and then I would let the clever ones
learn Latin as an honor,
Sir Winston Churchill
Latin is perhaps the most important language of the western heritage. It was widely used in both the ancient and medieval worlds and scholars and churchmen continued its use into the early-modern and modern periods. Today Latin is the basis for the modern romance languages, including French, Portugeuse, Spanish, Italian, and Romanian. It is the official language of the Roman Catholic Church and is widely studied by high school and college students throughout the world. The obvious significance of Latin for the crusading movement is that the majority of western Christian texts from the period were composed in Latin. Even the very terms crusade or crusader are transliterations of the Latin word for cross.
The vast similarities between many of the world's languages has led scholars to the belief that such languages are descended from a common linguistic ancestor that is now lost in its original form. Perhaps the most convincing evidence of a common linguistic ancestor for diverse languages from Sanskrit to Lithuanian to English, is found by comparing the word for mother. In Sanskrit the word is matar, in Lithuanian the word is mote, in Latin the word is mater, in Greek the word is meter, in Old Irish the word is mathir, and in Russian the word is mat. It is believed that Latin, Greek, and Armenian are directly derived from their indo-European ancestor, as are the Balto-Slavic, Germanic, and Indo-Iranian language groups.
Romans learned to write from the Etruscans, who previously learned to write from Greek colonists who settled around Naples in the 8th century B.C.E. As a result, the Roman alphabet is essentially a form of the Greek alphabet, which was likely derived from the Phoenician alphabet.
Latin was the dominant language of the Roman Empire, and from it developed various vulgar versions of the language that later became known as French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and Romanian. None of the so called romance languages are derived from one another, but are instead cognates (Latin for "born together") which are derived from Latin.
Latin survived with relatively few modifications throughout the middle-ages largely due to is status as the official language of the Catholic Church. During the fourth century the patristic writer St. Jerome translated the bible into Latin and this version became known as the vulgate. From at least this point onward, the church continued to use Latin in its liturgy and administration throughout the middle ages. This effectively insured Latin's place as the language of aristocrats and the intellectuals in the medieval world. As a result of the pre-dominance of Latin, medieval western Europe became known as Latin Christendom and the Catholic Church was commonly referred to as the Latin Church.
Latin is not the only language of either surviving or important crusades sources. Several important sources have come down to us in languages including Arabic, Byzantine Greek, Amernian, Castillian, and Old French. Yet because the vast quanity of important sources survive in Latin the mastery of the language is a necessity for the serious scholar of the crusades.
Latin Language Resources for the Medievalist- Crusades-Encyclopedia
Latin Christendom- Crusades-Encyclopedia
Latin Church- Crusades-Encyclopedia
(c) Andrew Holt, August, 2005- Permission is granted for electronic copying and distribution in print for educational and personal use. No permission is granted for commercial use.