Routledge Dictionary of Language and Linguistics
Original dialect of the territory of Latium (Rome) belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European language family; it is one of the oldest attested languages of the IndoEuropean group. The earliest attestations (inscriptions, names) date from the preliterary period (600–240 BC). The period of ‘Classical Latin’ is generally considered to date from 100 BC to AD 14. During the Late Antiquity (200–600) separate spoken dialects developed in the Roman provinces, which differ from literary Latin primarily through lexical and phonological changes (cf. Vulgar Latin): for example, ‹c›, originally pronounced as [k], became pronounced as [ts] before palatals, cf. [kikero:]>[tsitesro:] ‘Cicero.’ Latin is the basis for the Romance languages (French, Italian, Spanish, Portugese, Rumanian, and Rhaeto-Romance), all spoken in originally Latin-speaking territories. During the middle ages, ‘Medieval Latin’ was used for education, church, and government; Classical Latin was revived in the fifteenth century by the humanists. For the influence of Latin on English, 
borrowing.
Characteristics: word accent (with few exceptions) on the penultimate syllable; vowel quantity is phonologically relevant; synthetic-inflectional morphology (canto, cantas, cantat ‘I sing, you sing, he/she/it sings’) with frequent syncretism of forms; no article and no personal pronoun for the third persons; free word order (sometimes stylistically motivated). On the structural changes from Latin to the Romance languages, French, Italian. Portuguese, Spanish.
References
Allen, W.S. 1975. Vox latina: a guide to the pronunciation of classical Latin. Cambridge. (2nd edn 1978.)
Coleman, R. (ed.) 1991. New studies in Latin linguistics. Amsterdam and Philadelphia, PA.
Devoto, G. 1971. Studies of Latin and languages of ancient Italy. In T.A.Sebeok (ed.), Current trends in linguistics. The Hague. Vol. 9, 817–34.
Grandgent, C.H. 1907. An introduction to Vulgar Latin. Boston, MA.
Herman, J. (ed.) 1994. Linguistic studies on Latin. Amsterdam and Philadelphia, PA.
Kent, R.G. 1945. The sounds of Latin. Baltimore, MD.
——1946. The forms of Latin, Baltimore, MD.
Palmer, R.L. 1954. The Latin language. London.
Pinkster, H. 1990. Latin syntax and semantics. London.
Strunk, K. (ed.) 1973. Probleme der lateinischen Grammatik. Darmstadt.
Woodcock, E.C. 1958. A new Latin syntax. London.
Grammars
Ernout, A. and F.Thomas. 1984.
Syntaxe latine. Paris.
Leumann, M., J.B.Hofmann, and A.Szantyr. 1963/72. Lateinische Grammatik, 2 vols. Munich.
Rubenbauer, H., J.B.Hofmann, and R.Heine. 1975. Lateinische Grammatik. (11th edn 1980.) Bamberg.
History
Collart, J. 1967. Histoire de la langue latine. Paris.
Ernout, A. 1953. Morphologie historique du latin. Paris.
Kurzová, H. 1993. From Indo-European to Latin: the evolution of a morphosyntactic type. Amsterdam and Philadelphia, PA.
Panagl, O. and T.Krisch (eds) 1992. Latein und Indogermanisch: Akten des Kolloquiums der Indogermanischen Gesellschaft, Salzburg 1986. Innsbruck.
Dictionaries
Lewis, C. and C.Short. 1879. (Repr. 1975). Oxford.
Oxford Latin dictionary. 1968. 2 vols. Oxford.
Thesaurus linguae Latinae. 1900–90. Leipzig and Stuttgart.
Etymological dictionaries
Ernout, A. and A.Meillet. 1959. Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue latine, 4th edn. Paris.
Walde, A. and J.B.Hofmann. 1965. Lateinisches etymologisches Wörterbuch,. 3 vols. 4th edn. Heidelberg.
Handbooks
Hammond, M. 1976. Latin: a historical and linguistic handbook. New Haven, CT.
Holtus, G., M.Metzeltin, and C.Schmitt (eds) 1987. Lexikon der romanistischen Linguistik, vol. 2. Tübingen.
Bibliography
Cousin, J. 1951. Bibliographie de la langue latine, 1880–1948. Paris.
Journals
Glotta
Latinitas
Probus
classification of languages, Indo-European, Romance languages
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