The development of Latin in the Ancient Roman Empire and its Legacy in the Romance

Abstract

Latin, originally spoken in the small territory of ancient Lazio in the central Italian Peninsula, gradually developed into an important language of the Romance Empire and became the source of the large family of Romance languages, encompassing approximately 900 million speakers. Its centuries-long evolution represents a unique linguistic phenomenon, demonstrating both the stability of its forms and their inevitable transformation under the influence of historical processes.

We will analyze the Latin language, its historical periods, as well as the Latin of ancient Romance, Classical Latin, Popular (Vulgar) Latin, regional variants, Late Latin, Proto-Romance, Romance languages, the classification of Romance languages, the geographical spread of Romance languages.