The Latin Language: Not As DEAD As You Think

🏛💀❓ Most people call Latin a "dead language". But what if I told you that the language is alive and kicking? With a secret society of fluent speakers roaming the streets... This is the scintillating story of how Latin lived, how it (sort of) died, and why you should care! Special thanks to Luke Ranieri from @polyMATHY_Luke and @ScorpioMartianus for recording with me!
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The Spanish Language: The True Story Of The World's 2nd Biggest Language
👉🏼 • The Spanish Language: ...
📖 LEARN LATIN THROUGH THE POWER OF STORY!
Stories are the best way I have found to learn ANY language, even the ancient ones like Latin. Forget the boring textbooks and time-wasting apps and learn Latin the natural, effective way with my Latin Uncovered course.
👉🏼 bit.ly/latinuncoveredl1
📚 BLOG POSTS:
Is Latin Hard To Learn? An Honest Analysis For Beginners
👉🏼 bit.ly/islatinhard
How Long Does It Take To Learn Latin?
👉🏼 bit.ly/latinhowlong
11 Life-Changing Reasons To Learn Latin
👉🏼 bit.ly/whylearnlatin
⏱ TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 - Latin Lives!
0:24 - The Golden Thread
1:26 - Origin Story
4:12 - Romans
5:44 - Early Latin Writing
7:10 - The Latin Alphabet
9:42 - Old Latin Features
12:41 - Classical Latin
14:20 - Pronunciation
18:04 - Latin Conquers All
21:17 - How Latin Works (Grammar)
23:33 - Vulgar Latin
25:51 - Medieval Latin
26:46 - Renaissance Latin
27:32 - Contemporary Latin
29:23 - Let’s Speak Latin
30:26 - Why Should I Learn Latin?
📜 SOURCES & ATTRIBUTIONS:
American speaks Latin with Italians at the Colosseum! 🇮🇹 Will they understand? part 1
• American speaks Latin ...
“Ligue-latine-carte.png” by Cassius Ahenobarbus is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
“Italy relief location map.jpg” by Eric Gaba and NordNordWest is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
“Indo-European Language Family Branches in Eurasia.png” by LilBillWilliams is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
“Iron Age Italy.png” by Dbachmann is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
“Seven Hills of Rome.svg” by Renata3 is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
“Palatine Hill from across the Circus Maximus April 2019.jpg” by Lil Herodotus is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pa...
“Maria Saal Dom Grabrelief Romulus und Remus 27122013 774.jpg” by Johann Jaritz is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 AT via Wikimedia Commons commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
The Sound of the Etruscan language (Numbers, Words & The Pyrgi Tablets)
• The Sound of the Etrus...
“Etruscan civilization map.png” by NormanEinstein is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
“Praeneste fibula.JPG” by Pax:Vobiscum is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
“Textlapis.jpg” by imperioromano.com is licensed under CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
“Phoenician abjad.svg” by w1k0 is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
“Statue of Leonardo DaVinci in Uffizi Alley, Florence, Italy.jpg” by Peter K Burian is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
“Pompeii Graffiti 1” by Katharine Sykes is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0 via Flikr www.flickr.com/photos/8994855...
“Roman Empire Trajan 117AD.png” by Tataryn is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
“Roman Empire - Britannia (125 AD).svg” by Milenioscuro is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
“Romance languages.png” by Servitje is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
Carmina Burana: Bache, Bene Venies
• Carmina Burana: Bache,...
Speaking Latin to Ducks in Rome 🦆 🇮🇹 April Fools' Day 2022
• Speaking Latin to Duck...

[@storylearning]

Learn Latin fast through the power of story 👉🏼 bit.ly/latinuncoveredwl

[@APlusRussian]

I see you decided NOT to make it ambiguous in the thumbnail 😉 Or, is there a "B" version that will be like that? 🤔🤔

[@nixter888]

The Etruscan alphabet derived from the Euboean alphabet used in the Greek colonies in southern Italy... Why don't you mention that? Are you trying to underrate the Greeks?

[@misssiddle5023]

I learnt Latin with free OU courses and with Duolingo during lockdown. I’m fascinated by how languages have developed and think they should teach Latin in primary schools as compulsory just like BSL.

[@johndorilag4129]

When I visited the Philippines, Catholic seminarians and priests were studying and practicing Latin. Some of them were actually able to carry conversations with it. Latin used to be part of the curriculum in Catholic universities in the Philippines.

[@alkante2962]

The old english biais that nothing good could come from France and the French... unless it has some german in it, of course! (Too bad Hitler was this bad...)

[@desanipt]

I mean, the Romance languages are the Latin that wasn't frozen in time and that kept and keeps evolving.

[@smalls5001]

parlez normalement svp

[@desanipt]

@@smalls5001 Les langues latines sont le latin qui n'a été pas arrêté dans le temps et qui a continué et continue a évoluer.

[@smalls5001]

@@desanipt Oui continue a évoluer mais pas le latin classique

[@ghrtfhfgdfnfg]

@@smalls5001 it is still Latin

[@smalls5001]

@@ghrtfhfgdfnfg no it turned into other languages

[@glstka5710]

I don't speak Latin but there is an interesting story about one of my favorite English authors. C. S. Lewis had one of his books, "The Screwtape Letters", translated into Italian and a Priest in Verona read it. But the Priest didn't know English and Lewis didn't know Italian, but they both knew Latin because of their Classical education, so they were able to write letters to each other in Latin over a period from Sept. 1, 1947-Dec.5, 1954.

[@BGM16]

I guess English is your first language, interesting what you said in your comment. Let's not forget that 65% of the English vocabulary comes from Latin, the only Germanic language where this happens. Btw, my first language is Spanish, that's why is easy for me to pinpoint the Latin words in English, so going back to your comment, I think you know some Latin more than you'd think. Best regards.

[@rossialessandro2334]

In Italy, in most high schools it's mandatory to learn Latin. I remember that at a point I was dreaming in Latin. The same thing occurred when I was learning English.

[@simianto9957]

In the Netherlands, it is common to learn Latin and ancient Greek in high school too.

[@rossialessandro2334]

@@simianto9957 good to know, but I think that in the Netherlands you study less Latin. For example, my mother is Polish and, in high school, had little Latin compared to me. I don't know what the level is in the Netherlands.

[@simianto9957]

@@rossialessandro2334 True, you learn it for 6 years with the goal of understanding basic poetry.

[@CLOS5001]

@@simianto9957 Only in the Gymnasium or the Lyceum, i.e., selective prep schools for universities. All other high schools don't teach it in The Netherlands.

[@simianto9957]

@@CLOS5001 Correct

[@arnulfo267]

The romance languages are what's left of Latin. We could say that Latin didn't die, it just evolved into the romance languages. When you hear people speaking Spanish or Italian or French, you are hearing 21st century Latin.

[@smalls5001]

you mean vulgar latin

[@ijansk]

No, Romance languages are their own thing. Just because they stem from Latin doesn't make them a form of Latin. As a native Spanish speaker I don't speak Latin; I speak Spanish.

[@smalls5001]

@@ijansk Latin turned into Spanish

[@ghrtfhfgdfnfg]

@@ijansk nobody is saying you speak Latin as that still refers to a specific language that is now no longer spoken natively. Romance languages ARE Latin only in the sense that they share the very obvious root language. Not sure how far you can take this though. Are Norwegians speaking Old Norse? No. Just like Italians aren’t speaking Latin.

[@bofbob1]

Right. Kind of like if someone promised to show you a live dinosaur, then showed you a sparrow and said it was a 21th-century dinosaur. Technically true, but still kind of disappointing ^^

[@robertray4377]

I took a look at Latin once , to try to understand why French grammar was so complicated . To my horror ; I saw that the French had greatly simplified Latin grammar in evolving into French . A committee of experts could not have designed anything more difficult .

[@calebp6114]

You should try Greek lol, it’s wayyy worse

[@Novumvir]

@@pia_mater They didn't "decide". It was a subconscious process over generations, where every new generation made and deleted new alophones until we ended up with latin. Every language evolves through alophones created or deleted.

[@martinwallace5734]

🤣🤣🤣

[@TheMDJ2000]

Try Portuguese...

[@hoi-polloi1863]

They did it on purpose. They were all, "Hey! We're Indo-Europeans. We're *supposed* to have insane amounts of verb conjugations and noun declensions!"

[@danim2897]

To us Catholics of the Latin Rite , Latin is very alive! We worship and pray in Latin every Sunday!

[@shishinonaito]

I wish Catholic religion would have stayed the fuck away from Latin.

[@kathrynellis5313]

Yes!!

[@ashtonshelton8584]

That’s so cool I didn’t know that was done today!

[@danim2897]

@@ashtonshelton8584 there are Latin masses in almost every major city in the US. You can search on the internet for one near you

[@ashtonshelton8584]

@@danim2897 thank you for the tip!!

[@CouchPolyglot]

Luke is so amazing, I wish I had had him as a Latin teacher at school 😎

[@storylearning]

I know right!!

[@Romanophonie]

Lūcius optimus est!

[@euanthomas3423]

Lucius stella est

[@Ebs72PJ95]

Lucas est peritissimus et quasi magnus magister videtur. I am sure people will enjoy working with him. 👍Wish he could have been my Latin teacher in school. Although, I must say I have been lucky to have an amazing teacher back then who built a linguistic basis strong enough to make it through 5 years of Latin. I still remember my very first chapter by heart. 🤣

[@anabellik]

I learned Latin in high school and it was seriously one of the most fun classes I ever had in any school. You learn so much about history and culture, art, literature of ancient Rome, and more. Western culture is based on Latin in so many ways, I think everyone should learn at least some basics. And it's super useful if you ever decide to study any romance languages.

[@peregrination3643]

Was it a Catholic school? I've never heard of Latin (or Ancient Greek) taught in a high school until recently. I have a friend who learned it at a religious college, so I thought maybe Christian private schools taught it like how Churches used to use it.

[@LetoDK]

@@peregrination3643 in Denmark it's taught at a low level in all general high schools.

[@anabellik]

I'm from Poland and Latin is taught in high schools here, it's not very common, but not unheard of. Some of these are private and/or Catholic schools, but regular (non-religious) public schools teach Latin as well, either as a third foreign language, elective or extracurricular. If you pick a school that offers a program focusing on humanities, history, or biology, and plan to become a lawyer/doctor/historian etc., it makes sense to study Latin early. The particular school I went to was a Catholic public school. EDIT: I heard some schools also do Ancient Greek, but I've never personally met anyone who studied it in high school.

[@grewdpastor]

@Peregrination : Latin and Ancient Greek are taught in non-religious colleges (called Gymnasia) in the Netherlands and I believe that is also the case in Germany. Once Latin was the scientific language in Europe (before English became so dominant ).

[@fedbat2199]

@@peregrination3643 We do that in Italy too. Italy we have several types of high schools and the students decide what high school to attend. In the scientific high school people study latin and in the classical (?) high school they study latin and ancient greek

[@theknightswhosay]

I learned Latin in school, and almost every time I explain some Latin word to my friend who speaks Spanish he realizes at some point what the word is in Spanish. Doesn’t always recognize the pronunciation at first.

[@decluesviews2740]

Olly and Luke teaming up for a Latin course? Yes, please.

[@storylearning]

Voilà:)

[@kylemek0]

Yup was sold on the course as soon as you said Luke would be teaching it.

[@Blaqjaqshellaq]

There's a radio station in Finland that broadcasts in Latin! The reason Sardinian is still close to Latin is that its speakers live on an island that's long been isolated and little affected by the outside world's changes. (For the same reason, the Appalachian dialect of hillbillies is closer to what Shakespeare spoke than most other versions of today's English.)

[@Unbrutal_Rawr]

Unfortunately the program came to an end just a month over 3 years ago.

[@notcrediblesolipsism3851]

I've heard that story that some American dialects are closer to late middle ages English than the English spoken in England today and I just don't buy it. In England there are many different accents that have gradually homogenised due to mass media, in the late middle ages they would have been much more diverse and sometimes mutually incomprehensible. There wasn't one English to sound like.

[@AUGUSTIN-MUSIC]

Perfect timing for this video. As someone who has gotten obsessed with language this past year- and has been studying Spanish hard- my dad recommended learning Latin in order to better understand all the Romance languages and to have a “kick-a*% vocabulary” haha. So wish me luck guys. Thanks for the vide Olly

[@headstanding_Penguin]

latin grammar will also help you with german, as it teaches you to understand the gramatical causus system

[@AUGUSTIN-MUSIC]

@@headstanding_Penguin awesome!

[@JamesKerLindsay]

I just have to say how much I love this channel. Another brilliant video. Thank you.

[@FlamingBasketballClub]

You watch Olly Richards videos? Who knew?

[@carolina_i__]

I've always been a fan of learning languages, but Latin fascinates me. Thank you for such a great video!

[@javifontalva7752]

You can learn Latin on my channel.

[@SmallSpoonBrigade]

Latin is a wonderful and very beautiful language if you don't mind the hassle of declensions and conjugations. Personally, I had issues with that, but it is a language worth learning anyways.

[@azotic1]

I learned Latin as an American high school student in California. I took two years of it, but wasn't very diligent and got very poor grades. However, as an adult in my 40s I moved to Iceland several years ago and began learning Icelandic, which also has gender and case systems like Latin's. That Latin study as a teenager, in addition to helping build my English vocabulary, has made it a lot easier to pick up basics of Icelandic grammar. In retrospect, taking those Latin classes, painful and unproductive though they felt at the time, has had huge ongoing value in my life.

[@claudiakarl7888]

Latin is still taught as one of the second languages you can learn at school in Germany. And everyone who wants to study theology has to learn Latin and Ancient Greek.

[@danielaortiz8946]

Hi. ¿What are the other 2nd languages?

[@claudiakarl7888]

In most schools it’s French. But some schools also offer Spanish.

[@marcusyaun9465]

Interesting when I was I school we didn’t learn Greek or Latin, maybe a little bit the only two languages available were Spanish and French….

[@claudiakarl7888]

@@marcusyaun9465 Where did you go to school?

[@zimriel]

For theologians I'd drop Latin and instead demand a Semitic language, probably Hebrew but I'll allow Syriac.

[@BRYKS22]

Been watching Luke for a long time, the guy is a genius.

[@MusaPedestris]

Heus!! ("Hey" in Latin), I found this video through Luke, and it appears that you've got an extremely interesting channel - and a new subscriber :-) So happy you're going to collaborate and combine spoken Latin and history! Although I'm a Latinist, I've been always having difficulties with understanding and particularly memorizing history. However, you explained it in such a vivid way that I watched the whole video, although I was planning to see the first 5 minutes, as it's way beyond bedtime. Then, of course, I appreciate it a lot that you brought up the subject of Latin being a language spoken today: I'm more than happy being part of this amazing community! Thanks your this video, which I will absolutely share with my friends!! Gratias ago pro ista pulcherrima pellicula, quam omni pacto cum amicis meis compertiar! Te saluto ex Germania, Marina.

[@storylearning]

Wonderful comment thank you!

[@Tom-bs3zh]

Coptic is the same way, Coptic is known as a dead language but there are many people that speak it colloquially as a second language. Coptic is making a slow but true comeback.

[@zimriel]

Bohairic, I assume? Sahidic was the literary language of Late Antiquity, but the Bohairic church had more people so it became the default. Students of Late Antiquity and Egyptian literature under early Islam are better off learning Sahidic.

[@theemeraldingot6327]

If I had to guess, I’d say that there are about 20 to 30 thousand fluent speakers of Latin still around today, as well as many thousands who have been trained to be able to read it, just not speak or be capable of hearing it.

[@simianto9957]

It's actually way less, estimated to be around a 100.

[@SmallSpoonBrigade]

@@simianto9957 That sounds about what I would expect. These days, the vast majority of the people who are conversant or fluent in Latin learn it as teenagers or adults for use in religious studies. There's also a very small amount of materials being produced in Latin, which just makes it harder to learn and retain the language. Compare that to the production quantity of even less common languages, and it's particularly apparent.

[@TheOnlyRaichuu]

I had learnt Latin for a total of 8 years in school. They never really teach you to speak Latin, instead you're only taught to read, understand and analyse Latin texts, especially poetry. To be fair, poetry in Latin is astonishing and highly interesting. The grammar allows for such wonderful poetry, I love it. Yet after all these years of learning Latin, I can't fully comprehend what the guy in the video is saying when spoken live. Neither can I speak Latin properly, though I can read it with the proper pronunciation. Just like you said, I bet there are many more thousands who can read it but just not speak or hear it

[@FantasmaOlvidado1]

@@simianto9957 1000 according to wikishit.

[@thebigphilbowski]

This is a fantastic video. When I started learning Italian I fell down a language rabbit hole of sorts. You and Luke are my favorites, so to see you guys collaborate is a real treat.

[@storylearning]

Thanks so much

[@quercus5398]

For those learning Italian,remember propably 95% ends in vowels,anything female ends in “A” Anything male ends in “O”...........Figlia....Daughter. Figlio......Son.

[@tomm2812]

Brother Casmire James (RIP) tried his mightiest to teach me Latin for 3 years. I confess it did not take. Bless you Brother my Teacher. I learned much more than You ever thought. Bless you Old Brother. Best

[@ethereal_aurora]

I started learning Latin and I got so excited when I could understand the audio snippet in the beginning of this video! Count me in 🙃

[@cb8655]

1:55 Why is Romanian not in the Italic chart?? It’s a Latin language too, even if it doesn’t immediately come to mind.

[@gavindoyle692]

I’m keen to do that Classical Latin course. I speak French, German, Italian and Spanish, and I studied Latin for six years in school, so I’d really like to recoup the knowledge of it that I’ve lost over the years.

[@jock364]

I studied Scots Law which is based on Roman Law and had to read the Institutes of Gaius and Justinian in Latin. Being from different periods, I could see the language changing.

[@georgios_5342]

Wow, this is amazing! I love Luke and his work, he's taught me so much!

[@gergelygaspar6121]

You can easily realize how important Latin is, when you have to learn the scientific names of plants and animals at university. After 4 ys of high school Latin it was not challenging me, but most of my schoolmates had difficulties with that.

[@courtnee1060]

I'm a history buff so I throughly enjoyed this video! I've never really explored Latin or recognized if I had an interest in it but the fact that it is such a well-preserved relic from the past definitely encourages me to learn it to take a look into history. Currently learning French but once I reach my goal, I'll head to Latin and try out your program. Nice to add a dead language to my arsenal (English, Spanish, French)

[@storylearning]

Thanks for commenting Courtnee!

[@chibiromano5631]

Latin the first Esperanto...(tl) 1 govt, 1 language, 1 raza , 1 religion.. i smell neoh liberalitzm/cul tl martz sm tziguised as psuedo historical/ lingui acedmia,

[@marcusyaun9465]

I always wanted to learn French, but instead due to where I live. I though Spanish would be a better fit since the people I live around all speak Spanish, giving me more opportunities to practice speaking Spanish…

[@EverettMcLemore]

Have you ever read books by Mario Pei? I started his books at age 13 in 1964, and I read them all. You remind me of him a little bit in your enthusiasm for language.

[@tomislavnagy8715]

Thank You Olly for making such a GREAT Video! I was woundering when You will talk about Latin!

[@aafrophonee]

Two channels I thoroughly enjoy collaborating together 😃

[@APlusRussian]

😎 Cool way to thread SO many languages that SO many of us speak RIGHT back to Latin 🧵

[@storylearning]

Glad you noticed!

[@aaronspurling]

I took two years of classical Latin and a semester of medieval Latin in college over thirty years ago. Most of it has faded since then, of course, but I'd love to relearn it. I'm totally onboard with this course! Now, when are you going to create a similar course on 5th Century B.C. Attic Greek? I'm not kidding; I'd actually love a course on that!

[@storylearning]

Haha, I’m imagining creating a resurgence in ancient languages here on KZbin now…

[@veritasardens6547]

I am glad to see this video, I love Latin and have been learning it for about 10 years now and I can speak it. I have some friends who are also friends with Luca Ranieri. :)

[@mareksagrak9527]

Here enters the philosophical question: when we should say that a language has died? Is really Latin a dead language while it has several dozens natural Roman continuers? Is ancient Greek a dead language or merely one of multiple phases of development of one single tongue which has led as to the modern Greek language? Personally I think that we cannot even say that Proto-Indo-European is dead because this language still 'secretly' lives in almost every word that we use. Meanwhile the languages like Hettitic, Hattic or Summerian are really dead, because they have left absolutely no descendants, neither they persist to these days...

[@bofbob1]

What if some of those "really dead" languages left a few loan words? Reminds of pre-contact dogs in the Americas: they all went extinct, except their genetic lineage survived in a form of transmissible canine cancer that still exists today. So are the pre-contact dogs really dead? ^^

[@mareksagrak9527]

@@bofbob1 Ha, that's a good question. Especially because a lot of ancient languages really became substratum for different modern languages. In Armenian language there still exist some Urartian borrowings, in French we can find some Gallic remnants and Ancient Greek language absorbed a lot of "pre-greek" (Pelasgian?) words which are still used in the Greek language, etc etc. However IMHO the core of every language from which we can roughly assume whether it still "exists" (as well as identify its origin) is its distinctive grammar and core vocabulary. You know such a relativist style of thinking can lead to different exaggerations. For instance this is now a widely known fact that neandertals were mixing with homo sapiens so that we have some of their genes. However it would be quite risky to state that because of that Neandertals still partially live. 😅 (But maybe right indeed?) And what to tell about some particular dinosaur species whose descendants are modern birds?

[@SmallSpoonBrigade]

Generally, you go based on native speakers and whether it's being adapted to cover the needs of those speakers. If those two things are happening, the language is definitely alive, but might be in danger if it's a small community. Typically, if you've got native speakers, the language will continue to be adapted and evolved to remain useful. Even if there were still native speakers of some of those other languages of the Italian peninsula, if the languages aren't being updated, it would be a stretch to suggest that they weren't dead.

[@SmallSpoonBrigade]

@@bofbob1 Pretty much every language will leave fossils in the languages that are in use in regions that the speakers contact. The main exception would be if the only words that are unique to the language don't reflect things that are needed in those languages. So, if the word for Interest were to be imported into a language like Arabic where most of the speakers don't believe in paying it, then there's a poor chance of it being preserved through Arabic. But, if it gets passed through a language that does concern itself with interest, or more likely comes to, then there's a good chance of it being preserved there. As opposed to situations where the word does reflect a useful concept, but already has a word for it. The words may still find use anyway, Beef and Cow, Chicken and Poultry, Pig and Pork all are able to coexist in English, but it wasn't a given.

[@FatherJMarcelPortelli]

Well, I celebrated a traditional Latin Mass just today, so I'm not sure that I'd call Latin "dead."

[@gemoftheocean]

I priest I knew studied in Rome in the 50s. He had classes which were given in Latin. When exam time came around he had to verbally answer in Latin. Stupid misguided Vatican II changed all that.

[@doctorj6030]

I still occasionally attend the Latin Mass that I loved when I was young. The church has kept Latin alive , even though it is not universally used in the Catholic Church.

[@nealgrey6485]

This is sarcasm. How do you feel that almost no one knows what you are saying? But perhaps this is not a public church but a school where the students DO know Latin?

[@fallingcrane1986]

Deo gratias! (Day-oh grah-tsee-ahs!)

[@johndorilag4129]

​@@nealgrey6485Heck, even in California, I cannot even understand the English spoken by Americans

[@Canev821]

No I’m learning Latin and Love it. Love luc so much

[@michelefrau6072]

I'm a native Sardinian speaker, and i use the same variety spoken by the old lady in the video, but this is not the closest to latin, you should have looked for a 'nuorese' sample, the towns in the central area of the island preserved better phonetics and lexicon due the isolation.

[@miv6770]

That's a treasure. Please consider recording conversations with people in that town, go talk with people. Why not upload them on yt, to remain in the memory of internet? Their language must be a hidden treasure...

[@michelefrau6072]

@@miv6770 on yt there are many samples of Sardinian speech and dialects, there is a channel 'language quirks' , with a video about why sardinian is closer to latin than other romance languages, I won't put the direct link because yt seems to disdain this, even if it's an internal link

[@Romanophonie]

This is great, Olly! Hopefully this video will promote the study of this pulcherrima lingua! 😀😀

[@tomtocz7284]

Great video Olly, very interesting !!!

[@matteosposato9448]

Very nice content, half an hour packed of stuff but never boring. And it must have taken some planning and research effort to build this puzzle of a video! Just one question... you'll be out with a storylearning course on a dead language but nothing on Swahili?? 😥 Cheers!

[@marmotarchivist]

Latin had a huge influence in my life. We could choose it as an optional course in high school and besides the language itself, I learned so much about history, mythology, religion and philosophy that I went on to study medieval history at university. It even helped me to get my current employment as an archivist describing medieval documents as a speciality. And while I already forgot so much of the finer points of grammar over the years, it generally deepened my understanding of so many elements of European culture, history, etymology and current European languages that I’m still grateful to this day that I took the opportunity to learn it in the first place.

[@bofbob1]

That sounds like a fascinating job!

[@peregrination3643]

What kind of high school did you go to that would offer Latin? I'm surprised to see a few people here in the comments saying that.

[@marmotarchivist]

@@peregrination3643 A normal one? We don't really have different kinds in my country (good private vs. bad public, catholic etc. if that's what you're asking). Not every high school in the country offers latin or the exact same curriculum. It depends on the teachers they have. It just so happened that the one nearest to me offered it. In addition, our high schools are hard to get into, with good grades or entrance exams, so only about 40% of people attend them and later go to uni, the rest take the apprenticeship careerpath.

[@bofbob1]

​@@peregrination3643 In France in the late 90s / early aughts I had an optional Latin class from junior high onwards (all public school). It started in "5e". Not sure what the equivalent grade name is in other countries, but it's your 7th year of mandatory education and students would be around 12 years old (unless they skipped or failed a year). I don't think my school had Ancient Greek though. It just depended on availability of teachers. Unless things have changed since then, in France you have two mandatory foreign languages, and one of them has to be English (which sucked in my case, because I grew up bilingual speaking English at home but I still had to attend beginner English classes lol). The other mandatory language can be whatever, but it's overwhelmingly Spanish or German. And then you can take optional classes in a third language. And there it really depends who they have on staff. "Districting" isn't all that strict and you can apply to go to another public school if they teach the language you're looking for and the one in your immediate area doesn't. For instance a friend of mine ended up going to a public school about a 90min bus ride further away than ours because she really wanted to learn Japanese and our school didn't teach it. I think Latin is fairly widely available though. More than Japanese for sure.

[@marmotarchivist]

@@bofbob1 Beeing an archivist really is a fascinating job. I love to work with older documents, which have such an innate beauty in the language, materials and appearance, even if the content itself is quite mundane. In Switzerland, we also learn two additional languages during mandatory education, French and English in my case. And I didn’t mention it in detail before, but I started Latin classes in grade 7 on a voluntary basis and took it as an official subject in high school (grades 9-12), so I luckily didn’t have to do the “murder crash course” at university, where you learned all the basics required for majors like ancient and medieval history, philology or religion studies in one semester. And my condolences for having to take beginners English in France as a bilingual English speaker. My French and English are by no means perfect, both in grammar and accent, but French people speaking English... let's just say it helps if you know some French as well😅

[@billsager5634]

My daughter took years of Latin in High School (including AP) because she wants to be a doctor. Latin has helped her in innumerable ways in college. My son is in high school now, and he takes Latin as well. Funny thing is, they attend/attended a normal public high school (not a charter school, not a private school - a regular public school) - which blows peoples minds.

[@annarboriter]

While I was working towards my teaching certification, the school district was trying to drop Latin as an elective because it created too much of an appearance of elitism. Which made me laugh because I was told that even after 4 years of following the HS Latin program, the same students were very often placed at university into Latin 101

[@Occitania26]

Current Latin name: Occitan

[@francegamble1]

I learned Latin from a young age. My father made us. I also love that KZbin channel you mention and watch him constantly.

[@marethyu31]

That thumbnail made me realize they need to make a videogame with Roman zombie legions

[@frijolito7ful]

We need to keep this language alive

[@simianto9957]

Working on it

[@simianto9957]

@@austrakaiser4793 Lingua sine fine et sine morte

[@austrakaiser4793]

Latinum est aeternum

[@rosacuore15]

Appreciate you are giving credit to Luke Ranieri 🙂👏🙏

[@okformadrid]

Thank you, great subject

[@holyrolypoly]

As a classics major, this makes me very happy.

[@3dwardcullen69]

"Palat" = "Palace" in Romanian (Latin Palatium). I think that out of all languages, Romanian preserves this word most accurately.

[@gabyradu8266]

Romanian don't come from Latin. No matter how much , we Romanians, brag about this ....romanian language don't come from latin. The children's of Roman elites had to learn latin and greek.

[@3dwardcullen69]

@@gabyradu8266 Please cut the bs. You're making us look like uneducated crackpots.

[@daciaromana2396]

@@gabyradu8266 This is misinformation.

[@malarobo]

@@gabyradu8266 And from where come the Romanian?

[@gabyradu8266]

@@malarobo Oh...that's easy to answer. Genetics evolved and gave us the answer. We are a genetic mix of old cultures ( Hamangia , Boian , Cucuteni , Turdas-Vincia) that lived 6000-8000 yrs ago(haplogroup i2 30%) and a relatively recent culture , Getae (R1 haplogroup 36%) that came from north -east 3500-4000 yrs ago. And E1B 10-20% that came from Africa. In Europe didn't came any new DNA in last 4000 yrs. I mean , did came . But under 4-5% and it was assimilated in the larger European DNA pool. Hungarians , Finish , Slavs , Visigoths , Ostrogoths , Cumans , Tartars , Bulgars, Mongols etc etc. They were ruler classes and they were assimilates in few generations. After 10 generations or so they looked very Europeans. If you refer to Romanian language ...where did it came from , its even more simple. Romanian language didnt came from Latin. It came from an older language ...From this primordial language came all the European languages. Not Hungarian and Finish languages.

[@petergianarakos9203]

Arma virumque cano.....I took 4 yrs of Latin 50 yrs ago.and it was just wonderful to hear ur guest speaking in Latin. Thanks!

[@jmwild22]

Amazing story!!

[@thaissa382]

First :)) I love your videos, I became fluent in English thanks to you!!

[@douaabm9179]

Can you tell me how can I acheive the advanced level in english? I felt like I'm stuck in the intermmediate level Yesterday I did a level test and I got B1

[@thaissa382]

@@douaabm9179 You should try to immerse yourself as much as you can: think in English, read in English, watch movies in English, practice talking with english speakers... It's what worked for me :) good luck!

[@douaabm9179]

@@thaissa382 thank you so mush I try to do all of them everyday

[@user-sy3td2bt8w]

Hi, I am your big fan and the level of knowledge that you possess is extraordinary... I request you to make a video on Tamil (Tamizh) language spoken in India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore and other parts of the world...

[@timothytikker3834]

One of my music professors, an organist born in Switzerland in 1942, once told of how when he was researching historic organs in Spain in the 1970s, he visited one church where the priest insisted that he didn't speak Castilian Spanish, rather only Catalan... or Latin! My teacher, who had studied classical Latin (and for the matter, Greek) in his Swiss school upbringing, then proceeded to converse with this priest in Latin the entire time!

[@julianarocha9370]

very good video! i admire luke quite a lot, what an interesting man

[@martinkirilov5224]

first!!!! Olly, you are the best!!!

[@storylearning]

First!

[@lucius_cursor]

Lingua Latīna optima est! Grātiās tibi! Lūcius bonus magister est!

[@tonygumbrell22]

Fascinating and delightful, thank you.

[@cantrait7311]

Thanks for the video I think I’ll start learning Latin again

[@awantamta]

That was really interesting because I studied 'O' level Latin at school and got a B !

[@guillermorivas7819]

The romance languages are Neo-Latin. Italian and Spanish are the closest to vulgar latin in many ways. Romanian is also close.

[@ironinquisitor3656]

Sardinian is pretty conservative too.

[@user-mrfrog]

Vraiment fascinante cette vidéo! Merci mille fois!

[@robertvecci262]

Salve, This is a very informative introduction. I would hope that the "case and declension" system for nouns and the "verb conjugations" will eventually be addressed, because they add to the precision of the Latin language. Gratis! P.S. "Arma virumque Cano Trojae in primus aboris." (Virgil's Aeniad, Line 1, Canto 1) "Quo unque tandem abutere Catalina patientia nostra?" (Line 1, Cicero's Oration on the Cataline Conspiracy) "Galia divisa in partes tres est." (Commenterri Bello Gallico)

[@ItsJesanime]

Love your vids man! i started my love of lang from your vids! really helps with my first conlang i'm making :D, Ðandryn

[@julbombning4204]

Yes!! Finally it’s out!!

[@scronx]

Really good! Bravo!

[@user-ig8pd9qn5h]

I recently started learning Sanskrit, and encouraged by your inspiring channel I started looking for easy Stories in Sanskrit and actually found quite a few very good and accessible, besides huge channels with hours of Sanskrit stories read aloud... Now, seeing this video on Latin, I am wondering what is more alive: Sanskrit or Latin? There are also news in Sanskrit and people who raise their children speaking Sanskrit. There is some movement towards making Sanskrit more accessible than the traditional teaching (torturing?). I actually started my studies with a Spoken Sanskrit course and all the "terrors" of tables is far from being terror for me now... Wouldn't it be an interesting topic for another video to cover what's happening with Sanskrit?

[@tracy3812]

Still crazy about Latin. Luckily, I was able to take 2 yrs of it in HS + a modern language. I still haven’t used the Algebra though. 😈

[@afinafina]

I don't get why you don't have Romanian in the Latin language tree. It s spoken by almost 30 million people in 2 countries and in diasporas around the world. Not to mention one of the biggest linguistic mystery, considering the geographic location of Romania. Moreover, still the closest to original latin in many cotidian expressions.

[@LoicLerminiaux]

Also the video mentions that no romance language has kept neutral.

[@mattdevereaux4550]

Excellent!

[@akiyrjana6558]

I like your videos, and also that weird Hokusai ramen bowl t-shirt in this particular video. Did you know there is a daily Latin language news broadcast in the Finnish public radio service since the late seventies. Nuntii Latini.

[@robertthomson1587]

Latin is used every day in churches where the traditional Latin mass is offered.

[@DerekWitt]

I find fascinating how Ecclesiastical Latin evolved from Vulgar Latin over time. I’m no linguist, but I think Romans in the 1st or 2nd Centuries would probably struggle with understanding Ecclesiastical Latin. Akin to us Modern English speakers struggling with the Late Middle English spoken by Shakespeare (albeit in reverse).

[@entropie138]

LOL 26:28 I was taught "In Taberna" and parts of Carmina Burana in my high school choir!

[@jc4157]

i absolutely love that you did not use bce or ce. make up your own time frame if you want to change it. we are in 10 ce? love you)))

[@Andrewtr6]

Thinking about it, Latin no longer being in common use is probably why it is so commonly used for magic systems in fantasy/ modern fantasy stories. That would be my guess. I've been considering using it for my modern fantasy magic system.

[@Zelkin2000]

Here in the Philippines, seminaries teach basic Latin to their aspirants. Although I have yet to meet one fluent in the language, I am sure that it is taught to a few, my cousin included. They used to use the book "Ars Latina".

[@ricoaranilla5949]

yung ibang matatanda marunong mag latin

[@zikoraifenneli]

Luke Ranieri and Olly Richards collaborating together on a Latin course?I am most certainly looking forward to it!

[@MURDERPILLOW.]

0:36 why did you have to word that so beautifully

[@shangobunni5]

I read somewhere (I can’t recall where) that Romanian has retained more things from Latin (or has evolved to a somewhat lesser degree grammar-wise) when compared to the other Romance languages. This makes sense since they are geographically more isolated from the rest of the Latin language descendants. So if you wanted to, you could test the waters by trying Romanian first.

[@zimriel]

I've heard this too but it is a bit overblown. Western Romance was a baseline of Western Vulgar Latin, with much colloquial Gaulish and Germanic, and also influence from the Church which fed in Greek koine as spoken in western Anatolia. Romanian didn't have a lot of that - not even from Greek since it's north of the Jiricek line - but what Romanian did have was a lot of Slavic neighbours. (And when the Slavs were Christian *those* Slavs had some Greek influence, but later Byzantine Greek.)

[@johnyg1939]

Are you gonna make a short stories book for Hebrew?

[@storylearning]

Id love to!

[@yorgunsamuray]

When I saw the part about Roman poetry and the syllabic-based meter, it totally reminded me of Ottoman Court Poetry. There was a similar pattern called the Aruz meter based on long and short syllables. It's apparently a popular meter in the poetry of the greater Middle East too. Seeing this was really interesting.

[@aydenzinter2849]

Where can I buy your shirt, where did you get it olly, I love it

[@hoi-polloi1863]

"Latin left tons of linguistic DNA in languages we speak today" Dude. If it had left any more, it'd be needing a cigarette just now.

[@lavenderhillmm]

Great work. As a former Latin teacher, much appreciated. Only one small criticism, the delivery was WAY too fast for my generation (70s)

[@dwaynekeenum1916]

That means he’s a better speaker

[@timothyreal]

Are you going to release a Storylearning book for Latin in the future?

[@michaeldavison9761]

I did Latin for one year in Grammar School and by making me aware of grammatical inflection which English lacked, I think it helped me when I started to learn German the following year. On a linguistic note I once caused the Latin master to correct his original assessment of a sentence I wrote as for a joke I used the 'Est mihi' construction for 'I have' and all the following words from various declensions just happened to end in 'ae' as a result and had a certain appeal. Marking it, he grunted and underlined these endings as errors in my presence as I smiled. He got to the end of the sentence realised what I'd done, said 'Ah' and went back scribbling out his previous underlining.

[@antoinemozart243]

Latin and german have a lot in common.

[@lesfreresdelaquote1176]

in France, it is usually possible to learn some Latin at school, even though the thing is not as popular as in the past, most collèges (high schools) propose at least one or two hours of Latin a week. I studied Latin for five years, and it proved incredibly useful to understand how Latin words evolved into French. First, since French is a language with a terrible case of homophones (sang, sans, cent, sent or sain, sein, ceint, seing or banc, ban), the problem was solved with keeping the original latin word as a model. So knowing some latin proved quite useful to write my own language. Second, I could go backward and understand how Latin could have evolved in Italian or in Spanish, which helped me a lot deciphering these languages when I was in Italy or in Spain. For instance, when you have the spelling "au" in French, it usually an "al" sound in old French that was lost in time, but which is still very alive in Spanish or Italian: chauve -> calvo. The same for the sound "ch", which is still a "c" in Italian or in Spanish. château -> castello. The "â" is French, which denotes the presence of an "s" in old French: pâte -> pasta. And so on and so forth.

[@pierreabbat6157]

There's a young girl named Iulia who grows up speaking Latin and sometimes shows up with her father in the Latin chat. Etruscan has a relative, Lemnian. The language family they belong to is called Tyrrhenian. Did you mean that "window" is from Etruscan (it's from Norse), or that "fenestra" is? A few other words that are (probably) derived from Etruscan: belt, April, satellite.

[@annarboriter]

Yeah, that example makes no sense at all. Other than place names, I don't think Etruscan contributed anything to modern languages

[@malarobo]

@@annarboriter In this video it is not clearly stated that "finestra" is used in modern Romance languages ​​such as Italian and French (fenêtre) , not in English where "window" is germanic, but many italian words derived from etruscan via latin: persona (person) from etruscan persona=mask* atrio (hall) from athre=wide space autunno (fall, autumn) from autumnu mondo (world) from muth=hole popolo (people) from puplu arena (ring) from arena=sand calta (a type of plant) istrione (great actor) from hister=actor finestra (window) from fenestra milite, militare (soldier) from miles=attendant via latin miles=soldier taverna (tavern) from taberna catena (chain) from cathna vino (wine) from uinu avvoltoio (vulture) from vultriu cerimonia (ceremony) from the etruscan city of Caere (today Cerveteri) classe (class) asse (axis) sporco (dirty) from sporcu naso (nose) from nasu probably even pari (even) from pare saetta (arrow, lighting bolt) from sagitta raggio (ray) from rahdia=spike asino (donkey) mulo (mule) some of these words are used even in english and other modern european languages. * the actors wore masks in roman theater, then persona went to mean a character, a theatrical role and then a man or woman in general

[@annarboriter]

@@malarobo I have no idea what source exists that contends that this word list includes Latin borrowings of Etruscan words. A few are cognates with Greek so that rules out an Etruscan origin. Furthermore, what is the point of citing modern Italian vocabulary to then compare them with Latin borrowings of possible Etruscan origin? It's just as likely that Etruscans borrowed vocabulary from both Latin and Greek speakers. The first test to know whether this vocabulary is from Etruscan is determining whether it has PIE roots and then one can speculate whether the original source is Etruscan. Both nasus and vinum, for example, have clearly established PIE roots that I didn't even need to look up

[@malarobo]

@@annarboriter That list is get from various sources: The “Treccani” encyclopedia (the most prestigious for the italian language), “Thesaurus Linguae Etruscae” (1978) “La lingua etrusca - Grammatica e lessico” (1997 by M. Pittau) “Dictionnaire étimologique de la langue latine” (1985, A. Enout) ”Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana” (1979, M. Cortellazzo) ”Etruskisches sprachgut im lateinischen unter ausschluss des spezifisch onomastischen” (1993, H. Rix) ”Dizionario etimologico italiano” (1950, C. Battisti) ”Avviamento all’etimologia italiana” (1968, G. Devoto) In those sources the etymologies are indicated as etruscan into latin, not vice versa (no PIE root). In some cases there are names or family names of Etruscan origin that refer to these words: atrane, atru, atrunia (linked to “atrio”), pupla, pupli, puplie (linked to “popolo”) see also the etruscan city of Populonia. There are even etymologies indicated by latin writers: Varro in “De lingua latina” wrote “atrium appellatum ab atriatibus tuscis” = “hall is named by etruscans of Atria” (Atria is a city, the roman Adria). The halls in Pompei were named “tuscanicum”, another recall to etruscans. In greek atrion means “calm” then it isn’t a correct etymology, but a random homophony because the semantics is very different.

[@malarobo]

@@annarboriter For the word “vino (wine)” according to Treccani encyclopedia is a word of mediterranean origin then it’s a pre-indoeuropean word, not a PIE word. Latin taken this word from etruscan. Perhaps it’s a native etruscan word or a loanword from greek to etruscan, but of pre-greek origin (minoan? Lemnian - a language similar to etruscan?). In any case, if today in italian and english we use that word it is because the latin took it from the etruscan. For the word “naso (nose)” you are right, the root is indo-european, but there is an etruscan cognomen (name of the gens=clan name) Nasu. It's way it is in the list (I should have put them on the list of uncertain items).

[@theknightswhosay]

Good tip about growling the r

[@1sloo]

Quoting from the Sister Jamie episode in The Bionic Woman: “donec procituro tom veritas non oretur”.

[@janusroland]

Latin is making a comeback. Quick! Everybody go buy the book "Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata" by Orberg

[@salasrcp90]

Spanish Italian Portuguese French etc. Are the new simplified versions of Latin so latin is alive and strong 💪

[@Rosi_in_space]

The thumbnail is excellent.

[@irasthewarrior]

2:47 Romanian: palat. 1:54 You made the typical mistake. Romania has the most latin language of all despite slavic influences. We have the statue of Romulus and Remus with the wolf in front of public administration building in the small town in which I live and many more latin symbols.