From latin to spanish

The history of a language is a passionate topic. Latin was the basis for most languages. This universal language was originally spoken in Latium, in the Italian Peninsula. Through the power of the Roman Republic, it became the dominant language, initially in Italy and subsequently throughout the Western Roman Empire. Vulgar Latin developed into the Romance languages, such as Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, French, and Romanian.

It is very interesting to appreciate how much Latin influence is still alive, being a language that many people refuse to forget (indeed, many schools include in their plan studies). Learning Latin is useful for medicine, law and several sciences since a lot of specialized terminology are in fact in that language.

It is simultaneously curious and a relief that a living language such as Spanish resembles so much to Latin. According to the Nueva Enciclopedia Autodidáctica Quillet, as much as 60% of Spanish comes directly from Latin. The other 40% is divided equally between Greek, Gothic, Arab and other influences (10% each). However, it’s not like Spanish is a languages that was made up of different pieces, one of which was Latin. The Latin spoken in the north central part of Spain kept being spoken but evolved into a new form over time.

Each romance language has uniquely preserved certain elements of Latin while evolving within its own region and with respect to its own colloquial peculiarities. Although the grammar of the modern Romance languages is very different from the Latin grammar, some languages kept a very conservative pronunciation and little transformations of the Latin Roots. Italian and Spanish perhaps being the most notorious examples.  

A bit of History

The standard Spanish language is also called Castillian in its original variant and in order to distinguish it from other languages native to parts of Spain, such as Galician, Catalan, Basque, etc. In its earliest documented form, and up through approximately the 15th century, the language is customarily called Old Spanish. From approximately the 16th century on, it is called Modern Spanish. But, Spanish of the 16th and 17th centuries is sometimes called "classical" Spanish, referring to the literary accomplishments of that period.

Castilian Spanish originated (after the decline of the Roman Empire) as a continuation of spoken Latin in several areas of northern and central Spain. Eventually, the variety spoken in the city of Toledo round the 13th century became the basis for the written standard. Over the past 1,000 years, the language expanded south to the Mediterranean Sea, and was later transferred to the Spanish colonial empire, especially in America.

Some examples

Grammatically speaking, Spanish is certainly one of the closest to Latin. Let’s compare with French and Romanian.

In the perfect tense of the verb to be..

• Latin: Fui; fuisti; fuit; fuimus; fuistis; fuerunt
• Spanish: Fui; fuiste; fue; fuimos; fuisteis; fueron
• French: J'ai été; tu as ...; il a ...; nous avons ...; ils ont ...
• Romanian: am fost; ai ....; a .... ; am ....; ati ....; au ....

Here, the last two both have compound perfect tenses. Whilst Latin and Spanish share the simple tense.

The imperfect endings:

• Latin: -bam; -bas; -bat; -bamus ; -batis ; -bant
• Spanish (has 2 sets): -aba; -abas; -aba; -abamos; -abais; -aban
• French: -ais; -ais; -ait; -ions; -iez; -aient
• Romanian: -am; -ai; -a; -am ; -ati; -au

Whilst the letter A runs through all of them (expect french in places) and you can see some similarity in the Romanian "am" and "ati"with latin, it's nowhere near as obvious as the Spanish.

One thing is certain: if you love Latin roots, you will love to learn Spanish!