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Contemporary Latin


Contemporary Latin is the form of the Latin language used from the end of the 19th century through to the present. Various kinds of contemporary Latin can be distinguished. On the one hand there is its symbolic survival in areas like taxonomy and others as the result of the widespread presence of the language in the New Latin era. This is normally found in the form of mere words or phrases used in the general context of other languages. On the other hand, there is the use of Latin as a language in its own right as full-fledged means of expression. Living or Spoken Latin, being the most specific development of Latin in the contemporary context, is the primary subject of this article.

As a relic of the great importance of New Latin as the formerly dominant international lingua franca down to the 19th century in a great number of fields, Latin is still present in words or phrases used in many languages around the world, and some minor communities use Latin in their speech.

The official use of Latin in previous eras has survived at a symbolic level in many mottos that are still being used and even coined in Latin to this day. Old mottoes like E pluribus unum found in 1776 on the Seal of the United States, along with Annuit cœptis and Novus ordo seclorum, and adopted by an Act of Congress in 1782, are still in use. Similarly current pound sterling coins are minted with the Latin inscription ELIZABETH·II·D·G·REG·F·D (Dei Gratia Regina, Fidei Defensor, i.e. Queen by the Grace of God, Defender of the Faith). The official motto of the European Union, adopted as recently as 2000, is the Latin In varietate concordia. Similarly to the multi-lingual European Union, the motto on the Canadian Victoria Cross is in Latin due to Canada's bilingual status.

Some common phrases that are still in use in many languages have remained fixed in Latin, like the well-known dramatis personæ or habeas corpus.


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