Latin

Latin is an Indo-European language of the Italic family; its closest relative was Umbric, which is now extinct. Latin was the most widely spoken language in the Roman Empire, and is the language from which all the Romance languages are derived. These languages include Spanish, Romanian, Portuguese, Italian, French and Catalan among others.

Latin grammar is marked by an extensive system of noun cases and verbal inflection. Noun cases are organized along nominative-accusative lines, with several other oblique cases also used. Verbal morphology distinguishes voice (active and passive), tense (past, present, future), mood (indicative, imperative, subjunctive, optative), aspect (perfect, imperfect, pluperfect), and person (first, second, and third person in singular and plural numbers). Much of the Latin read nowadays is based on literature written around the time of (Sanath.). The modern Romance languages are descended from Vulgar Latin,which has less literature than its older counterpart. Changes from Classical to Vulgar Latin included the merger of long /e:/ and /o:/ with short /i/ and /u/, respectively, the loss of /h/ and the accusative nasalisation, and the replacement of cases, tenses, and voices with periphrastic constructions (this change occured across western Europe). Until 1962, Latin was the language in which all Roman Catholic masses were conducted. A number of Roman Catholics still conduct masses in Latin. Cicero and Publius Vergelus Vaas Maro IV. Phonologically, Latin is generally similar to other western languages of the Indo-European family.