr|la|Gallia est omnis dívísa in partés trés, quárum únam incolunt Belgae, aliam Aquítání, tertiam quí ipsórum linguá Celtae, nostrá Gallí appellantur. Hí omnés linguá, ínstitútís, légibus inter sé differunt. Gallós ab Aquítánís Garumna flúmen, á Belgís Mátrona et Séquana dívidit. Hórum omnium fortissimí sunt Belgae, proptereá quod á cultú atque húmánitáte próvinciae longissimé absunt, miniméque ad eós mercátórés saepe commeant atque ea quae ad efféminandós animós pertinent important, proximíque sunt Germánís, quí tráns Rhénum incolunt, quibuscum continenter bellum gerunt. Quá dé causá Helvétií quoque reliquós Gallós virtúte praecédunt, quod feré cotídiánís proeliís cum Germánís contendunt, cum aut suís fínibus eós prohibent aut ipsí in eórum fínibus bellum gerunt. Eórum úna pars, quam Gallós obtinére dictum est, initium capit á flúmine Rhodanó, continétur Garumná flúmine, Óceanó, fínibus Belgárum; attingit etiam ab Séquanís et Helvétiís flúmen Rhénum; vergit ad septentriónés. Belgae ab extrémís Galliae fínibus oriuntur; pertinent ad ínferiórem partem flúminis Rhéní; spectant in septentriónem et orientem sólem. Aquítánia á Garumná flúmine ad Pýrénaeós montés et eam partem Óceaní quae est ad Hispániam pertinet; spectat inter occásum sólis et septentriónés.}}}}

An example of Late Latin is the Latin Vulgate by Saint Jerome. Below is Psalm One (Psalmum Unum) from the Clementine Vulgate.

{{blockquote|{{langr|la| 1 Beatus vir qui non abiit in consilio impiorum, et in via peccatorum non stetit, et in cathedra pestilentiae non sedit;  2 sed in lege Domini voluntas ejus, et in lege ejus meditabitur die ac nocte.  3 Et erit tamquam lignum quod plantatum est secus decursus aquarum, quod fructum suum dabit in tempore suo : et folium ejus non defluet; et omnia quaecumque faciet prosperabuntur.  4 Non sic impii, non sic; sed tamquam pulvis quem projicit ventus a facie terrae.  5 Ideo non resurgent impii in judicio, neque peccatores in concilio justorum,}}}}

== Notes ==
{{notelist-ur}}

== See also ==
{{Portal bar|Ancient Rome|Language|Catholicism}}
{{div col|colwidth=22em}}
* [[Accademia Vivarium Novum]]
* [[Botanical Latin]]
* [[Classical compound]]
* [[Hybrid word]]
* [[International Roman Law Moot Court]]
* [[Latin mnemonics]]
* [[Latin obscenity]]
* [[Latin school]]
* [[List of Latin abbreviations]]
* [[List of Latin and Greek words commonly used in systematic names]]
* [[List of Latin phrases]]
* [[List of Latin translations of modern literature]]
* [[List of Latinised names]]
* [[Romanization (cultural)]]
{{div col end}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== Bibliography ==
{{refbegin|30em}}
* {{Cite book |last=Allen |first=William Sidney |title=Vox Latina – a Guide to the Pronunciation of Classical Latin |date=1978 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-22049-1 |edition=2nd |orig-year=1965 |ol=OL4483781M}}
* {{cite book |editor1-last=Bergin |editor1-first=Thomas G. |editor2-last=Law |editor2-first=Jonathan |editor3-first=Jennifer |editor3-last=Speake |title=Encyclopedia of the Renaissance and Reformation |date=2004 |publisher=Facts On File |isbn=0-8160-5451-7 |ol=OL3681138M}}
* {{cite book |first=Victor Selden |last=Clark |year=1900 |title=Studies in the Latin of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance |location=Lancaster |publisher=New Era}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Demo |first1=Šime |title=A paradox of the linguistic research of Neo–Latin. Symptoms and causes |journal=Suvremena Lingvistika |date=2022 |volume=48 |issue=93 |doi=10.22210/suvlin.2022.093.01 |s2cid=251119298 |doi-access=free}}
* {{cite book |editor1-last=Deneire |editor1-first=Thomas |title=Dynamics of Neo-Latin and the Vernacular: Language and Poetics, Translation and Transfer |date=2014 |publisher=Koninklijke Brill |location=Leiden |isbn=9789004269071}}
* {{cite book |last=Diringer |first=David |title=The Alphabet – A Key to the History of Mankind |publisher=Munshiram Manoharlal |location=New Delhi |year=1996 |orig-year=1947 |isbn=978-81-215-0748-6}}
* {{cite book |title=Vulgar Latin |first1=József |last1=Herman |translator-first1=Roger |translator-last1=Wright |location=University Park, PA |publisher=[[Pennsylvania State University Press]] |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-271-02000-6}}
* {{cite book |last1=Holmes |first1=Urban Tigner |last2=Schultz |first2=Alexander Herman |title=A History of the French Language |location=New York |publisher=Biblo-Moser |isbn=978-0-8196-0191-9 |year=1938}}
* {{cite book |editor1-last=Knight |editor1-first=Sarah |editor2-first=Stefan |editor2-last=Tilg |date=2015 |title=The Oxford Handbook of Neo-Latin |place=New York |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-088699-8 |ol=OL28648475M}}
* {{cite book |last=Levy |first=Harry Louis |title=A Latin reader for colleges |date=1973 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=0-226-47602-2}}
* {{cite book |last=Jenks |first=Paul Rockwell |year=1911 |title=A Manual of Latin Word Formation for Secondary Schools |location=New York |publisher=D. C. Heath}}
* {{cite book |title=New comparative grammar of Greek and Latin |first=Andrew L. |last=Sihler |location=New York |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2008}}
{{refend}}

== External links ==
{{WikisourceWiki|code=la}}
{{InterWiki|code=la}}
{{Wikiquote|Latin proverbs}}
{{Wikibooks|Latin}}
{{Wikiversity|Latin}}
{{Wiktionary category|category=Latin language}}
{{Commons}}

=== Language tools ===
* {{cite web |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/resolveform?lang=la |title=Latin Dictionary Headword Search |work=Perseus Hopper |publisher=Tufts University}} Searches Lewis & Short's ''A Latin Dictionary'' and Lewis's ''An Elementary Latin Dictionary''. Online results.
* {{cite web |url=https://www.online-latin-dictionary.com |title=Online Latin Dictionary with conjugator and declension tool |publisher=Olivetti Media Communication}} Search on line Latin-English and English-Latin dictionary with complete declension or conjugation. Online results.
* {{cite web |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?lang=la |title=Latin Word Study Tool |work=Perseus Hopper |publisher=Tufts University}} Identifies the grammatical functions of words entered. Online results.
* {{cite web |url=https://isidore.co/LatinInflector/latin/ |title=Latin Inflector |first=Alan |last=Aversa |access-date=8 June 2023}} Identifies the grammatical functions of all the words in sentences entered, using Perseus.
* {{cite web |url=https://www.verbix.com/languages/latin.shtml |title=Latin Verb Conjugator |publisher=Verbix}} Displays complete conjugations of verbs entered in first-person present singular form.
* {{cite web |url=https://stranica.net63.net/verba_latina |title=Online Latin Verb Conjugator |access-date=30 September 2014 |archive-url=http://arquivo.pt/wayback/20160518085747/https://stranica.net63.net/verba_latina |archive-date=18 May 2016 |url-status=dead}} Displays conjugation of verbs entered in their infinitive form.
* {{cite web |url=https://lysy2.archives.nd.edu/cgi-bin/words.exe |title=Words |first=William |last=Whittaker |publisher=Notre Dame Archives |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060618211448/https://lysy2.archives.nd.edu/cgi-bin/words.exe |archive-date=18 June 2006}} Identifies Latin words entered. Translates English words entered.
* {{cite web |url=https://alpheios.net |title=Alpheios |publisher=Alpheios Project}} Combines Whittakers Words, Lewis and Short, Bennett's grammar and inflection tables in a browser addon.
* {{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2sIDAAAAQAAJ |title=A new abridgment of Ainsworth's Dictionary, English and Latin, for the use of Grammar Schools |first=John |last=Dymock |edition=4th |location=Glasgow |publisher=Hutchison & Brookman |year=1830}}
* "[https://outils.biblissima.fr/en/collatinus-web/index.php Collatinus web]". Online lemmatizer and morphological analysis for Latin texts.

=== Courses ===
* [https://community-courses.memrise.com/community/courses/english/latin/ Community courses] on [[Memrise]]
* [https://lrc.la.utexas.edu/eieol/latol Latin Lessons] (free online through the [https://web.archive.org/web/20160523020601/https://www.utexas.edu/cola/lrctr/ Linguistics Research Center] at UT Austin)
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20150503145706/https://www.learnlangs.com/latin/#Lessons Free 47-Lesson Online Latin Course], Learnlangs
* [https://learn101.org/latin.php Learn Latin] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220308081320/http://learn101.org/latin.php |date=8 March 2022 }} Grammar, vocabulary and audio
* [https://frcoulter.com/latin/links.html Latin Links and Resources], Compiled by Fr. Gary Coulter
* {{cite web |url=https://latinum.org.uk |title=Latinum |work=Latin Latin Course on YouTube and audiobooks |first=Evan |last=der Millner |year=2007 |publisher=Molendinarius |access-date=2 February 2012}}
* {{cite web |url=https://www.u.arizona.edu/~aversa/latin/simplicissimus.pdf |title=Simplicissimus |first=Carol |last=Byrne |year=1999 |publisher=The Latin Mass Society of England and Wales |access-date=20 April 2011 |archive-date=30 April 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110430044833/http://www.u.arizona.edu/~aversa/latin/simplicissimus.pdf |url-status=dead}} (a course in [[ecclesiastical Latin]]).
* [https://www.hs-augsburg.de/~harsch/Ludus/lud_port.html Latin course: Ludus Latinus] (Bibliotheca Augustana)
* [https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/latin/beginners/default.htm Beginners' Latin] on [[The National Archives (United Kingdom)]]

=== Grammar and study ===
* {{cite book |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/15665 |title=New Latin Grammar |first=Charles E. |last=Bennett |year=2005 |publisher=Project Gutenberg |orig-year=1908 |edition=2nd |isbn=978-1-176-19706-0}}
* {{cite book |last=Griffin |first=Robin |title=A student's Latin Grammar |publisher=University of Cambridge |edition=3rd |year=1992 |isbn=978-0-521-38587-9 |url=https://archive.org/details/studentslatingra00grif}}
* {{cite web |title=Latin Online |url=https://lrc.la.utexas.edu/eieol/latol |first1=Winifred P. |last1=Lehmann |first2=Jonathan |last2=Slocum |publisher=The University of Texas at Austin |year=2008 |access-date=17 April 2020}}
* {{cite book |last1=Ørberg |first1=Hans |title=LINGVA LATINA PER SE ILLVSTRATA – Pars I FAMILIA ROMANA |date=1991 |publisher=Museum Tusculanum Press |isbn=87-997016-5-0}}
* {{cite book |last1=Ørberg |first1=Hans |title=LINGVA LATINA PER SE ILLVSTRATA – Pars II ROMA AETERNA |date=2007 |publisher=Hackett Publishing Company, Incorporated |isbn=978-1-58510-067-5}}
* {{cite book |last1=Allen and Greenough |title=New Latin Grammar |date=1903 |publisher=Athanæum Press}}

=== Phonetics ===
* {{cite web |title=Phonetica Latinae-How to pronounce Latin |url=https://la.raycui.com/ |first=Ray |last=Cui |year=2005 |publisher=Ray Cui |access-date=25 June 2010}}
* {{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Latin Language|volume=16|pages=244–257|first1=Augustus Samuel|last1=Wilkins|author-link1=Augustus Samuel Wilkins|first2=Robert Seymour|last2=Conway|author-link2=Robert Seymour Conway|short=x}}
* {{cite web |last1=Ranieri |first1=Luke |title=Latin Pronunciation (for Classical Latin) |website=[[YouTube]] |date=31 August 2018 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eH8E5RKq31I |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211027/eH8E5RKq31I |archive-date=2021-10-27 |access-date=31 August 2018}}{{cbignore}}

=== Libraries ===
* [https://www.thelatinlibrary.com/ The latin library], ancient Latin books and writings (without translations) ordered by author
* [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/ LacusCurtius], a small collection of Greek and Roman authors along with their books and writings (original texts are in Latin and Greek, translations in English and occasionally in a few other languages are available)

=== Latin language media ===
* [https://ephemeris.alcuinus.net/ Ephemeris], online Latin newspaper: {{lang|la|nuntii latini universi}} = news in Latin of the universe (whole world)
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20190830212232/https://ephemeris.alcuinus.net/ Ephemeris archive], archived copy of online Latin newspaper
* [https://yle.fi/radio1/tiede/nuntii_latini/ Nuntii Latini], from Finnish YLE Radio 1
* [https://www.bremenzwei.de/themen/nuntii-latini-100.html Nuntii Latini], monthly review from German [[Radio Bremen]] ([[Bremen Zwei]])
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20150129091342/https://www.haverford.edu/classics/audio/ Classics Podcasts in Latin and Ancient Greek], Haverford College
* [http://www.alcuinus.net/GLL/ Grex Latine Loquentium] (Flock of those Speaking Latin)
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20130520083843/https://circuluslatinusinterretialis.co.uk/ Circulus Latinus Interretialis] (Internet Latin Circle)
* [https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/institutions_connected/latinitas/documents/index_en.htm Latinitas Foundation, at the Vatican]
{{Italic languages}}
{{Latin periods}}
{{Ancient Rome topics | collapsed }}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Languages attested from the 7th century BC]]
[[Category:Latin language| ]]
[[Category:Forms of Latin| ]]
[[Category:Fusional languages]]
[[Category:Languages of Andorra]]
[[Category:Languages of France]]
[[Category:Languages of Italy]]
[[Category:Languages of Portugal]]
[[Category:Languages of Romania]]
[[Category:Extinct languages of Spain]]
[[Category:Languages of Vatican City]]
[[Category:Subject–object–verb languages]]
[[Category:Articles containing video clips]]