2

Visiting an old house today, I observed a Latin inscription above the door and it occurred to me that it makes sense to use a 'dead' language for permanent messages as the meaning of the words will never change. Of course, Latin was used in academic institutions in Europe until relatively recently, and is still used from time to time in the Catholic Church, so is my supposition correct? Are Latin word meanings frozen in time and, if so, when did that happen?

cmw
  • 54,480
  • 4
  • 120
  • 225
  • 2
    Why do you assume it doesn't change anymore? If you have an operating system language 'Latin', as used in actual ATMs in that funny little enclave, , with that language, regular radio broadcasts, new Vicipaedia pages written, and ample active users (although relatively 'few' 'native speakers'?) then change is happening? Like coining of new words, importing/borrowing words etc. Seems not so dead after all? As long as there is active use, change is inevitable? – LаngLаngС Sep 24 '22 at 20:21
  • 1
    It didn't. But at some point they started calling it "French", "Spanish", "Italian", or "Romanian", depending on where you live. Still changing though. –  Sep 24 '22 at 21:49
  • 1
    Related: Why did Latin language stop being in use in the 18th century? – LаngLаngС Sep 24 '22 at 22:04
  • I think this question is too vague to be answerable. – Tyler Durden Sep 25 '22 at 18:26
  • 5
    A good answer would explain how Latin became somewhat codified in late antiquity, and then its adoption by Charlemagne in 800 as the common language of the Holy Roman Empire, and its use since then in scholarship and administration. While of course Latin hasn't stopped evolving, it became remarkably stabilized, so Erasmus could read Cicero and probably vice versa. The story of how this happened would make a great answer—one that I'm not up to writing. – Ben Kovitz Sep 25 '22 at 18:34
  • Welcome to the site! (I hope you register your account here as well.) It might be more fruitful to compare the speed of changing to other languages rather than ask whether it was zero (which it still isn't). How about a rephrasing, e.g.: "Did Latin change slower than the Romance languages? If yes, why is it so and how does it manifest?"? That would make the question easier to answer. At the moment it might not be quite concrete enough. – Joonas Ilmavirta Sep 25 '22 at 18:40
  • 2
    @JoonasIlmavirta I rather like that the question has a false premise. Then the answer makes this page a good resource for the many people who share that false premise. – Ben Kovitz Sep 25 '22 at 19:11
  • 1
    @BenKovitz Fair enough. Editing that (probably common) false premise out of the question would make it less genuine. A nice answer could start by reformulating the question (to my suggestion or anything else) and arguing why it has to be so. I don't think we have a good answer to "Exactly how dead is Latin?" on the site yet, but I think we should certainly cover stuff like that. – Joonas Ilmavirta Sep 25 '22 at 19:38
  • 1
    Have you looked at Wikipedia - History of Latin? – cipricus Sep 26 '22 at 16:10

0 Answers0