AHC: Latin-speaking Modern Country
- Thread starter Vingilótë
- Start date
Lingua franca, or mother tongue? I could see maybe a more linguistically diffuse Italy adopting Latin as a common official language when it unifies(of course, would an Italy so diffuse unify in the first place?).
Also, what do you mean by 'Latin'? All languages change over time, and Latin changed into the Romance languages.
Redhand
Banned
I think your best hope for this is if the Byzantine Empire keeps Latin instead of caving and switching to Greek. If a widespread effort is undertaken to make everything Latin and continued over time, maybe the core Byzantine regions like Greece eventually use it in everyday life and Greece in the modern era may speak Latin. You could also get a hardcore theocratic German state to force Latin as a means for conversation during te reformation. Instead of translating the Bible to German, you could have people forced to speak Latin and learn it that way. These might be implausible but I'm not really seeing an alternative besides Italy keeping Latin unbarbarized.
That was my thought. I'm not really sure why they would want to do it, but I think that it would be the most plausible country.
What basis of pronunciation would you use for Latin? Esperanto-based? Florentine? Milanese? A compromise? An interesting idea I once had, for any state that used Latin as an official language, would be to retain an Italianate pronunciation (based on OTL Standard Italian) for the consonants only, whilst going for Milanese-like pronunciation in the vowels - this means that in addition to the basic vowels of Standard Italian, there would also be two additional vowels /ø/ and /y/ (similar to but different from French) plus usage of vowel length and nasality as important phonemic distinctions.
Note, too, that the Latin in use in the Vatican is actually a hybrid of both the Classical Latin nominal system but a verbal system more in tune with Medieval Latin, IIRC, so even there the Latin is not totally like the Classical form, even if the latter is the ideal.
Note, too, that the Latin in use in the Vatican is actually a hybrid of both the Classical Latin nominal system but a verbal system more in tune with Medieval Latin, IIRC, so even there the Latin is not totally like the Classical form, even if the latter is the ideal.
What about Poland. I think thy used Latin way longer than other countries. If you have a huge Poland, with different nationalities within (let's say, Poles, Lithuanians, Ukranians, etc.), maybe Latin is used as a "neutral" language, in order not to upset minorities?
What you need is a multilingual empire thats mostly RC. Austria(hungary) is the only one that springs to mind.
If a modern version of Hebrew could be revived and made a common language then it is possible to revive a form of Latin, possiblly in Italy. Precisely how that might occur I cant say.
If you wanted to satisfy the AHC on the cheap, you can just have the modern French or Italians call their language "Latin" and be done with it.
I suppose it's somewhat conceivable that a state unifying Italy, France, and/or Iberia that arose before the OTL nationalisms of these countries could have a "Latin" identity, with "Standard Latin" as the national language, while in practice most people spoke local "dialects". Wouldn't be much different from the OTL linguistic situation in China.
I suppose it's somewhat conceivable that a state unifying Italy, France, and/or Iberia that arose before the OTL nationalisms of these countries could have a "Latin" identity, with "Standard Latin" as the national language, while in practice most people spoke local "dialects". Wouldn't be much different from the OTL linguistic situation in China.
Delta Force
Banned
A few ideas that don't necessarily
1. A nationalist Italy decides to emphasize the glory of Ancient Rome (the Republic or Empire, it could be either). Latin is emphasized as part of this. A modern dialect of Italian or one of the languages found in the states that came together to form modern Italy can be promoted as Modern Latin. A form of Latin closer to the ancient kind could be promoted as Republican/Imperial Latin, State Latin, or High Latin (Modern Italian would be Low Latin). Or as another option, if Nationalist Italy promotes Catholicism the dialect used by the Catholic Church could be used.
2. Instead of trying to create a new language such as Esperanto, Pan-Europeanists and pacifists decide to promote Latin due to its similarity to the existing romance languages. Since Latin is still taught today (or at least was going strong in the 1880s and even into the 1980s) and many intellectuals and professionals such as lawyers and doctors already know Latin, the effort achieves greater success. At the very least it remains the language of the European elite.
3. The European Union adopts Latin as a common or official language during its establishment due its historical importance and similarity to the romance languages. It could also be an economic measure, allowing people from nations with romance languages to learn something closer to their own instead of/alongside English. May tie into 2.
4. An alliance of mostly Catholic nations in Europe decides to adopt Latin as a common language.
5. The Catholic Church continues to emphasize Latin, so it remains more common going into the modern era. With the growth of the internet Latin becomes a popular means of communicating with people internationally (since modern Latin is mostly written). May tie into 2.
1. A nationalist Italy decides to emphasize the glory of Ancient Rome (the Republic or Empire, it could be either). Latin is emphasized as part of this. A modern dialect of Italian or one of the languages found in the states that came together to form modern Italy can be promoted as Modern Latin. A form of Latin closer to the ancient kind could be promoted as Republican/Imperial Latin, State Latin, or High Latin (Modern Italian would be Low Latin). Or as another option, if Nationalist Italy promotes Catholicism the dialect used by the Catholic Church could be used.
2. Instead of trying to create a new language such as Esperanto, Pan-Europeanists and pacifists decide to promote Latin due to its similarity to the existing romance languages. Since Latin is still taught today (or at least was going strong in the 1880s and even into the 1980s) and many intellectuals and professionals such as lawyers and doctors already know Latin, the effort achieves greater success. At the very least it remains the language of the European elite.
3. The European Union adopts Latin as a common or official language during its establishment due its historical importance and similarity to the romance languages. It could also be an economic measure, allowing people from nations with romance languages to learn something closer to their own instead of/alongside English. May tie into 2.
4. An alliance of mostly Catholic nations in Europe decides to adopt Latin as a common language.
5. The Catholic Church continues to emphasize Latin, so it remains more common going into the modern era. With the growth of the internet Latin becomes a popular means of communicating with people internationally (since modern Latin is mostly written). May tie into 2.
Coulda sworn it was is one of Vatican City's
EDIT: It's only an official language of the Holy See.
EDIT: It's only an official language of the Holy See.