Though considered a ‘dead language' like Sanskrit today, Latin is the father of many Indo-European languages. Latin had wide prevalence in the European countries and is the official language of the Roman Republic and Empire, including the Vatican .
Very few people can speak fluent Latin now. But the influence Latin has exerted on several other languages surviving today is significant. Modern English owes a lot to this ‘so-called' dead language. Latin remains an important source of numerous academic, scientific and legal vocabularies.
As a member of the family of Italic languages, Latin has been used to compose many books. Bible was written in Latin. Latin Text books have some special stylistic features, which are quite different from what we find and read today. Special grammars, figures of speech, meters and other forms of rhetoric are very common linguistic features of Latin Text books.
Some popular and most common Latin text books are:
- Artes Latinae
- Wheelock's Latin
- Cambridge Latin Course
- Jenney's First Year Latin
- Oxford Latin Course
- Latin for Americans
As one of the ancient languages, Latin should not be looked down upon. Had Latin not been there, several European languages including modern English would not have cropped up at all!
