Latin and other languages. Learn Latin from scratch! Latin is a dead language

The appearance of Latin as a language dates back to the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. e. At the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. e. Latin was spoken by the population of the small region of Latium (lat. Latium), located in the west of the middle part of the Apennine Peninsula, along the lower reaches of the Tiber. The tribe that inhabited Latium was called Latins (lat. Latini), its language was Latin. The center of this area became the city of Rome (lat. Roma), after which the Italic tribes united around it began to call themselves Romans (lat. Romani).

The earliest written monuments of the Latin language presumably date back to the end of the 6th - beginning of the 5th century BC. e. This is a dedicatory inscription found in 1978 from ancient city Satrica (50 km south of Rome), dated last decade 6th century BC e., and a fragment of a sacred inscription on a fragment of black stone found in 1899 during excavations of the Roman forum, dating back to approximately 500 BC. e. The ancient monuments of archaic Latin also include quite numerous tombstone inscriptions and official documents mid 3rd - early 2nd century BC e., of which the most famous are the epitaphs of the Roman political figures Scipios and the text of the Senate resolution on the sanctuaries of the god Bacchus.

The largest representative of the archaic period in the field of literary language is the ancient Roman comedian Plautus (c. 245-184 BC), from whom 20 comedies in their entirety and one in fragments have survived to our time. However, it should be noted that vocabulary The comedies of Plautus and the phonetic structure of his language are already significantly approaching the norms of classical Latin of the 1st century BC. e. - beginning of the 1st century AD e.

LATIN(Latin), one of the Indo-European languages ​​of the Italic group, in which - from about the 6th century. BC to 6th century AD - said the ancient Romans and which was the official language of the Roman Empire; until the beginning of the New Age - one of the main written languages ​​of Western European science, culture and social life; the official language of the Vatican and the Roman Catholic Church (until the mid-20th century, it was also used in Catholic worship); the language of the richest, more than two thousand-year-old literary tradition, one of most important languages universal human culture, in some fields of knowledge (medicine, biology, general scientific terminology of natural and humanities) continues to be actively used today.

Initially, Latin was only one of many in a group of closely related Italic languages ​​(the most significant among them are Oscan and Umbrian), which were formed by the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. in central and southern Italy. The original zone of existence of the Latin language is the small region of Latium, or Latium (lat. Latium, modern it. Lazio) around Rome, but as the ancient Roman state expanded, the influence of the Latin language gradually spread to the entire territory of modern Italy (where other local languages ​​were completely supplanted by it), Southern France (Provence) and a significant part of Spain, and by the beginning of the 1st millennium AD. – to almost all countries of the Mediterranean basin, as well as Western (up to the Rhine and Danube) and Northern Europe (including the British Isles). In modern Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, Romania and others. other countries of Europe and currently speak languages ​​that are descendants of Latin (they form the so-called Romance group of the Indo-European family); in modern times Romance languages spread very widely (Central and South America, Western and Central Africa, French Polynesia, etc.).

In the history of the Latin language, archaic (up to the 3rd century BC), classical (early - up to the 1st century AD and late - up to the 3rd century AD) and postclassical periods (up to approximately 6th century AD) are distinguished. . AD). Latin literature reached its greatest flourishing in the era of Caesar and Augustus (1st century BC, the so-called “Golden Latin” of Cicero, Virgil and Horace). Language post classical period is characterized by noticeable regional differences and gradually (through the stage of the so-called Vulgar, or folk Latin) breaks up into separate Romance dialects (in the 8th–9th centuries it is already possible to speak with confidence about the existence of early versions of modern Romance languages, the difference of which from written Latin was fully recognized by contemporaries ).

Although after the 6th century. (i.e. after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire) Latin as a living language spoken language falls into disuse and can be considered dead, its role in medieval history Western Europe where is he for a long time remains the only one written language, turns out to be extremely important - it’s no coincidence that everything Western European languages, in addition to Greek, they use the alphabet in Latin based; Currently, this alphabet has spread throughout to the globe. During the Renaissance, interest in classical Latin even increased, and until the end of the 17th century. it continues to serve as the primary language of European science, diplomacy and the church. Latin was written at the court of Charlemagne and in the papal office, and was used by St. Thomas Aquinas and Petrarch, Erasmus of Rotterdam and Copernicus, Leibniz and Spinoza, it sounded in the oldest European universities, uniting people from different countries– from Prague to Bologna, from Ireland to Spain; only in modern period European history this unifying and cultural role gradually moves first to French and then to English, which in the modern era has become one of the so-called “world languages”. In the countries of Romanesque speech, the Catholic Church finally abandoned divine services in Latin only in the 20th century, but they are preserved, for example, by Catholics of the Gallican rite.

The most ancient monuments of the Latin language (6–7 centuries BC) are short inscriptions on objects and tombstones, excerpts of the so-called Salic hymns and some. etc.; first surviving monuments fiction belong to the 3rd century. BC (it was during this period that the unification of Italy under the rule of Rome and intensive contacts with Greek culture began Southern Italy). Most famous author of this period - comedian Titus Maccius Plautus, who left brilliant examples of “unsmoothed” colloquial speech; early examples of journalism are represented in the writings of Marcus Porcius Cato the Elder.

The classical period is characterized by the rapid flourishing of fiction and journalism: the canon of normative prose language (which all subsequent generations were guided by) was created in the works of such authors as the orator, publicist and philosopher Marcus Tullius Cicero and Gaius Julius Caesar, who left historical notes about his conquests; canon poetic language– in the works of such authors as the lyricists Gaius Valerius Catullus, Quintus Horace Flaccus, Albius Tibullus, the epics Publius Virgil Maron, Publius Ovid Naso (whose lyrical heritage is also significant), etc.; their works are an integral part of world literature, familiarity with which forms the basis of modern humanitarian “classical education”. An important role is also played by historical and natural science prose of such authors as Gaius Sallust Crispus, Cornelius Nepos, Titus Livius, Marcus Terence Varro.

Among the authors of the late classical period, the work of the satirist poet Marcus Valery Martial and the prose writer Titus Petronius Arbiter, whose language is closer to colloquial than that of the authors of the “golden age,” is of particular importance.

The Late Classical period is also characterized by the appearance large quantity philosophical and scientific prose; At this time, historians Gaius Cornelius Tacitus and Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, naturalist Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus the Elder, philosopher Lucius Annaeus Seneca and many others wrote. etc.

In the postclassical period, the activities of Christian authors acquired particular importance, of which the most famous are Quintus Septimius Florent Tertullian, Sophronius Eusebius Jerome (St. Jerome, who completed the first Latin translation of the Bible at the end of the 4th century), Decimus Aurelius Augustine (Blessed Augustine).

Medieval Latin literature includes to a greater extent religious-philosophical and scientific-journalistic texts, although works of art were also created in Latin. One of the most striking and original manifestations of medieval Latin literature is the so-called lyric poetry of vagantes (or wandering students), which reached greatest prosperity in the 9th–13th centuries; Based on the traditions of Latin classical poetry (especially Ovid), the vagantes create short poems for the occasion, love and table lyrics, and satire.

The Latin alphabet is a variety of Western Greek (adopted by the Romans, like many other achievements of material and spiritual culture, possibly through the Etruscans); in the oldest versions of the Latin alphabet there is no letter G (officially legalized by the end of the 3rd century BC), sounds are designated in the same way u And v, i And j (additional letters v And j appear only in the Renaissance among European humanists; in many scientific publications they are not used in classical Latin texts). The direction of writing from left to right was finally established only by the 4th century. BC (the direction of writing in more ancient monuments varies). The longitude of vowels, as a rule, is not indicated (although in some ancient texts it is used to convey longitude special sign"apex" is a slash above a letter, for example á).

IN linguistically Latin is characterized by many features typical of the most archaic Indo-European languages, including developed morphological system declinations and conjugations, inflection, prefixal verbal word formation.

A feature of the phonetic system of the Latin language is the presence of labiovelar stops k w (orthographically qu) and (spelling ngu) and the absence of voiced fricatives (in particular, voiced pronunciation s not reconstructed for the classical period); All vowels are characterized by opposition in length. In classical Latin, stress, according to the evidence of ancient grammarians, was musical (raising the tone on a stressed vowel); the place of stress was almost completely determined by the phonological structure of the word. In the Preclassical era there may have been a strong initial stress (this explains many historical changes in the Latin vowel system); in the postclassical era, the stress loses its musical character (and in none of the Romance languages ​​does musical stress remain). The Latin language is also characterized by various restrictions on the structure of the syllable and quite complex rules assimilation of vowels and consonants (for example, long vowels cannot be placed before combinations nt, nd and before m; voiced noisy ones do not occur before voiceless noisy ones and at the end of a word; brief i And o also - with a few exceptions - does not occur at the end of a word, etc.). Confluences of three or more consonants are avoided (there are few permissible combinations of three consonants; they are possible mainly at the junction of a prefix and a root - for example, pst, tst, nfl, mbr and some etc.).

Morphologically, first of all, the name and the verb are contrasted; adjectives and adverbs can be considered as special categories of names. Unlike many new Indo-European languages, Latin adjectives, although they change by case, do not have a special (compared to nouns) set of case endings; Gender agreement is also not typical for many adjectives, and often a noun differs from an adjective only in its syntactic function in a sentence (so, pauper can mean "poor" and "poor" ales– “winged” and “bird”, amicus– “friendly” and “friend”, etc.).

Names traditionally have five types of declension, which have different sets of case-numerical endings (the meanings of number and case are expressed together by the same indicator, cf. lup- us "wolf, unit" lup- i "wolves, pl.," lup- o "to the wolves, dat. pl."). There are five main cases: nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, depositive (combining the functions of the instrumental, depositive and locative; traces of the lost locative case are found in separate frozen forms); forms vocative case differ from the nominative forms only in singular. number of some nouns are masculine. In no one type of declension do all five case forms differ (for example, the endings of the nominative and genitive, dative and genitive, dative and depositive cases can coincide; in the plural, the endings of the dative and depositive cases coincide for all nouns; neuter nouns always have the same endings nominative and accusative cases, etc.). This feature Latin declension(a large number of types of declension with a large number of homonymous endings) played (along with external historical circumstances) an important role in the subsequent restructuring of the Latin case system, which led first to its significant simplification, and then to its complete loss in all modern Romance languages ​​(except Romanian, which retained reduced two-case system). Tendencies towards the unification of declension begin to be traced already in classical Latin. As in most archaic Indo-European languages, a distinction is made between masculine, feminine and neuter gender (in Romance languages, the neuter gender is almost completely lost); The connection between gender and type of declension of a name is not rigid. Names consistently distinguish between singular and plural (there is no dual); There are no indicators of definiteness/indeterminacy (articles) in classical Latin, unlike the Romance languages.

The Latin verb has a developed inflectional conjugation system, which, however, appears somewhat simplified compared to the more archaic verbal systems of such Indo-European languages ​​as ancient Greek or Sanskrit. The main grammatical opposition within the Latin verbal system should be recognized as opposition in relative time (or taxis), i.e. an indication of the simultaneity, precedence or succession of two situations (the so-called rules of “coordination of times”); this feature brings Latin closer to modern Romance and Germanic languages. The values ​​of relative time are expressed together with the values ​​of absolute time (the present, past and future are distinguished) and aspect (the continuous and limited form are distinguished). Thus, simultaneity in the past, like duration, express forms of imperfect; precedence in the past - forms of the plusquaperfect, limited (single) action in the past - usually forms of the so-called perfect, etc. Oppositions in absolute time are expressed not only in the system of real forms (i.e. indicative mood), but also in the system of unreal moods: imperative and subjunctive. Thus, forms of the imperative mood fall into simple and “deferred” (“do it later, after”); the choice of forms of the subjunctive mood (expressing condition, wish, possibility, assumption, etc.) is also closely related to the rules of “agreement of tenses” (especially strict in the language of the classical period).

Latin verb forms consistently agree in person/number with the subject; personal endings are different not only in different times and inclinations, but also in different forms voice: a series of “active” and “passive” personal endings are distinguished. “Passive” endings express not only the passive in the proper sense, but also the reflexive (cf. lavi- tur "washes") and some. etc., which is why they are sometimes (following the ancient Greek) called “medial”. A number of verbs have only passive endings (for example, loqui- tur “says”), which thereby do not express collateral meaning; their traditional name is “deposited”.

Word order in the language of the classical period is considered "free": this means that relative position members of a sentence depend not on their syntactic role (subject, object, etc.), but on the degree of importance for the speaker of the information conveyed with their help; usually more important information is reported at the beginning of a sentence, but this rule describes real situation only in the most general terms. Subordinating constructions are widespread in Latin; indicators of a subordinating connection can be either conjunctions in combination with forms of the subjunctive mood of the verb in a subordinate clause, or impersonal forms of the verb (participles, infinitives, supines - the latter in the classical language served as the goal infinitive for verbs of motion, but in later periods practically are out of use). A striking feature of Latin syntax is the phrases ablativus absolutus And accusativus cum infinitivo. In the first case subordinating connection(broad adverbial semantics, including the meaning of cause, consequence, accompanying circumstance, etc.) is expressed by placing the dependent verb in the form of a participle, which in this case agrees with the subject of the dependent sentence in the negative case (ablative); Thus, a phrase meaning “having taken the city, the enemy plundered it” will literally sound like “having taken the city, the enemy plundered it.” The second phrase is used with a certain group of verbs that can subordinate subordinate clauses with explanatory meaning; in this case, the dependent verb takes the form of an infinitive, and its subject becomes the direct object of the main verb (for example, a phrase meaning “the king believed that she was dancing” will literally sound like “the king believed that she was dancing”). Late Classical and Medieval Latin is characterized by a significant simplification and standardization of this rich syntactic arsenal.

A significant part of the grammatical elements of the Latin language is Indo-European in origin (personal endings of verbs, case endings of nouns, etc.). There are many original Indo-European roots in the Latin vocabulary (cf. frater"Brother", tres"three", mare"sea", edere "is", etc.); abstract vocabulary and scientific and philosophical terminology contain many Greek borrowings. The vocabulary also includes a number of words of Etruscan origin (the most famous are histrio"actor" and persona"mask") and borrowings from closely related Italic languages ​​(for example, borrowing from the language of the Oscan subgroup is indicated, for example, by the phonetic appearance of the word lupus"wolf": the original Latin word would be expected as * luquus).

Latin(self-name - lingua Latina), or Latin, is the language of the Latin-Faliscan branch of the Italic languages ​​of the Indo-European language family. Today it is the only Italian language actively used (it is a dead language).

Latin is one of the most ancient written Indo-European languages.

The largest representative of the archaic period in the field of literary language is the ancient Roman comedian Plautus (c. -184 BC), from whom 20 comedies in their entirety and one in fragments have survived to our time. However, it should be noted that the vocabulary of Plautus’s comedies and the phonetic structure of his language are already significantly approaching the norms of classical Latin of the 1st century BC. e. - beginning of the 1st century AD e.

Classical Latin

Classical Latin means a literary language that reached its greatest expressiveness and syntactic harmony in the prose works of Cicero (-43 BC) and Caesar (-44 BC) and in the poetic works of Virgil (-19 BC). ), Horace (-8 BC) and Ovid (43 BC - 18 AD).

The period of formation and flourishing of the classical Latin language was associated with the transformation of Rome into the largest slave-owning state in the Mediterranean, which subjugated vast territories in the west and southeast of Europe, northern Africa and Asia Minor. In the eastern provinces of the Roman state (Greece, Asia Minor and the northern coast of Africa), where the Greek language and highly developed Greek culture were widespread at the time of their conquest by the Romans, the Latin language did not become widespread. Things were different in the western Mediterranean.

By the end of the 2nd century BC. e. Latin dominates not only throughout Italy, but also as the official state language penetrates into the areas of the Iberian Peninsula and what is now southern France conquered by the Romans. Through Roman soldiers and merchants, the Latin language in its colloquial form reaches the masses local population, being one of the most effective means of Romanizing conquered territories. At the same time, they are most actively romanized nearest neighbors Romans - Celtic tribes who lived in Gaul (the territory of modern France, Belgium, partly the Netherlands and Switzerland). The Roman conquest of Gaul began in the second half of the 2nd century BC. e. and was completed at the very end of the 50s of the 1st century BC. e. as a result of prolonged military operations under the command of Julius Caesar (Gallic wars 58-51 BC). At the same time, Roman troops came into close contact with the Germanic tribes that lived in vast areas east of the Rhine. Caesar also makes two trips to Britain, but these short-term expeditions (in and 54 BC) did not have serious consequences for relations between the Romans and the British (Celts). Only 100 years later, in 43 AD. e. , Britain was conquered by Roman troops who remained there until 407 AD. e. Thus, for about five centuries, until the fall of the Roman Empire in 476 AD. e. , the tribes that inhabited Gaul and Britain, as well as the Germans, are strongly influenced by the Latin language.

Postclassical Latin

It is customary to distinguish the language of Roman fiction from classical Latin, the so-called. the post-classical (post-classical, late antique) period, chronologically coinciding with the first two centuries of our chronology (the so-called era of the early empire). Indeed, the language of prose writers and poets of this time (Seneca, Tacitus, Juvenal, Martial, Apuleius) is distinguished by significant originality in its choice stylistic means; but because the norms developed over the previous centuries grammatical structure of the Latin language are not violated, the indicated division of the Latin language into classical and post-classical has more literary than linguistic significance.

Late Latin

The so-called Latin language stands out as a separate period in the history of the Latin language. Late Latin, the chronological boundaries of which are the III-VI centuries - the era of the late empire and the emergence, after its fall, of barbarian states. In the works of writers of this time - mainly historians and Christian theologians - many morphological and syntactic phenomena already found their place, preparing the transition to new Romance languages.

Medieval Latin

Medieval, or Christianized Latin is primarily liturgical (liturgical) texts - hymns, chants, prayers. At the end of the 4th century, Saint Jerome translated the entire Bible into Latin. This translation, known as the Vulgate (i.e. People's Bible), was recognized as equivalent to the original at the Catholic Council of Trent in the 16th century. Since then, Latin, along with Hebrew and Greek, has been considered one of the sacred languages ​​of the Bible. The Renaissance left us huge amount scientific works in Latin. These are medical treatises of doctors Italian school 16th century: “On the Structure of the Human Body” by Andreas Vesalius (), “Anatomical Observations” by Gabriel Fallopius (), “Anatomical Works” by Bartholomew Eustachio (), “On Contagious Diseases and Their Treatment” by Girolamo Fracastoro () and others. The teacher Jan Amos Comenius () created his book “The World of Sensual Things in Pictures” (“ORBIS SENSUALIUM PICTUS. Omnium rerum pictura et nomenclatura”) in Latin, in which the whole world is described with illustrations, from inanimate nature to the structure of society. Many generations of children from different countries of the world studied from this book. Its latest Russian edition was published in Moscow, in

Stylistic features of liturgical Latin

Pronunciation and spelling

Consonants

1. In early Latin the letter K was regularly written before A, but in classic time preserved only in a very limited set of words.
2. /z/ is an "import phoneme" in classical Latin; the letter Z was used in Greek loanwords in place of zeta (Ζζ), which is supposed to have denoted the sound [z] by the time of its inclusion in the Latin alphabet. Between vowels this sound could be doubled, i.e. . Some believe that Z could represent the affricate /dz/, but there is no reliable evidence for this.
3. Before velar consonants /n/ was assimilated at the place of articulation into [ŋ], as in the word quinque["kʷiŋkʷe]. In addition, G denoted the velar nasal sound [ŋ] before N ( agnus: ["aŋnus]").
4. Latin R indicated either an alveolar quaver [r], like the Spanish RR, or an alveolar flap [ɾ], like the Spanish R not at the beginning of a word.
5. It is assumed that the phoneme /l/ had two allophones (much like in English). According to Allen (Chapter 1, Section v), it was a velarized alveolar lateral approximant [ɫ] as in English full at the end of a word or before another consonant; in other cases it was an alveolar lateral approximant [l], as in English look.
6. V and I could denote both vowel and semivowel phonemes (/ī/ /i/ /j/ /ū/ /u/ /w/).

PH, TH, and CH were used in Greek loanwords in place of phi (Φφ /pʰ/), theta (Θθ /tʰ/), and chi (Χχ /kʰ/), respectively. Latin did not have aspirated consonants, so these digraphs were most often read as P (later F), T, and C/K (with the exception of most educated people, well acquainted with Greek).

The letter X stood for the consonant combination /ks/.

Doubled consonants were indicated by doubled letters (BB /bː/, CC /kː/, etc.). In Latin, the longitude of sounds had a distinctive meaning, for example anus/ˈanus/ (old woman) or Anus/ˈaːnus/ (ring, anus) or annus/ˈanːus/ (year). In early Latin, double consonants were written as single consonants; in the 2nd century BC e. they began to be denoted in books (but not in inscriptions) by a crescent-shaped diacritic known as "sicilius" (apparently similar to ň ). Later they began to write the familiar double consonants.

(1) The phoneme /j/ occurs at the beginning of words before a vowel or in the middle of words between vowels; in the second case it is doubled in pronunciation (but not in writing): iūs/juːs/, cuius/ˈkujjus/. Since such a doubled consonant makes the preceding syllable long, in dictionaries the preceding vowel is marked with a macron as long, although in reality this vowel is usually short. Prefixed and compound words retain /j/ at the beginning of the second word element:: adiectīuum/adjekˈtiːwum/.

(2) Apparently, by the end of the classical period /m/ at the end of words was pronounced weakly, either voiceless, or only in the form of nasalization and lengthening of the preceding vowel. For example, decem("10") should have been pronounced [ˈdekẽː]. This hypothesis is supported not only by the rhythms of Latin poetry, but also by the fact that in all Romance languages ​​the final M was lost. For simplicity, and also due to the incomplete proof of this hypothesis, M is usually considered to always represent the phoneme /m/.

Vowels

• Each vowel letter (with the possible exception of Y) represents at least two different phonemes: long and short vowel. A can stand for either short /a/ or long /aː/; E can represent either /ɛ/ or /eː/, etc.

• Y was used in Greek loanwords in place of the letter upsilon (Υυ /ʏ/). Latin originally did not have front rounded vowels, so if a Roman could not pronounce this Greek sound, he would read upsilon as /ʊ/ (in Archaic Latin) or as /ɪ/ (in Classical and Late Latin).

• AE, OE, AV, EI, EV were diphthongs: AE = /aɪ/, OE = /ɔɪ/, AV = /aʊ/, EI = /eɪ/ and EV = /ɛʊ/. AE and OE in the post-Republican period became monophthongs /ɛː/ and /eː/, respectively.

Other spelling notes

• The letters C and K both represent /k/. In archaic inscriptions, C is usually used before I and E, while K is used before A. However, in classical times, the use of K was limited to a very small list of native Latin words; in Greek borrowings, kappa (Κκ) is always rendered with the letter C. The letter Q allows one to distinguish between minimal pairs with /k/ and /kʷ/, for example cui/kui/ and qui/kʷiː/.

• In early Latin, C stood for two different phonemes: /k/ and /g/. Later, a separate letter G was introduced, but the spelling C remained in abbreviations for a number of ancient Roman names, for example Gāius(Gai) was written in abbreviation C., A Gnaeus(Gney) like Cn.

• The semivowel /j/ was regularly doubled between vowels, but this was not shown in writing. Before the vowel I, the semivowel I was not written at all, for example /ˈrejjikit/ ‘threw back’ was more often written reicit, not reiicit.

Longitude of vowels and consonants

In Latin, the length of vowels and consonants had a distinctive meaning. The length of consonants was indicated by doubling them, but long and short vowels were not distinguished in standard writing.

Nevertheless, there were attempts to introduce a distinction for vowels. Sometimes long vowels were indicated by double letters (this system is associated with the ancient Roman poet Accius ( Accius)); There was also a way to mark long vowels using an "apex" - a diacritic similar to an acute (the letter I in this case simply increased in height).

In modern publications, if it is necessary to indicate the length of vowels, a macron is placed above long vowels ( ā, ē, ī, ō, ū ), and above short ones - breve ( ă, ĕ, ĭ, ŏ, ŭ ).

Morphology

Latin, like Russian, is predominantly synthetic. This means that grammatical categories are expressed by inflection (declension, conjugation), and not by function words.

Declension

There are 6 cases in Latin:

Three genders, as in Russian:

• Male (genus masculinum)
• Female (genus feminum)
• Average (genus neutral)

Divided into 5 declensions.

Conjugation

Latin verbs have 6 tense forms, 3 moods, 2 voices, 2 numbers and 3 persons.

Latin verb tenses:

• Present tense (praesens)
• Imperfect past tense
• Past perfect tense (perfectum)
• Plusquamperfect, or antecedent (plusquamperfectum)
• Future tense, or future first (futurum primum)
• Pre-future tense, or future second (futurum secundum)

• First (persona prima)
• Second (persona secunda)
• Third (persona tertia)

Parts of speech

In Latin there are nouns ( lat. Nomen Substantivum), numerals and pronouns, inflected by cases, persons, numbers and genders; adjectives, except those listed, modified by degrees of comparison; verbs conjugated according to tenses and voices; supin - verbal noun; adverbs and prepositions.

Syntax

As in Russian, a simple sentence most often consists of a subject and a predicate, and the subject is in nominative case. The pronoun as a subject is used extremely rarely, since it is usually already contained in the personal form of the predicate. The predicate can be expressed by a verb, nominal part speech or nominal part of speech with an auxiliary verb.

Thanks to the synthetic structure of the Latin language and, as a consequence, the rich system of declensions and conjugations, the order of words in a sentence does not vary of decisive importance. However, as a rule, the subject is placed at the beginning of the sentence, the predicate at the end, direct object- before the control verb, that is, the predicate.

When constructing sentences, the following phrases are used:

Accusativus cum infinitivo(accusative with indefinite) - used with verbs of speech, thought, sensory perception, expression of will and some other cases and is translated as a subordinate clause, where the part in the accusative case becomes the subject, and the infinitive becomes the predicate in a form consistent with the subject.

Nominativus cum infinitivo(nominative with indefinite) - has the same structure as the previous phrase, but with a predicate in the passive voice. When translating, the predicate is conveyed active form 3rd person plural with an indefinite personal meaning, and the turnover itself is a subordinate clause.

Subordinate clauses with conjunction cum historicum, as a rule, are subordinate clauses time, translated with the conjunction “when”.

See also

• Latin grammar

Popular borrowings

• Nota Bene

Notes

Literature

• // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: In 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional ones). - St. Petersburg. , 1890-1907.
• Tronsky I. M. Historical grammar Latin language. - M., 1960 (2nd ed.: M., 2001).
• Yarkho V.N., Loboda V.I., Katsman N.L. Latin. - M.: Higher School, 1994.
• Dvoretsky I. Kh. Latin-Russian dictionary. - M., 1976.
• Podosinov A.V., Belov A.M. Russian-Latin dictionary. - M., 2000.
• Belov A. M. Ars Grammatica. A book about the Latin language. - 2nd ed. - M.: GLK Yu. A. Shichalina, 2007.
• Lyublinskaya A. D. Latin paleography. - M.: Higher School, 1969. - 192 p. + 40 s. ill.
• Belov A. M. Latin accent. - M.: Academia, 2009.
• A brief dictionary of Latin words, abbreviations and expressions. - Novosibirsk, 1975.
• Miroshenkova V. I., Fedorov N. A. Textbook of the Latin language. - 2nd ed. - M., 1985.
• Podosinov A.V., Shaveleva N.I. Introduction to Latin and ancient culture. - M., 1994-1995.
• Nisenbaum M. E. Latin. - Eksmo, 2008.
• Kozlova G. G. Self-instruction manual of the Latin language. - Flint Science, 2007.
• Chernyavsky M.N. Latin language and basics of pharmaceutical terminology. - Medicine, 2007.
• Baudouin de Courtenay I. A. From lectures on Latin phonetics. - M.: LIBROKOM, 2012. - 472 p.

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In the 5th century BC e. Latin(self-name Lingua Latina) was one of the many Italic languages ​​spoken in central Italy. Latin was used in the area known as Latium ( modern name- Lazio), and Rome was one of the cities in this area. The earliest inscriptions in Latin date back to the 6th century. BC e. and are made using an alphabet based on the Etruscan script.

Gradually, Rome's influence spread to other parts of Italy, and through them to Europe. Over time, the Roman Empire conquered Europe, North Africa and Middle East. Throughout the empire, Latin came to be used as the language of law and authority, and, increasingly, the language of everyday life. The Romans were literate, and many of them read the works of famous Latin authors.

Meanwhile, in the eastern Mediterranean, Greek remained the lingua franca, and educated Romans were bilingual. The earliest examples of Latin literature known to us are translations Greek plays and Cato's agricultural manuals in Latin, dating from 150 BC. e.

Classical Latin, which was used in early works of Latin literature, differed in many ways from colloquial, so-called Vulgar Latin. However, some writers, including Cicero and Petronius, used Vulgar Latin in their writings. Over time, the spoken variants of the Latin language moved further and further away from the literary standard, and gradually, on their basis, Italic/Romance languages ​​(Spanish, Portuguese, etc.) appeared.

Even after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in 476, Latin continued to be used as a literary language in Western and Central Europe. A huge amount of medieval Latin literature appeared in a variety of styles - from scientific works of Irish and Anglo-Saxon writers to simple tales and sermons intended for the general public.

Throughout the 15th century. Latin began to lose its dominant position and title as the main language of science and religion in Europe. It has been largely replaced by written versions of local European languages, many of which are derived from or influenced by Latin.

Modern Latin was used by the Roman Catholic Church until the middle of the 20th century, and currently, to some extent, continues to exist, especially in the Vatican, where it is recognized as one of the official languages. Latin terminology is actively used by biologists, paleontologists and other scientists to name species and preparations, as well as by doctors and lawyers.

Latin alphabet

The Romans used only 23 letters to write Latin:

Didn't exist in Latin lowercase letters. The letters I and V could be used as consonants and vowels. The letters K, X, Y and Z were used only to write words of Greek origin.

The letters J, U and W were added to the alphabet later to write languages ​​other than Latin.

The letter J is a variant of I and was first introduced into use by Pierre de la Ramais in the 16th century.

The letter U is a variant of V. In Latin, the sound /u/ was represented by the letter v, for example IVLIVS (Julius).

The letter W was originally double letter v (vv) and was first used by Old English scribes in the 7th century, although the runic letter Wynn (Ƿ) was more commonly used to represent the sound /w/ in writing. After Norman conquest the letter W became more popular and by 1300 had completely replaced the letter Wynn.

Reconstructed phonetic transcription of classical Latin

Vowels and diphthongs

Consonants

Notes

• Vowel length was not shown in writing, although modern editions of classical texts use a macron (ā) to indicate long vowels.
• The pronunciation of short vowels in the medial position is different: E [ɛ], O [ɔ], I [ɪ] and V [ʊ].

Phonetic transcription of ecclesiastical Latin

Vowels

Diphthongs

Consonants

Notes

• Double vowels are pronounced separately
• C = [ʧ] before ae, oe, e, i or y, and [k] in any other positions
• G = [ʤ] before ae, oe, e, i or y, and [g] in any other positions
• H is not pronounced except in words mihi And nihil, where the sound /k/ is pronounced
• S = [z] between vowels
• SC = [ʃ] before ae, oe, e, i or y, and in any other positions
• TI = before the vowel a and after all letters except s, t or x, and in any other positions
• U = [w] after q
• V = [v] at the beginning of a syllable
• Z = at the beginning of a word before vowels, and before consonants or at the end of a word.

Latin belongs to the Indo-European languages. Today it is one of the dead languages. But, unlike many of them, it has practical application, although quite limited. This language is actively used in many fields - in addition to Catholic rites, one can name biology, medicine and law. Books are translated into Latin, radio broadcasts are conducted in it, etc.

The Romans, who dominated many peoples and tribes, could not help but influence their culture and, of course, their languages. The Roman Empire at its peak included most of Europe and parts of Africa and Asia. For some languages, this influence was decisive and they are considered descendants of Latin, but even those languages ​​that have other roots would become an order of magnitude poorer if everything was removed from them Latin borrowings. It is also worth noting that a significant part vocabulary and the writing of most European languages ​​is rooted in Latin.

Latin had special variety- vulgar or folk Latin, which differed from classical Latin and served as a colloquial variant in many provinces of the ever-expanding Roman Empire. It was this that became the basis for the Romance languages ​​(from the Latin romanus - “Roman”) - Portuguese, Moldavian, Romanian and some others. By mixing with local dialects, Latin received impetus for the development of new branches.

One of the reasons for this was that the Roman conquest of other less developed peoples entailed the dominance of Latin in those areas where words native language lacked science, technology, medicine, etc. On initial period development, Romance languages ​​dispensed with writing and were considered common dialects.

At the same time, if the language was sufficiently developed, it could not be influenced too much and remain original, as happened with Greek.

Indirectly, other languages ​​were influenced by Latin, such as. This was inevitable, since trade interactions took place between nations. In addition, the spread of Christianity also brought with it a whole layer of borrowings.

In addition, for a long time, right up to the 18th century, Latin was in Europe not only the only language science and education, but also the language of international communication. Without knowledge of Latin it was impossible to gain knowledge, read scientific works and the most famous literary works.

In the Russian language, many words also have their roots in Latin. For example, “animation” comes from the Latin root anima - “life”, vocals - from vox - “voice”, cabbage - from caput - “head”, etc. We also borrowed many everyday concepts from the Romans. Such, for example, as the names of months or the names of planets. In addition, we often use everyday speech and direct borrowings from Latin, such as incognito, status quo, et cetera, de facto, vice versa, etc.

Latin is so firmly rooted in so many languages ​​and has become such an integral part of everyday communication and literature, that the question is whether Latin is really dead tongue or she is alive remains open.