Speaking of Romans....

[Zkribbler]

A friend of mine & I was watching a show on the break up of the Roman Empire. At one point, the show referred to the Latin West and Greek East. This started a discussion.

I've always assumed that the Romance languages (Italian, Spanish, Portugese, French and for some reason Romanian) were derived from Latin. My friend insists that Italian is nothing like Latin.

Are the Romance languages derived from Latin? If not, why was Western Europe referred to as the Latin West?

Latin was the official language of the Romans. So didn't they speak it in Byzantium as well as in Rome? If they picked up the local Greek language instead, that would explain why they were referred to as the Greek East. --But if they spoke Latin, why then would they be the Greek East?

[Felch]

Italian is as similar to Latin as modern English is to Old English. Over a thousand years of interaction with other cultures changes a language.

Even after all those years, a student of Latin can look at written French or Spanish and make out plenty of words.

Romanian tended to be more Latin because it was a retirement community for veterans. At least that's what I was told.

[Felch]

As far as Greek usage, it prevailed in the East. In the West it was popular with the upper classes, but never dominated the common "vulgar" people. Latin never caught on in Greece.

[Zkribbler]

Thank you, Felch!

[Felch]

Happy to help

[BeBMan]

Originally posted by Zkribbler
I've always assumed that the Romance languages (Italian, Spanish, Portugese, French and for some reason Romanian) were derived from Latin. My friend insists that Italian is nothing like Latin.

It's not the same, but derived from Latin as well. Funny bit of useless info: in Gibson's "Passion of the Christ" the Romans speak Latin with Italian accent.

Are the Romance languages derived from Latin?

Yes.

If not, why was Western Europe referred to as the Latin West? Latin was the official language of the Romans. So didn't they speak it in Byzantium as well as in Rome?

The east was predominantly Greek since hellenist times. Before the break up, most common people would speak their "native" language besides Latin, many esp. from lower layers of the society probably just their own. Later the division Latin/Greek was also esp. related to (Latin) catholic vs. (Greek) orthodox.

[Winston]

Weren't you going to visit Rome this Summer, Zkribbler? Or was it your planning for next years vacation?

I remember reading something!

[Will9]

The word "Romance" come from the phase "romanice loqui" meaning "to speak Roman." The Romance Languages are also called "Romanic" or "Neo-Latin." So it should be obvious that they had Roman, and therefore Latin, origins.

[snoopy369]

Even in the west, Greek was seen as the 'scholarly' language, since most of the scholars read Greek in order to read ancient texts and so on.

IIRC, Byzantium (ERE) chose to use Greek officially both because most of its subjects spoke Greek anyway, and in order to distinguish it from the WRE, and reduce the claim the WRE had to being the 'true' capital.

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by Winston
Weren't you going to visit Rome this Summer, Zkribbler? Or was it your planning for next years vacation?

I remember reading something!

I was planning on it awhile back, but I went to the Philippines instead.

[Winston]

So you stood up the Pope to go see Lancer!? There must be some things you guys aren't telling us.

[BlackCat]

Originally posted by Winston
So you stood up the Pope to go see Lancer!? There must be some things you guys aren't telling us.

Philippino women

[Winston]

No, it couldn't be that. They never shut up about those.

[Theben]

Lancer doesn't, anyway.

A speaker of Spanish can make out enough words in Italian to hold a very basic conversation w/o learning it.