Latin Language

Italic dialect closely related to Umbrian and Osean. Down to 240 B.C. there are only inscriptions and a few more or le doubtful texts. As Roman literature grew, the vocabulary took in a host of Greek words. Cla ical Latin extends from ab. 200 B.C. until A.D. 150, including such writers as Tacitus, Suet on i us, and the younger Pliny. Latin of the later Empire shows signs of decay, and pa es imperceptibly into med iæval Latin. The popular speech (lingua rustic a) had always differed from literary Latin, which has been maintained down to the present day by the R.C. Ch. and by scholars; while the lingua rustic a became the foundation of the Romance languages.