Dead language and living life: Latin

Describing the languages of the world, linguistic scientists use different principles of classification. Languages are grouped according to the geographical (territorial) principle, by the proximity of the grammatical structure, by the sign of linguistic relevance, use in living everyday speech.

Using the last criterion, researchers subdivide all languages of the world into two large groups - the living and dead languages of the world. The main sign of the first - the use of them in everyday spoken language, language practice relatively large community of people (people). Live language is constantly used in everyday communication, changing, becoming more complicated or simplifying with time.

The most noticeable changes occur in the vocabulary (vocabulary) of the language: some words become obsolete, acquire an archaic coloring, and, on the contrary, new and new words (neologisms) appear to denote new concepts. Other systems of language (morphological, phonetic, syntactic) are more inert, vary very slowly and hardly noticeable.

The dead language, unlike the living one, is not used in everyday language practice. All its systems are unchanged, they are conserved, unchanging elements. A dead language is imprinted in various written monuments.
All dead languages can be divided into two large groups: first, those that were once used in the distant past for live communication and subsequently, for various reasons, ceased to be used in living human communication (Latin, Ancient Greek, Coptic, Old Norse, Gothic). The second group of dead languages are those on which no one has ever spoken; They were created specifically to perform any functions (for example, the Old Slavonic language, the language of Christian liturgical texts, appeared). The dead language is most often transformed into any living, actively used (for example, Ancient Greek gave way to modern languages and dialects of Greece).

Latin language occupies a very special place among the rest. Without a doubt, Latin is a dead language: in a living conversational practice, it is not used until about the sixth century of our era. But, on the other hand, Latin has found the widest application in pharmaceutics, medicine, scientific terminology, Catholic worship (Latin - the official "state" language of the Holy See and Vatican State). As you can see, "dead" Latin is actively used in various spheres of life, science, cognition. All serious philological institutions of higher learning necessarily include Latin in the curriculum, thus preserving the traditions of classical humanities education. In addition, this dead language is the source of brief and capacious aphorisms that have passed through the ages: if you want peace, prepare for war; memento Mori; Doctor, heal yourself - all these winged expressions "come" from Latin. Latin - a very logical and harmonious language, cast, no frills and verbal husks; It is not only used for utilitarian purposes (writing recipes, the formation of a scientific thesaurus), but it is also, to some extent, a model, a standard of language.