Page:The New Latin Primer (Postgate).djvu/15



§ 1. .—Language is one of the means by which human beings communicate their thoughts to each other. In language this is done by means of spoken sounds. Different nations do this in different ways, and hence arise different languages.

§ 2. .—Latin was the language spoken by the Latins, who lived in a district of ancient Italy called Latium. Of all the Latins the most important and powerful were the Romans, or inhabitants of Rome. The Romans were a great conquering people. First they subdued their fellow-countrymen the Latins, then the other nations of Italy, and finally a very large part of Europe and Asia and some portions of Africa. They carried their language with them; and it has thus come about that a great many languages spoken at the present day are descended from Latin. Such are the French, the Italian, the Spanish, and the Portuguese. Our own English language is full of words which are taken from Latin; but many of them have quite a different meaning from what they had in Latin. During the Middle Ages, though Latin had ceased