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Medieval Latin
Carmina Cantabrigiensia, Medieval Latin manuscript
Native to
Numerous small states
Region
Most of Europe
Era
Developed from Late Latin between 4th and 10th centuries; replaced by Renaissance Latin from the 14th century
Language family
Indo-European
Italic
Latino-Faliscan
Latin
Medieval Latin
Early forms
Proto-Indo-European
Proto-Italic
Proto-Latino-Faliscan
Old Latin
Classical Latin
Late Latin
Writing system
Latin alphabet
Official status
Official language in
De facto in most Catholic and/or Romance-speaking states during the Middle Ages
Language codes
ISO 639-3
–
Linguist List
lat-med
Glottolog
medi1250
Europe, AD 1000
Medieval Latin was the form of Literary Latin used in Roman Catholic Western Europe during the Middle Ages. In this region it served as the primary written language, though local languages were also written to varying degrees. Latin functioned as the main medium of scholarly exchange, as the liturgical language of the Church, and as the working language of science, literature, law, and administration.
Medieval Latin represented a continuation of Classical Latin and Late Latin, with enhancements for new concepts as well as for the increasing integration of Christianity. Despite some meaningful differences from Classical Latin, Medieval writers did not regard it as a fundamentally different language. There is no real consensus on the exact boundary where Late Latin ends and Medieval Latin begins. Some scholarly surveys begin with the rise of early Ecclesiastical Latin in the middle of the 4th century, others around 500,[1] and still others with the replacement of written Late Latin by written Romance languages starting around the year 900.
The terms Medieval Latin and Ecclesiastical Latin are sometimes used synonymously, though some scholars draw distinctions. Ecclesiastical Latin refers specifically to the form that has been used by the Roman Catholic Church (even before the Middle Ages in Antiquity), whereas Medieval Latin refers to all of the (written) forms of Latin used in the Middle Ages.
The Romance languages spoken in the Middle Ages were often referred to as Latin, since the Romance languages were all descended from Vulgar Latin itself.[2] Medieval Latin would be replaced by educated humanist Renaissance Latin, otherwise known as Neo-Latin.
^Ziolkowski, Jan M. (1996), "Towards a History of Medieval Latin Literature", in Mantello, F. A. C.; Rigg, A. G. (eds.), Medieval Latin: An Introduction and Bibliographical Guide, Washington, D.C., pp. 505-536 (pp. 510-511){{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^"Romance languages". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 27 November 2018.
MedievalLatin was the form of Literary Latin used in Roman Catholic Western Europe during the Middle Ages. In this region it served as the primary written...
including the development in MedievalLatin of lower-case, forms which did not exist in the Classical period alphabet. The Latin alphabet evolved from the...
modern Romance languages. In Latin's usage beyond the early medieval period, it lacked native speakers. MedievalLatin was used across Western and Catholic...
of Latin was used between the eras of Classical Latin and MedievalLatin. Scholars do not agree exactly when Classical Latin should end or Medieval Latin...
of the Renaissance humanists, and as such their Latin style sought to purge Latin of the medievalLatin vocabulary and stylistic accretions that it had...
the distinctive Latin style developed by the humanist movement. Neo-Latin, or New Latin, is applied to Latin written after the medieval period according...
Gymnasium. Latin schools were also established in Colonial America. Emphasis was placed on learning Latin, initially in its MedievalLatin form. Grammar...
Europe, medieval literature was written in Ethiopic, Syriac, Coptic, Japanese, Chinese, and Arabic, among many other languages. In Western Europe, Latin was...
and never made it to being recited without song or other music. In medievalLatin, while verse in the old quantitative meters continued to be written...
Christian alike. The history of medieval philosophy is traditionally divided into two main periods: the period in the Latin West following the Early Middle...
used in European, Old Russian, medievalLatin, Muslim, Gnostic, Hebrew, and other literatures. In the book "MedievalLatin visions", Russian philologist...
Ecclesiastical Latin, also called Church Latin or Liturgical Latin, is a form of Latin developed to discuss Christian thought in Late antiquity and used...
vocabularies The following plant names entered medievalLatin texts from Arabic. Today, in descent from the medievalLatin, they are international systematic classification...
al-ʾanbīq in MedievalLatin as alembicus, alembic. Arabic al-dabarān in MedievalLatin as Aldebaran, Aldebaran. Arabic al-ḥinnāʾ in MedievalLatin as alchanna...
editions of texts originally written in medievalLatin, Byzantine Greek, Old English, and the languages of the medieval Iberian peninsula, with facing-page...
It was customary in the European Middle Ages, more precisely in the period of scholasticism which extended into early modern times, to designate the more...
Empire, the medieval period of the Byzantine Empire, and the late medievalLatin Empire, all of which called themselves "Roman". The term "Latin" has been...
word "commune" (Italian: comune) appears in Latin records in various forms. They come from MedievalLatin communia, plural form of commune (that which...
(d. 1707). The adjective medieval, meaning pertaining to the Middle Ages, derives from medium aevum ('middle age'), a Neo-Latin term first recorded in 1604...
Renaissance Latin authors were to a large extent successful in removing innovations in grammar, spelling and vocabulary present in MedievalLatin but absent...
Dacia (/ˈdeɪʃə/, DAY-shə; Latin: [ˈd̪aː.ki.a]) was the land inhabited by the Dacians, its core in Transylvania, stretching to the Danube in the south...
British Latin or British Vulgar Latin was the Vulgar Latin spoken in Great Britain in the Roman and sub-Roman periods. While Britain formed part of the...
onward, this Western-style organizational form gradually spread from the medievalLatin west across the globe, eventually replacing all other higher-learning...
the Latin vernacular), contrasted with latine loqui, "to speak in Latin" (MedievalLatin, the conservative version of the language used in writing and formal...
The Dictionary of MedievalLatin from British Sources ("DMLBS") is a lexicon of MedievalLatin published by the British Academy. The dictionary is not...
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