Did early germans speak latin long before settling Rome?

2 Comments

1. aera says:

   November 22, 2009 at 1:29 am

   There were Germanic people who could speak Latin, and they learned it through their contacts with Romans. When they conquered Rome in the 400s AD, Latin had already been spoken there for a long time. Based on your question, it seems that you have some of the historical facts confused, but maybe I am reading your question wrong.
2. Bill P says:

   November 22, 2009 at 1:29 am

   Not at all. Germans had their own language which is quite different from Latin. As a matter of fact, the German language had substantial influence on the pronunciation after Latin after the German invasions into Rome. Latin did not have a V sound, a W sound or a J prior to the Medieval time. Julius Caesar’s name would be spelled I(i)vlivs Caesar, with the Vs being pronounced as Us. Caesar would have been pronounced as Kaiser.

   That is not to say that there is not a Latin influence on German – there are plenty of words in the German vocabulary that are derived from Latin