Facebook’s move to provide option for Latin translation support to its website has created a surge of interest in the language which is not used anymore by regular folks in daily life. It’s a good time to reflect upon this language which was a major player until the 17th century.
Latin was originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It spread throughout the Mediterranean region and a significant part of Europe as a result of Roman conquests. All the Romance languages including French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Romanian have descended from Latin. Many other languages, especially the European ones, have either inherited or borrowed their vocabulary from Latin.
Latin played the role of an international language and was the primary language used by the academia and scientific community in Europe till the 17th century. Thus it was associated with progress and learning; several groundbreaking works in the fields of philosophy, science and religion were originally published in Latin. These books were so influential that there power has sustained to this day, drawing students from all over the world who aspire to study them and learn Latin for the purpose.
In the present day, Latin exists in the form of Ecclesiastical Latin which is used in edicts and papal bulls that are issued by the Catholic Church. The Roman Catholic Church is in fact the largest organization that uses Latin language for official and quasi-official work. Science, law and the academia also depend upon Latin vocabulary for their terminology. The Latin alphabet, when combined with its modern variants like the French, English and Spanish alphabets, is the most widely used worldwide.
Though it is not used commonly, Latin is far from being a dead language because of its illustrious history.
What Facebook users get is the seamless ability to translate the site into Latin. Though Latin is supposed to be a nearly dead language, considering that it’s not used by people in day to day life, it is still studied by language students. And it is this group of people who can benefit from Facebook’s latest move as well as contribute to the development of such features.
