Latin is the root of the romance languages. The romance languages include: Italian, French, Portuguese, Spanish, and Romanian. Also English to an extent, though we have a very Germanic based language. Because Latin is a root language many of these languages are still strongly based in it. Most specifically Italian which derives almost directly from Latin, most of the Italian vocabulary is similar to Latin’s.
Italy, well Vatican State, Is still the only place you can hear Latin on a daily basis. It is one of the two officially spoken languages, the other being Italian.
Latin can be used in the learning of foreign languages. If Latin is the root of these languages then learning Latin will help learn other languages. According to Ethnologue the “[l]exical similarity [of Italian]: 89% with French, 87% with Catalan-Valencian-Balear, 85% with Sardinian, 82% with Spanish, 78% with Ladin, 77% with Romanian"; gain an understanding in Latin and the similarities to other romance languages is astounding.
There are still arguments to the contrary. Many people do not believe that learning Latin can help with any other language. Dawie from a forum on antimoon.com, a site on “how to learn English effectively", states;
Saying that Latin will help you learn other languages is like saying that dating your girlfriend's grandparents will help you get to know her better. If you were going spend all that time learning Latin, you might as well use that effort to directly learn the particular language you want to learn.
Dawie doesn’t feel that learning Latin to understand other languages is worthwhile. They compare it to dating the grandparents of a girlfriend to get to know her better. I understand the point, While it is true that you should spend the time and learn the language you're looking at, it does not necessarily follow that learning Latin can't help them with the language they want to learn. Latin is the root of many other languages. Italian shares about 80% of vocabulary with Latin and Italian sharing 50% of its language with Spanish. If you are interested in learning more than one of these languages having Latin a its base helps. I have found it most helpful to learn Latin even for English. Also in looking on the back of shampoo bottles and instruction booklets where they have English, Spanish, and French I am starting to be able to read some of the Spanish here and there.
Albeit, I am still unable to understand much, if any, of what is spoken. But I am starting to be able to pick up some of what is written and I don’t know any Spanish outside of “hello,” “goodbye,” “water,” “thank you” and “look!”
In a poll on how-to-learn-any-language.com most people found that Latin was “not important at all” to learning other Romance languages, followed by “somewhat important.” This forum frequented by a bunch of diglots and polyglots discussing the matter. It is interesting to see it from the point from someone who has learned other languages. From what it looks like though, many are diglots because of being born in Europe and learning two languages in school.
Latin is the base of many other languages. It helps with grammar and vocabulary in other languages. It can be useful in the study of other languages.
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