Latin: Story of a World Language

by Jürgen Leonhardt

Although we may assume that correct Latin was spoken in the Roman Senate and in official discussions between members of the upper classes and that a conversation between two day laborers would have sounded very different, we do not know how two members of the upper classes spoke in intimate conversation. Was the average educated Roman practiced enough in the classical language to speak off the cuff for hours on end, or did he retreat to his own linguistic comfort zone after barely managing a few correct Latin sentences—as often happens in Arabic today? How did a master talk to his slaves? When making love, did educated couples engage in “pillow talk” in correct Latin? Or would that have sounded just too ridiculous? And to what extent did upper-class women need to master the high form of the language at all (a matter that Jerome touched on briefly)? We simply do not know the answers to these questions.