Latin & Why Learn It?

Latin is one of the world’s most popular and well known dead languages. It originated from a region, in what is now Italy, called Latium. As the language of the ancient Roman people, it was the dominant language of Italy, spreading through the western Roman empire along with each Roman conquest. To this day, we continue to see Latin words and phrases being used in everyday life. In the religious sense, Latin was the language of the Roman Catholic Church and was only abandoned around 1967. For reference, that was the first year a Rolling Stone magazine was issued. In many professions and even in everyday life, Latin is still used, quite often without our knowing. “Etc.” comes from et cetera in Latin which means “and others”; “i.e.” comes from id est which means “that is”; “e.g.'' comes from exempli gratia which means “for the sake of example.” Certain phrases, such as carpe diem (seize the day), are also used often in daily life. We even use Latin words as roots for many of the words we have in English today.

Where do you think the word “language” comes from? It comes from lingua, the Latin word for tongue or language. Called the “Romance languages,” French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, and many other languages are based on the Latin language as well. Even if Latin is a dead language, there’s a reason it’s still so prominent in our modern world today, and why so many people study it. There is a lot of value that comes from learning this language, the mother language of many existing ones, and it’s very valuable to be able to identify where the word you use comes from and its vibrant history (least of all, on the SAT).