How intelligible is Latin with Spanish and other modern Romance languages?

Bit of an odd question for any linguists on here. It is my understanding that Spanish is the closest living language to Latin as it used to exist. But if you were to put a modern Spanish, or other Romance language speaker (French, Portuguese, Italian, Romanian, etc) down in Rome in 100 AD, how well would they be able to communicate with the Romans? Could the Romans at least determine that the Spanish speaker is some sort of heavy bastardized dialect, and communicate rough ideas? Or in the course of 2 millennia, have the languages grown so far apart that even that is too difficult?
 
the business of Spanish being closest to Latin is extremely, extremely arguable - some would argue it's Italian, Romanian, etc.
 
Not mutually intelligible at all. Probably as intelligible as, let's say, English and Icelandic, with some method a Classical Latin speaker will find out that some Romace words are related to Latin but will struggle to find meaning in full sentences. And yes, linguists would certainly see the relationship between languages, that's the very basis of historical linguists after all.
 
Bit of an odd question for any linguists on here. It is my understanding that Spanish is the closest living language to Latin as it used to exist. But if you were to put a modern Spanish, or other Romance language speaker (French, Portuguese, Italian, Romanian, etc) down in Rome in 100 AD, how well would they be able to communicate with the Romans? Could the Romans at least determine that the Spanish speaker is some sort of heavy bastardized dialect, and communicate rough ideas? Or in the course of 2 millennia, have the languages grown so far apart that even that is too difficult?

The closest language to Latin is actually Sardinian, which is quite conservative, as most languages born out of isolation. Spanish is no closer to Latin than Italian is, and actually a bit less beacause of the heavy presence of alien Arabic vocabulary, plus the Ibero-Basque and Celtic sostrate influence.
Latin is very different from the Romance language mostly because of profound changes in syntax and grammar, whereas most vocabulary has been "relexified" to sound more Latinate by Rome-enamored Renaissance intellectuals throughout the Western world, not only in Romance-speaking countries. An ancient Roman would likely be puzzled by a spanish speaker, but he/she would likely grasp the meaning of many words and come to the conclusion that this language is a relative of his/her. Then a Latin speaker from Late Antiquity could be more at ease, since by that time the spoken language (as distinct from the still fairly conservative written word) had already shown an evolution that would bring to the Romance languages' basic structure.
 
The closest language to Latin is actually Sardinian, which is quite conservative, as most languages born out of isolation. Spanish is no closer to Latin than Italian is, and actually a bit less beacause of the heavy presence of alien Arabic vocabulary, plus the Ibero-Basque and Celtic sostrate influence. latin is very different from the Romance language mostly becuase of profound changes in syntax and grammar, whereas most vocabulary has been "relexified" to sound more Latinate by Rome-enamored Renaissance intellectuals throughout the Western world, not only in Romance-speaking countries. An ancient Roman would likely be puzzled by a spanish speaker, but he/she would likely grasp the meaning of many words and come to the conclusion that this language is a relative of his/her.

Which Arabic vocabulary does Spanish even have within itself? I do not notice much when I look at Spanish.
 
I'd argue the case as a Spanish speaker myself; and knowing the basics of Italian from my father that Italian tends to have more roots based in Latin; but then again it could go either way.

Often time verbs in both Spanish and Italian just stem from different Latin synonyms.

But any Spanish speaker would be lost in a lot of vocabulary in the Roman world; much of Spanish vocabulary in the kitchen; household and other daily activities are heavily influenced by Arabic to the point that many are loan words.
 
It is my understanding that Spanish is the closest living language to Latin as it used to exist.
Actually it's Sardinian. Out of the "major" languages, it's Italian, then Spanish, then Romanian. (French is the most divergent by far.) This has been proven by research.

how well would they be able to communicate with the Romans?
Very poorly. It would be a little easier (but not much easier) than you going to Germany 2000 years ago and trying to understand this sentence:
Þat hauzidaz awiz akrą flauh.​

Or like Xi Jinping landing in Chang'an in 100 AD and trying to understand this sentence:
Kruk ne de gwep te, pe ghak lot gha?​
 
The closest language to Latin is actually Sardinian, which is quite conservative, as most languages born out of isolation. Spanish is no closer to Latin than Italian is, and actually a bit less beacause of the heavy presence of alien Arabic vocabulary, plus the Ibero-Basque and Celtic sostrate influence.
Latin is very different from the Romance language mostly because of profound changes in syntax and grammar, whereas most vocabulary has been "relexified" to sound more Latinate by Rome-enamored Renaissance intellectuals throughout the Western world, not only in Romance-speaking countries. An ancient Roman would likely be puzzled by a spanish speaker, but he/she would likely grasp the meaning of many words and come to the conclusion that this language is a relative of his/her. Then a Latin speaker from Late Antiquity could be more at ease, since by that time the spoken language (as distinct from the still fairly conservative written word) had already shown an evolution that would bring to the Romance languages' basic structure.
Ninja'd

Which Arabic vocabulary does Spanish even have within itself? I do not notice much when I look at Spanish.

Anything with "al" at the beginning is a good start
Almohada
Algebra
Almuerzo

Others like
Bloosa
Pantalones
Aciete
 
Which Arabic vocabulary does Spanish even have within itself? I do not notice much when I look at Spanish.

Because the form and pronunciation of these words SOUNDS coherent with the rest of the language. But to make a non-evident example, a basic word like "hasta" (="up to", "till"), is of Arabaic origin. Then an huge number of words pertaining to agriculture, but also government fuinctions, is of Arabic origin. Like "alcalde" (mayor) for example, and most other Spanish words beginning with "al-", the ubiquitous Arabic article, which was subsumed into the words the language absorbed during the Reconquista.
 
Which Arabic vocabulary does Spanish even have within itself? I do not notice much when I look at Spanish.

They're basically nouns. That's why they are not evident in conversational vocabulary. Thus, to trace "hasta" back to Arabic is edgy, IMHO. That said, it's also true that most of our everyday's vocabulary is regular Arabic wanderworten present in most European languages, like sugar or alcohol.
 

JJohnson

Banned
Actually it's Sardinian. Out of the "major" languages, it's Italian, then Spanish, then Romanian. (French is the most divergent by far.) This has been proven by research.


Very poorly. It would be a little easier (but not much easier) than you going to Germany 2000 years ago and trying to understand this sentence:
Þat hauzidaz awiz akrą flauh.​

Or like Xi Jinping landing in Chang'an in 100 AD and trying to understand this sentence:
Kruk ne de gwep te, pe ghak lot gha?​
better try: "ba weep grahnah weep nini bonn" and offer a little food.

As for Spanish, and other languages, they dropped equus for caballo, or fuego instead of something based on ignis.

If they wanted bonus points, they could restore the original difference between haber and tener, use ser for verbs of being/location like German uses sein, and use estar only to mean "to stand." That would revert some linguistic drift from Latin.
 
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samcster94

Banned
better try: "ba weep grahnah weep nini bonn" and offer a little food.

As for Spanish, and other languages, they dropped equus for caballo, or fuego instead of something based on ignis.
Indeed. Languages, even Sardinian, change. For instance, English(pre William I) used to sound more like other Germanic languages, Spanish had grammar more like Portuguese, Arabic had syllables now rarely heard outside reciting the Quran, and China ironically spoke a language more like modern Tibetan at one point.
 
My boyfriend took Classical Latin in high school, and between that and casual exposure to Spanish having grown up in California is able to read Spanish fairly well, albeit slowly. It often involves him having to think of synonyms for what would be the word most commonly used in Latin in order to understand a word in Spanish. Spoken Spanish, on the other hand is harder to understand. Of course, Latin education rarely emphasizes listening comprehension, but the sound changes are also easier to reverse-engineer in writing than in speech.

Indeed. Languages, even Sardinian, change. For instance, English(pre William I) used to sound more like other Germanic languages, Spanish had grammar more like Portuguese, Arabic had syllables now rarely heard outside reciting the Quran, and China ironically spoke a language more like modern Tibetan at one point.
I would argue that the resemblance between Old Chinese and modern Tibetan is more of an artifact of the Wylie system of romanization and it's fidelity to Tibetan orthography, which is insanely conservative. The modern spoken language has gone through a somewhat similar process of consonant cluster simplification and tonogenesis as modern Chinese languages.
 

Brunaburh

Gone Fishin'
Which Arabic vocabulary does Spanish even have within itself? I do not notice much when I look at Spanish.

They are not necessarily that clear to modern Arabic speakers, given the mangling of form and semantics many underwent. For example algarabía means loud happy voices, or incomprehensible babble, but actually evolved from: al-ʻarabiyyah.

There is a list I've found here, though I don't know how comprehensive or accurate it is (the Spanish can be really bad at etymology sometimes) most of the ones I know for definite are there so it's probably a good attempt.

*having looked more carefully at the list, it is mostly correct, but there are a couple of Turkish terms (e.g. mistico= a type of sailing boat) in there and several of the Arabic words came mediated through French or Latin (e.g. Sarraceno)*edit
 
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As for Spanish, and other languages, they dropped equus for caballo,
Mentioned in Heinlein's "Have Spacesuit-Will Travel" when a 'modern' (1950s) boy who speaks Spanish and studied some Latin has to talk to a Roman Empire era soldier (it's complicated) who was stationed in Spain.
 
As for Spanish, and other languages, they dropped equus for caballo, or fuego instead of something based on ignis.

Both "caballo" and "fuego" are actually inherited from the latin words "caballus" and "focus" as are most of their other Romance language versions like "foco" and "cavallo" in Italian or "foc" and "cal" in Romanian.
 

Brunaburh

Gone Fishin'
Which Arabic vocabulary does Spanish even have within itself? I do not notice much when I look at Spanish.

Actually that list is incomplete, they seem to have given up at alh- in the A-section, meaning they missed out a massive number of words. According to another source, there are 4000 in total, though many of them will be obsolete given 500 years of language change and the disappearance of many of the situations, items and institutions which the loanwords describe.
 
Both "caballo" and "fuego" are actually inherited from the latin words "caballus" and "focus" as are most of their other Romance language versions like "foco" and "cavallo" in Italian or "foc" and "cal" in Romanian.

Yes, they're Vulgar Latin words and all Romance languages are descendants of Vulgar Latin. However, when one speaks about Latin we should presume that one is referring to the Classical variety.

Also, Iberian languages mainteined the word 'equus' in its feminine form: Sp. 'yegua'/Pt. 'égua' (mare).
 
Actually that list is incomplete, they seem to have given up at alh- in the A-section, meaning they missed out a massive number of words. According to another source, there are 4000 in total, though many of them will be obsolete given 500 years of language change and the disappearance of many of the situations, items and institutions which the loanwords describe.
Precisely. There were indeed many words borrowed from arabic in medieval iberian languages, for their speakers had more contact with the arab world than anywhere else in europe, whether it was via trade, war or coexistence in some cases. As the middle ages ended and the reconquista ceased to be a thing, many words simply lost their utillity, though a large number are still used to this day, with Castillian spanish being the the heaviest borrower.

It should be noted, however, that many of these words are also present in many other european languages, as arabic and arab culture made an impact not only in iberia, but the entirety of europe, contrary to what some would believe.
 

samcster94

Banned
Precisely. There were indeed many words borrowed from arabic in medieval iberian languages, for their speakers had more contact with the arab world than anywhere else in europe, whether it was via trade, war or coexistence in some cases. As the middle ages ended and the reconquista ceased to be a thing, many words simply lost their utillity, though a large number are still used to this day, with Castillian spanish being the the heaviest borrower.

It should be noted, however, that many of these words are also present in many other european languages, as arabic and arab culture made an impact not only in iberia, but the entirety of europe, contrary to what some would believe.
Place names in Spain often have Arabic names, just an FYI
 
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