Many have heard the saying that Latin is “the door to many languages.” But why exactly is that? As many know, Latin was spoken by the Roman Empire, which, in its Golden Age, spanned from East Europe all the way to the coast of northern Africa.
Because of the empire’s vast size, maintaining one consistent culture was impossible, thus leading to the creation of subcultures. These subcultures were mostly the original culture of the conquered lands, but with a Roman twist to them. As a result, many western European countries developed vernacular languages, which were essentially dialects derived from another language. These vernacular languages were to become the Romance languages that are widely spoken around the world today.
The most commonly spoken Romance languages are Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian and Romanian. The five languages may not seem like a lot, but these are only languages that are directly derived from Latin. In reality, its influence is so much wider. Although Latin is in some English vocabulary, some traces can even be located as far as Japanese. For example, the word for bread in Japanese is “pan” (パン), and the word for bread in Latin is “panem.”
As shown, Latin has such a vast influence on languages far and wide, but Roman influence doesn’t stop there. Its rich culture can be spotted all over Europe. Although the Roman empire is long gone, its legacy will not be short-lived.
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