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Latin (Latīna, pronounced [laˈtiːna]) is an ancient Indo-European language that was spoken in the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire. The conquests of Rome spread the language all around the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe.
It existed in two forms: Classical Latin, used in poetry and formal prose, and Vulgar Latin, spoken by the people. After the fall of the Roman Empire and the rise of the Roman Catholic Church, Latin became the universal ecclesiatical language and the lingua franca of educated Europeans.
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Having lasted 2,200 years, Latin began a slow decline around the 1600s. Vulgar Latin, however, was preserved: it split into several regional dialects, which by the 800s had become the ancestors of today's Romance languages.
English, though a Germanic language, derives 60% of its words from Latin:[1] largely by way of French, but partly through direct borrowings made especially during the 1600s in England.
Having lasted 2,200 years, Latin began a slow decline around the 1600s. Vulgar Latin, however, was preserved: it split into several regional dialects, which by the 800s had become the ancestors of today's Romance languages.
English, though a Germanic language, derives 60% of its words from Latin:[1] largely by way of French, but partly through direct borrowings made especially during the 1600s in England.
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