Forms of Latin

The Latin language has been in existence for at least 2700 years and over the centuries has undergone many changes. So the noun ‘Latin’, when referring to the language, is sometimes qualified by an adjective or adjectival phrase (e.g., ‘Late Latin’ or ‘the Latin of the Renaissance’) to indicate a specific form of the language, e.g., the form characteristic of a particular historical period or the form used in a particular context or for a particular purpose.

Here are the most common ways in which the noun ‘Latin’ may be so qualified:

• Early Latin (also known as Old Latin or Archaic Latin): the language of the period before c75 BCE. The best known Early Latin authors are the epic poet Ennius (239-169 BCE) and the comic dramatists Plautus (c254-184 BCE) and Terence (c190-159 BCE).
• Classical Latin: the literary language of the period from c75 BCE to the end of the second century of the Christian era. The period is sometimes subdivided into a Golden Age (from c75 BCE to the death of the emperor Augustus in 14 CE) and a Silver Age for the later two centuries. As these names imply, it was generally considered that the language was at its finest during the Golden Age (e.g., in the prose of Cicero (106-43 BCE) and Livy (59 BCE-17CE) and in the poetry of Vergil (70-19 BCE), Horace (65-8 BCE) and Ovid (43 BCE-17 CE)): these authors were regarded as providing a model of Latin which later authors were expected to follow, while the literature of the Silver Age - e.g., the poetry of Martial (40-104 CE) and Juvenal (?60-?140 CE ) and the histories of Tacitus (c60-c120 CE) - was felt to be marred by eccentricities of style.
• Patristic Latin: the language of the Early [[Fathers of the Church|Fathers of the Christian Church]], used primarily in their commentaries on biblical texts and their treatises on theological and moral subjects. The period covered runs from the end of the Apostolic Age (c100 CE) to either 451 CE (the Council of Chalcedon) or later to the Second Council of Nicaea in 787 CE. Patristic writers include Tertullian (155-220 CE), Jerome (c331-420 CE), Ambrose of Milan (340-397 CE), and Augustine of Hippo (354-430 CE).
• Late Latin: the language of the final centuries of the Roman Empire and of the period from the fall of Rome in 476 CE to c900 CE.
• Medieval Latin: the language of the learned in Western Europe during the Middle Ages, i.e., from c900 CE to c1400 CE. It is the language of Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274 CE) and of the philosophers and theologians of the Middle Ages.
• Renaissance Latin: the language of the educated during the Renaissance, i.e., from c1400 CE to c1600 CE. During this period and in the following century Latin had the status of an international language within Europe.
• New Latin (Neo-Latin, Modern Latin): the language as used, from c1500 CE, in original scholarly and scientific works, its ability to deal with this new and varied subject matter made possible by extensive additions to its vocabulary. However, by c1700 the use of national languages had begun to replace Latin for these purposes, and at the same time, through the influence of the French king, Louis XIV (1638-1715, reigned 1643-1715), French had begun to replace Latin as the language of diplomacy: the Treaty of Vienna in 1715 was the last to be written in Latin, and after the War of Austrian Succession (1740-1748) diplomacy was generally conducted in French.
• Contemporary Latin: the Latin language, as it has been used since the end of the 19th century. The language is still used in the Vatican for the conduct of some of its everyday business, and until the late 1960s was the language of religious services in the Roman Catholic Church. Some universities still use Latin on certain ceremonial occasions, e.g., at Oxford the Public Orator makes speeches in Latin to celebrate the achievements of each honorary graduand, while at Cambridge Latin is used in similar speeches by the University Orator.
• Ecclesiastical Latin (also known as Church Latin): a blanket term which may be applied to any use of Latin within the Christian Church, whether as the language of church services (also known as Liturgical Latin), as the language of treatises on moral or theological questions, or as the language of the day-to-day administration of the affairs of the church.
• Vulgar Latin: a blanket term which may be applied to all the vernacular dialects of the Latin language, from the forms of the language spoken in Italy in earliest times to the various forms of the language which were spoken in the western provinces of the Roman Empire and evolved into early versions of the different Romance languages.

Rather differently,

• Dog Latin is either language that is not Latin but imitates Latin for humorous effect, e.g., by using Latin-sounding forms of English words and/or giving them endings characteristic of the Latin declensions and conjugations; or language that is a serious attempt to write or speak Latin but is full of mistakes.