Language – Latin

10 Responses to “Why did the Romans speak Latin but not Roman?”

1. Gio-sama Says:
   August 24th, 2009 at 4:32 pm

   Then why do Canadians speak English (of French) and not Canadian?

   Latin comes from Latium (today’s Lazio), the name of the region where Latin appeared, but anyway, the name of the language has nothing to do with the nation, although admittedly because of political obsession some distinctiosn are made, like "Serbo-croatian", when it’s the friggin’ same language, but that is the realm of politics, which I wholeheartedly hate, and not linguistics.

2. grantcsmith Says:
   August 24th, 2009 at 4:32 pm

   just like i speak english but live in america…. the romans probably came from somewhere that spoke latin

3. Tivona Says:
   August 24th, 2009 at 4:32 pm

   The Romans spoke Latin because during the Renaissance, Latin was the official language of the Roman Catholic Church.

4. sexycuberfrank Says:
   August 24th, 2009 at 4:32 pm

   Latin was the language of the roman catholic faith. most everyday people spoke roman and would learn to read the bible which was written in latin

5. Holly C Says:
   August 24th, 2009 at 4:32 pm

   idk. thats a good question, it like why americans speak english not american. you know? there really is no good reason. it’s just the way it is!!!

6. Sheena Says:
   August 24th, 2009 at 4:32 pm

   I never knew ‘roman’ was another language actually. I thought that latin was just their langauge. Hm, perhaps it’s because latin is a universal language, meaning that nowadays, words are often derived from latin terms and are used in a science and mathematics alike. Also, for the question, maybe it should be ‘why did the Romans speak Latin instead of Roman?’ It’s sounds somewhat better.

7. Chad F Says:
   August 24th, 2009 at 4:32 pm

   We get the name Romans from their city-state, Roma, which is modern day Rome. The region of the country from which the empire was started was actually called Lazio, or Latium (with various spellings, depending on the grammatical usage) in Latin. The language of that region eventually evolved into Latin. The name is most likely derived from the Latin word "latus", meaning "wide", expressing the idea of "flat land" (in contrast to the local Sabine high country).

   Because they became the dominant power for such a long time, the language had influence over a large portion of Europe, giving rise to the various Romantic languages (Spanish, French, Portuguese, Romanian, etc.), as it was used as a language of common communication over the various regions of the empire.

   After the fall of the empire in the 400s, the Roman Catholic Church continued to use it as a common language to conduct Masses and other religious ceremonies. It also allowed the clergy to travel just about anywhere in Europe, and still be able to communicate. Latin was used in the church until the middle part of last century, and is still used, to some extent, by doctors and scientists. It is effectively a dead language, other than that.

   Hope this helps!

8. ABZ DA DON Says:
   August 24th, 2009 at 4:32 pm

   coz all de romanz use 2 smoke weed and ganja an all dat. So they we buzzin and hihg an all that. So dats why dey spoke latin and dem shit innit.

9. aida Says:
   August 24th, 2009 at 4:32 pm

   First, the word "but" is at best optional. I would replace it with a comma.

   Then, the reason the language of the Romans is called Latin is that it originated in the part of Italy called Latium. (The region where Rome is situated is still called Lazio today.) As the Romans, from that area, conquered the rest of Italy, their language gradually replaced the related languages spoken in other parts of the peninsula, as well as the Etruscan language, which was spoken in what is now called Tuscany (see a connection?) and was unrelated to any other known language.

10. metrodorus Says:
    August 24th, 2009 at 4:32 pm

    Well the Latin language existed before Rome did —-the language is named after the area called Latium, the tribes in this area joined together forming the foedus latinum. Rome became, eventually, the main City of the league, which took over, forming the Roman City-state, and later the Roman Empire.
    http://latinum.mypodcast.com