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Classical language
A classical language is any language with an independent literary tradition and a large body of ancient written literature.
Classical languages are usually extinct languages. Those that are still in use today tend to show highly diglossic characteristics in areas where they are used, as the difference between spoken and written language has widened over time.
In the context of traditional European classical studies, the "classical languages" refer to Greek and Latin, which were the literary languages of the Mediterranean world in classical antiquity.
Greek was the language of Homer and of classical Athenian, Hellenistic and Byzantine historians, playwrights, and philosophers. It has contributed many words to the vocabulary of English and many other European languages, and has been a standard subject of study in Western educational institutions since the Renaissance. Latinized forms of Ancient Greek roots are used in many of the scientific names of species and in other scientific terminology. Koine Greek, which served as a lingua franca in the Eastern Roman Empire, remains in use today as a sacred language in some Eastern Orthodox churches. Eventually Koine Greek gave rise to Medieval Greek and then Modern Greek.
Latin became the lingua franca of the early Roman Empire and later of the Western Roman Empire. Despite the decline of the Western Roman Empire, the Latin language continued to flourish in the very different social and economic environment of the Middle Ages, not least because it became the official language of the Roman Catholic Church.
In Western and Central Europe and in parts of northern Africa, Latin retained its elevated status as the main vehicle of communication for the learned classes throughout the Middle Ages and subsequently in the Early modern period. In the 21st century, Latin is still taught in the United States, mostly in elite private schools.
Latin was not supplanted for scientific purposes until the 18th century, and for formal descriptions in zoology as well as botany it survived to the later 20th century. The modern international binomial nomenclature holds to this day: taxonomists assign a Latin or Latinized name as the scientific name of each species.
Vulgar Latin, the range of non-formal registers of Latin spoken from the Late Roman Republic onward, is the ancestor of the Neo-Latin languages (Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, Romanian, Catalan, etc).
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Classical language
A classical language is any language with an independent literary tradition and a large body of ancient written literature.
Classical languages are usually extinct languages. Those that are still in use today tend to show highly diglossic characteristics in areas where they are used, as the difference between spoken and written language has widened over time.
In the context of traditional European classical studies, the "classical languages" refer to Greek and Latin, which were the literary languages of the Mediterranean world in classical antiquity.
Greek was the language of Homer and of classical Athenian, Hellenistic and Byzantine historians, playwrights, and philosophers. It has contributed many words to the vocabulary of English and many other European languages, and has been a standard subject of study in Western educational institutions since the Renaissance. Latinized forms of Ancient Greek roots are used in many of the scientific names of species and in other scientific terminology. Koine Greek, which served as a lingua franca in the Eastern Roman Empire, remains in use today as a sacred language in some Eastern Orthodox churches. Eventually Koine Greek gave rise to Medieval Greek and then Modern Greek.
Latin became the lingua franca of the early Roman Empire and later of the Western Roman Empire. Despite the decline of the Western Roman Empire, the Latin language continued to flourish in the very different social and economic environment of the Middle Ages, not least because it became the official language of the Roman Catholic Church.
In Western and Central Europe and in parts of northern Africa, Latin retained its elevated status as the main vehicle of communication for the learned classes throughout the Middle Ages and subsequently in the Early modern period. In the 21st century, Latin is still taught in the United States, mostly in elite private schools.
Latin was not supplanted for scientific purposes until the 18th century, and for formal descriptions in zoology as well as botany it survived to the later 20th century. The modern international binomial nomenclature holds to this day: taxonomists assign a Latin or Latinized name as the scientific name of each species.
Vulgar Latin, the range of non-formal registers of Latin spoken from the Late Roman Republic onward, is the ancestor of the Neo-Latin languages (Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, Romanian, Catalan, etc).