Latin – The Language That Built the Western World

There’s an old saying: “All roads lead to Rome.” Today it’s figurative, meaning that there are many ways to achieve the same goal. In AD 1175, French theologian and poet Alain de Lille wrote: “Mille viae ducunt homines per saecula Romam.” In English: “A thousand roads lead men forever to Rome.” It was literal at the time, as the Roman Empire’s infrastructure would be used for centuries to come. Many modern roads in Europe are still based on those exact paths. And the language of Rome was no different. Latin spread across the world along with the Empire, but when Rome fell, Latin lived on.

From Latius to Rome and Beyond

Unlike many ancient languages, Latin didn’t disappear. It spread across the Eastern Hemisphere and eventually the globe, changing as it went. Even if you speak only English, you’ve probably used Latin words and don’t even realize it.

Around 1,000 BC, ancestors of the Latini tribes settled in the region of Latium, which today is called Lazio, Italy. The names Latin (language), Latini (people), and Latium (place) were likely derived from the Latin word latus, meaning wide or broad, because the plains around Rome fit that description – especially in contrast to the surrounding mountains. By about 700 BC, the earliest distinct form of Old Latin had emerged and diverged from other regional dialects of Proto-Italic.

The Greek language is much older, and it was brought to the region of Rome by Greek colonists and Etruscans, who also had adopted the Greek alphabet and writing system and adapted it to their own language. The early Latins learned to write by using that Etruscan alphabet, which had been built on Greek. And so Latin was layered on top of that original Greek framework, which is why every language that comes after it has so much in common with the Greek alphabet.

The Latin people formed numerous small agricultural communities in the greater Latium region of central Italy. But between 650 and 625 BC, several of those villages in the Seven Hills region merged into a single, fortified city-state called Rome. Eventually, over the course of centuries, Rome grew through military conquest, trade, and synoikismos (the merging of settlements). Eventually the kingdom spread throughout the region we call Italy today – and then it grew even more. At its peak in AD 117, under Emperor Trajan, the Roman Empire spanned nearly two million square miles with an estimated population of 60-90 million people. It’s believed to have been about one-fifth of the world’s population at the time. Spanning three continents, the empire stretched from the deserts of North Africa in the south as far north as Northern England, and from the Atlantic coast of Spain and Portugal in the west to the Persian Gulf in the east.

And where this empire and its roughly 450,000-man military went, it brought roads, culture, and language. The Western Roman Empire fell in AD 476 and the Byzantine Empire in 1443, and the language eventually became known as a dead language because it no longer had a native-speaking community. However, it didn’t go extinct. Why? Even after the fall of the Roman Empire, where Latin had already spread in usage, the language remained and evolved.

The Roads May Be Roman, but the Words Are Latin

The Romance languages, or “Roman languages,” are those that evolved directly from Latin. The primary family includes Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, and Romanian. There are several other regional and secondary languages as well. And, thanks to the French influence, early English – actually a West Germanic language – borrowed heavily from both French and Latin and adapted the same alphabet based on the old Greek one.

As well, there are many words in English that were borrowed directly from Latin. Agenda is the Latin word for “things to be done.” Alibi meant “elsewhere,” bona fide meant in “good faith,” caveat was “let him beware,” and versus was “against.” More obvious ones are etc. (et cetera, meaning “and others of the same kind”) and pro bono (“for the public good”).

Roughly 1.5 billion people speak English, and another 1.2 billion speak a Romance language. Together, that’s about 35% of the world population. Even today, a thousand roads lead forever to Rome.

1. Latin started as a tribal language that expanded as the local villages grew into a transcontinental empire.
2. Latin adopted the Greek alphabet from the Etruscan people.
3. Even after the fall of Rome, most of the Western world speaks a language and uses an alphabet that was either born of Latin or heavily influenced by it.