Why don't Italians speak Latin?

Answer 1

For the same reason that British people don't speak Old English.

Much of Southern Europe spoke Latin 2000 years ago, due to conquest by the Roman Empire. But, like any language will do over time, the words and structure gradually changed over the centuries, until the language could no longer be called "Latin". Of course, after the Roman empire fell apart, there was on controlling authority to ensure that the language changed in the same way over the entire range of Latin-speaking areas.

So, in France, Latin evolved into French. In Spain, it evolved into Spanish. And in Italy, it evolved into Italian. But that's an oversimplification. In reality, there were THOUSANDS of different dialects that evolved from the Latin parent language. Most of those in France were similar enough that they could all be lumped together and called "French". Ditto for Spanish and Italian. But I don't want you to get the impression that there is some huge diversion between Latin, French, Italian, and Spanish. Even after 2000 years, the languages are STILL similar enough that a French speaker who had never been exposed to Spanish would be able to understand at least the general meaning of something said by a Spanish speaker.

Just like Latin, Old English changed over time, to the point where it could no longer be called "Old English". Technically, that's not true. Before it evolved, there was no "New" English, so Old English was simply called "English". But, however you call it, it evolved over time to the point where it could no longer be called the same language. So linguists started calling it "Old English", because no one spoke it anymore, and called the new language "English".

But because English, both new and old, was confined to a small area compared to Latin, its evolution did not diverge as greatly as Latin's did. So the linguists didn't have to split it like the split up the languages that evolved from Latin.

But it's still the same principle. Languages change over time, and at some point, the change is so great that you can't call it the same language anymore. A comment that has nothing to do with the question but instead nitpicks at a minor part of the above answer without quite contradicting itSome of what was said is true, but not all of it, i know Italian since i was a child because my father is Italian/eritrean. and my mother's background is from basque country/ scot. my mother learned french recently due to courses and french is hard for me to understand with the exception of a handful of words.

French is a mixture of latin/gothic/Celtic/German. the name France comes the germanic tribe named the franks. i also know intermediate spanish. Spanish is a combo of Iberian, latin, Arabic, Carthage, and visigoth.if you listen carefully you will notice that much of spanish or i should say castilian which is more appropriate sounds a little like Arab.

I have seen certain spanish last names that are named after cities in Arabia or morocco. we called it spanish by mistake, Spain has more than one language just like the USSR once did. i would say spanish has 35% of Italian words.

Italy is in the middle of everything so their culture is different. but portuguese is about 78% like spanish. big difference. perhaps the enclosing that Spain has over Portugal. lets not forget the eastern European countries such as Romania/ moldova, who too speak a "latin" language.

But there more like the old soviet nations. the roman empire stretched from the Persian gulf/red sea to Scotland Netherlands so all those lands had some roman influence in some way. look at the word English, which is from angle which derived from latin meaning angoli(angulus)English had much influence from the normans who spoke french. Britain is a latin word. even London.

Even Germany is a latin word. if you look at Mexico south American spanish it is 70% spanish or castilian & a combo of indigenous words. we call ourselves Americans proudly in a sense. but what really is the meaning of that word? it comes from an Italian navigator named amerigo vespucci! so i guess the real US citizens are really "Italian"? before that we had no official name. it was just known as the new world. Another comment that has nothing to do with the question In Italy, the town of Faeto uses the Franco-Provencal dialect which is also used in one other place in France.

Answer 2

The Italian language did not exist back then. The Romans spoke Latin because they were Latins. Italian, like the other Romance languages (French, Spanish, Portuguese and Romanian) evolved over many centuries after the fall of the Roman Empire. These languages are an evolution from Vulgar Latin. This was a non-standard form of Latin (standard Latin is called Classical Latin) which was a colloquial language spoken by the common people around the Roman Empire. Vulgar Latin developed differently in the various regions of the empire, forming a number of dialects. Italian and the other Romance languages evolved very gradually out of these dialects of Vulgar Latin, which became extinct.

Italian fully emerged with the work of Dante, a poet, who wrote a famous book the Divine Comedy, which he wrote between c. 1308 and his death in 1321, some 940 years after the fall of the Roman Empire. Dante is considered the father of the Italian language.

Answer 3

coz, Romans come from Roma (Italyan 4 Rome)

there not called latinas!!