Latin

Language of ancient Rome, the Roman Empire, and of educated medieval European society. It belongs to the family of Indo-European languages. Its earliest written records are inscriptions and legal formulas of the late 6th century BC. As Rome extended its rule throughout Italy, Latin gained supremacy. The richest phase of Latin literature was the Augustan age (43 BC–AD 14). Spoken Latin was used throughout the Roman Empire. It eventually broke up into numerous dialects, which formed the basis of the Romance languages. Latin remained the language of the Church, science, medicine, law, education, and most written transactions in Europe throughout the Middle Ages. It was still used in some scholarly and diplomatic circles in the 19th century, and the Roman Catholic mass was in Latin until the 1960s.

World Encyclopedia. Philip's, 2005.