latim

Latim, or Latin, is an Italic language of the Indo-European family that originated in the Latium region of central Italy. It was the language of Rome and the Roman Republic and Empire, and it became the dominant medium for administration, literature, philosophy, and law across much of Europe. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, Latin persisted as the lingua franca of learning, theology, and diplomacy, evolving into Medieval Latin and Early Modern Latin, which supported Western scholarship and science. Latin is the ancestor of the Romance languages, including Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, and Romanian, which developed from Vulgar Latin as regional speech diverged.

Today Latin is considered a dead language in the sense that it has no native-speaking community, but it remains active as a liturgical language of the Roman Catholic Church and as a subject of study in schools and universities. It also survives in scientific nomenclature and in the vocabulary of many modern languages through Latin roots and phrases.

Latin is traditionally written with the Latin alphabet. Classical Latin, used by authors such as Cicero and Virgil, featured a highly inflected grammar with six noun cases, three genders, and several verb conjugations; Vulgar Latin evolved into the Romance languages with substantial sound changes and simplifications. The language continues to influence law, theology, science, and literature through terminology and mottoes.