Latin: A Language Full of Life

Latin: an infuriatingly complicated, useless language. One that’s pointless to learn and holds no practical worth whatsoever. Wrong. Latin is a book that shouldn’t be judged by its papyrus cover, and, contrary to popular belief, is still useful today. 

The traditional narrative is that Latin "died” around 600-750 CE, while literacy rates were plummeting. However, at the same time, spoken derivatives of Latin were thriving. Latin was also used for religious practices, and in 768 CE, the Roman Emperor Charlemagne encouraged it to be taught as part of one’s general education. After his death, the use of Latin declined, but it continued to be taught as a written language. During the Renaissance, it became popular to read works written in Latin, and knowing Latin was a requirement to attend college until the 19th century. As Jonathan Roberts, co-founder of the Ancient Language Institute, said, “People still speak Latin, and they do so in a way that Cicero or Augustine would have understood… Languages do die; Latin just isn’t one of them.”

And whatever became of Latin’s spoken derivatives? They turned into Romance Languages, namely Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian, and others. In total, these languages are spoken by roughly 15% of the world’s population. That’s 15% of the population speaking languages very similar to Latin. These modern-day languages are so closely related to each other that by learning one, it becomes much easier to learn the others. And learning Latin opens a grand gateway to fluency in all five. 

However, there’s one more widely spoken language that can be traced back to Latin: English. While it’s technically a Germanic language, over 60% of English is made up of Latin or Greek roots. Most of these roots are used to form long and complex words, and understanding Latin gives people the ability to untangle more complicated vocabulary by picking apart its roots, making it crucial to gaining a more thorough grasp of English. 

Even apart from language itself, there are areas in which Latin is especially important. In medicine, for instance, over 95% of terms are derived from Latin or Latinized Greek. To quote a study by Yuliia V. Lysanets and Olena M. Bieliaieva of the Ukrainian Medical Stomatological Academy, “English medical terminology cannot be ‘reasonably mastered without the knowledge of basic Latin.’” Additionally, many English terms come directly from Latin, such as “alibi,” translating to “in another place,” or “bona fide,” meaning “in good faith.” In many fields, an understanding of Latin is a tremendous asset. 

Finally, Latin is proven to boost children’s math and literacy skills. There have been numerous studies to test the benefits of Latin, and they’ve all yielded positive results. In the District of Columbia, for example, elementary schoolers who studied Latin were four months ahead in reading comprehension than those who studied either French or Spanish. In Philadelphia, fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-graders, after being taught Latin for 15 to 20 minutes per day for a year, were a year ahead of their peers in terms of vocabulary skills. In Indianapolis, sixth graders were taught Latin for 30 minutes per day for five months, and progressed nine months in their mathematical abilities, as well as a year in reading, four months in spelling, and five months in science. 

All that aside, Latin, even with its mind-bending declensions and confounding conjugations, is simply beautiful. It’s a language where even the most mundane phrase sounds like poetry, and every sentence is steeped in history. And any language like that must be worth learning.