Ecclesiastical Latin

Ecclesiastical Latin (sometimes called Church Latin) is the Latin dialect as used in documents of the Roman Catholic Church and in its Latin liturgies. Latin ( lingua Latīna, laˈtiːna is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. A liturgy is the customary public worship done by a specific religious group according to their particular traditions Though its pronunciation differs slightly from that of Classical Latin, it is not a distinct language or dialect, but only the Latin language used for ecclesiastical purposes, as the same language can be used also for commercial purposes, for purposes of invective, or recreation. Classical Latin is the form of the Latin language used by the ancient Romans in what is usually regarded as "classical" Latin literature.

1 Scope and usage
2 Pronunciation
3 Language materials
4 Notes
5 See also
6 External links

Scope and usage

The Church issued the dogmatic definitions of the first seven General Councils in Greek, and even in Rome Greek remained at first the language of the liturgy and the language in which the first Popes wrote. In Catholicism, a dogmatic definition is an extraordinary infallible statement published by a Pope or an Ecumenical council concerning a matter This is a general introduction to ecumenical councils For the Roman Catholic councils, see Catholic Ecumenical Councils. Greek (el ελληνική γλώσσα or simply el ελληνικά — "Hellenic" is an Indo-European language, spoken today by 15-22 million people mainly A liturgy is the customary public worship done by a specific religious group according to their particular traditions History See also History of the Papacy Catholics recognize the Pope as a successor to Saint Peter, who Jesus named as the "shepherd" and (In fact, during the Late Republic and Early Empire periods, educated Roman citizens were generally fluent in Greek, although state business was conducted in Latin. The books that eventually became the New Testament were originally written in Greek and only later translated into Latin. )

The Holy See has no obligation to use Latin as its official language and, in theory, could change its practice. The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome, commonly known as the Pope, and is the preeminent Episcopal see of the Roman Catholic However, such a change appears unlikely in the foreseeable future. As a language no longer in common use (a "dead" language, though some would dispute the exactness of this description), Latin has the advantage that the meaning of its words have less likelihood of changing radically from century to century. This helps to ensure theological precision and to safeguard orthodoxy. Theology is the study of a god or the gods from a religious perspective The word orthodox, from Greek orthodoxos "having the right opinion" from orthos ("right true straight" + doxa ("opinion Accordingly, recent Popes have reaffirmed the importance of Latin for the Church and in particular for those undertaking ecclesiastical studies. Ecclesiology (from Greek grc ἐκκλησίᾱ ekklēsiā, "congregation church" and grc -λογία -logia) is the study of the

Especially since the Second Vatican Council of 1962–1965, the Church no longer uses Latin as the exclusive language of the Roman and Ambrosian liturgies of the Latin Rite Catholic Church. The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, or Vatican II, was the twentieth century Ecumenical Council of the Roman Catholic Church. This article is about the history and the current form of Ambrosian Rite for an explanation of the form of this Rite used before the Vatican-II see Traditional Ambrosian Rite The Latin Rite is one of the 23 Sui iuris Particular Churches within the Catholic Church. As early as 1913 the Catholic Encyclopedia had already commented on the beginnings of the replacement of Latin by vernacular languages—but the Church still produces official liturgical texts in Latin, thus providing a clear single point of reference for translations into all other languages. The Catholic Encyclopedia, also referred to today as the Old Catholic Encyclopedia, is an English-language Encyclopedia published by The Encyclopedia Vernacular refers to the Native language of a country or a locality The same holds for the official texts of Canon law. Canon Law, the Ecclesiastical law of the Catholic Church, is a fully developed legal system with all the necessary elements courts lawyers judges a fully articulated

After the use of Latin as an everyday language died out even among scholars, the Holy See has for some centuries usually drafted papal documents and the like in a modern language, but the authoritative text—the one published in the Acta Apostolicae Sedis—generally appears in Latin, even if this text becomes available only later. Acta Apostolicae Sedis ( Latin for "Acts of the Apostolic See " often cited as AAS, is the official Gazette of the For example, the writers of the Catechism of the Catholic Church drafted it in French, and it appeared first in that language in 1992. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, or CCC, is an official exposition of the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church and the twenty-two But five years later, when the Latin text appeared in 1997, the French text had to undergo correction in line with the Latin version.

Occasionally, the official texts come out in a modern language. The best-known such include the motu proprio Tra le sollecitudini (1903) by Pope Pius X (in Italian), and Mit brennender Sorge (1937) by Pope Pius XI (in German). A motu proprio ( Latin "on his own impulse" is a document issued by the Pope on his own initiative and personally signed by him Saint Pius X ( Latin: Pius PP X) ( June 2, 1835 &mdash August 20, 1914) born Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto, was the Mit brennender Sorge ( German for "With burning Concern" is a Roman Catholic Church Encyclical of Pope Pius XI, published Pope Pius XI ( Latin: Pius PP XI; Italian: Pio XI; May 31 1857 &ndash February 10 1939) born

The rule now in force on the use of Latin in the Eucharistic liturgy of the Roman Rite states: "Mass is celebrated either in Latin or in another language, provided that liturgical texts are used which have been approved according to the norm of law. The Eucharist, also called Holy Communion or Lord's Supper and other names is a Christian Sacrament by which in a common interpretation those The liturgical rite of the Church of Rome is called the Roman Rite. The Mass is the Eucharistic celebration in the Latin liturgical rites of the Roman Catholic Church. A liturgy is the customary public worship done by a specific religious group according to their particular traditions Except in the case of celebrations of the Mass that are scheduled by the ecclesiastical authorities to take place in the language of the people, Priests are always and everywhere permitted to celebrate Mass in Latin" (Redemptionis Sacramentum, 112).

Pronunciation

The written Latin of today, as used for Church purposes, does not differ radically from classical Latin. Classical Latin is the form of the Latin language used by the ancient Romans in what is usually regarded as "classical" Latin literature. Study of the language of Cicero and Virgil suffices adequately for understanding Church Latin. Marcus Tullius Cicero ( Classical Latin ˈkikeroː usually ˈsɪsərəʊ in English January 3, 106 BC &ndash December 7, 43 BC was a Roman Publius Vergilius Maro ( October 15, 70 BCE &ndash September 21, 19 BCE later called Virgilius, and known in English as Virgil or However, those interested only in ecclesiastical texts may prefer to limit the time they devote to ancient authors, whose vocabulary covers matters that, though of importance in that period, appear less frequently in Church documents.

In most countries, those who speak Latin for liturgical or other ecclesiastical purposes use the pronunciation that has become traditional in Rome, giving the letters the value they have in modern Italian, but without distinguishing between open and close E and O. Italian ( or lingua italiana) is a Romance language spoken by about 63 million people as a First language, primarily in Italy. ^[1] AE and OE coalesce with E, and before these and I the letters "C" and "G" take the sounds of English CH and J respectively. "TI" followed by a vowel is generally pronounced as /tsi/ (unless preceded by "S", "T" or "X"). Such speakers pronounce consonantal "V" (not written as "U") as in English, and double consonants are pronounced as such. No distinction is made between long and short vowels.

However, ecclesiastics in some countries follow slightly different traditions. For instance, in Slavic countries and in German-speaking ones the letter "C" before the front vowels /e/ and /i/ commonly receives the value of /ts/ and speakers pronounce "G" in all positions hard, never as English J. (See also Latin regional pronunciation and Latin spelling and pronunciation. Latin pronunciation, both in the classical and post-classical age has varied across different regions and different eras The Roman alphabet or Latin alphabet, was adapted from the Old Italic alphabet, to represent the Phonemes of the Latin language, which had in )

Language materials

The complete text of the Bible in Latin (revised Vulgate) appears at Nova Vulgata - Bibliorum Sacrorum Editio. An edition at Latin Vulgate.com, has the text of the Latin Vulgate, flanked by the Douay-Rheims Version (based on the Latin) and the King James Version of the Bible. The Douay-Rheims Bible, also known as the Rheims-Douai Bible or Douai Bible and abbreviated as D-R, is a translation of the Bible from the Another site gives the entire Bible, in the Douay version, verse by verse, accompanied by the Vulgate Latin of each verse.

A Vatican institution, the Latinitas Foundation, exists to promote the use of Latin not only in Church documents but in all facets of modern life.

Initiatives of the Latinitas Foundation include the publication (in Italian) of the 15,000-word Lexicon Recentis Latinitatis (Dictionary of Recent Latin), which indicates Latin terms to use in referring to a bicycle (birota), a cigarette (fistula nicotiana), a computer (instrumentum computatorium), a cowboy (armentarius), a motel (deversorium autocineticum), shampoo (capitilavium), a strike (operistitium), a terrorist (tromocrates), a trademark (ergasterii nota), an unemployed person (invite otiosus), a waltz (chorea Vindobonensis), and even a miniskirt (tunicula minima) and hot pants (brevissimae bracae femineae). Some 600 such terms extracted from the book appear on a page of the Vatican website.

Notes

^ Pronunciation of Latin

External links

Ecclesiastical Latin (article in Catholic Encyclopedia (1913))
Veterum Sapientia by Pope John XXIII, 1962
What the Church says on the Latin Language
The Necessity of Latin (a collection of quotes from Popes, councils, and saints)
The Bible in Latin - official text of the Roman Catholic Church
Latin Bible (Vulgate text) in parallel with the English Douay-Rheims and King James Bibles
Catechism of the Catholic Church in Latin
Ordo Missae of the 1970 Roman Missal, Latin and English texts, rubrics in English only
Latin-English pre-Vatican-II Breviary
Una Voce - International organization promoting the Latin Tridentine Mass

Text resources

The New Missal Latin by Edmund J. Latin ( lingua Latīna, laˈtiːna is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. The Roman alphabet or Latin alphabet, was adapted from the Old Italic alphabet, to represent the Phonemes of the Latin language, which had in Medieval Latin was the form of Latin used in the Middle Ages, primarily as a medium of scholarly exchange and as the Liturgical language of the medieval Pope John (numberingBlessed Baumeister, S. M. , Ph. D. Published by St. Mary's Publishing Company, P. O. Box 134, St. Mary's, KS 66536-0134, USA
A Primer of Ecclesiastical Latin by John F. Collins, (Catholic University of America Press, 1985) ISBN 0-8132-0667-7. A learner's first textbook, comparable in style, layout, and coverage to Wheelock's Latin, but featuring text selections from the liturgy and the Vulgate: unlike Wheelock, it also contains translation and composition exercises. Wheelock's Latin, officially titled Latin, is a comprehensive beginning Latin textbook

Ages of Latin v • d • e
	—75 BC	75 BC – 200	200 – 900	200 – 1300	1300 – 1600	1600 – 1900	1900 – present
	Old Latin	Classical Latin	Vulgar Latin	Medieval Latin	Renaissance Latin	New Latin	Recent Latin
See also: History of Latin, Latin literature, Vulgar Latin, Ecclesiastical Latin, Romance languages, Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum

Latin ( lingua Latīna, laˈtiːna is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Old Latin (also called Early Latin or Archaic Latin) refers to the Latin language in the period before the age of Classical Latin; that is all Classical Latin is the form of the Latin language used by the ancient Romans in what is usually regarded as "classical" Latin literature. Vulgar Latin (in Latin sermo vulgaris, "folk speech" is a Blanket term covering the popular Dialects and Sociolects of the Latin Medieval Latin was the form of Latin used in the Middle Ages, primarily as a medium of scholarly exchange and as the Liturgical language of the medieval Renaissance Latin is a name given to the distinctive form of Latin style developed during the European Renaissance of the fourteenth to fifteenth centuries particularly The term New Latin or Neo-Latin is used to describe a form the Latin language used between the end of the Medieval Latin period (c Latin is a member of the family of Italic languages, and its alphabet the Latin alphabet, emerged from the Old Italic alphabets which Latin literature, the body of written works in the Latin language remains an enduring legacy of the culture of Ancient Rome. Vulgar Latin (in Latin sermo vulgaris, "folk speech" is a Blanket term covering the popular Dialects and Sociolects of the Latin The Romance languages (sometimes referred to as Romanic languages, or Neolatin languages) are a branch of the Indo-European language family comprising all The Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum ( CIL) is a comprehensive collection of ancient Latin Inscriptions It forms an authoritative source

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