Did they ever speak Latin in Rome or Greece?
Saturday, September 5th, 2009 at
4:05 pm
I know Latin has roots in many languages, but I'm not sure about either of these. I need to know for a class, links would be great!
10 points for the most imformative answer!
Also if Latin did have roots in Greece than did is there Latin roots in the names of stuff in greek mythology (Perseus, Zeus, Pegasys, Medusa etc.)?
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Tagged with: greece • greek mythology • languages • latin roots • medusa • mythology perseus • pegasys • zeus
Filed under: Written and Spoken Latin
Latin was the language of the Roman Empire. They did speak latin, as well as their native tongue, in Greece because they did have a kind of diplomatic relationship at some point. Latin and Greece are considered ancient languages that modern languages are based upon. The term is Graeco-Roman. There’s quite a few etymological web sites that you could check out like—www.etymonline.com. Etymology is the study of the origin and historical development of words. On another note, the term "It’s all Greek to me" came from a Roman Senator who returned from a meeting with the Greek Government and was asked what they discussed. His response was—"I don’t know, it’s all Greek to me" because he couldn’t understand most of the discussion. Maybe you could use this bit of trivia for extra credit. Good luck& get an A+
no no no. greeks spoke greek, romans spoke latin. latin stemmed from greece, which, if anything, the roman gods would stem from the greek gods. however they did not. the romans were so heavily influenced by the greeks that they just simply copied their gods and gave them new names, using the exact same stories and all
Yes they spoke Latin in Rome, but not in Greece. It was considered ‘vulgar’ Latin, as it was used for everyday speech. Not as formal as the Latin taught today in schools or used to classify animal species, etc.
You’ve gotten some excellent answers. Just wanted to add:
even during the Roman empire, a lot of scholarly and formal writing was still done in Greek.
Latin was the language of ancient Rome. However, in his interesting book ‘The History of Britain Revealed’ M.J. Harper argues that Latin was the language spoken by the ruling elite, but he believed that the Italian peasantry probably spoke a language closer to modern Italian. He does not believe that languages actually change all that much.