How did Latin evolve and develop?

Answer 1

Excellent question. Latin developed from the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages, and it was the spoken language of the Latini: a small tribe that inhabited the area around Rome in the late Bronze Age. Their language shared some features of sound (phonological features) with the Etruscans to the north, who greatly influenced their culture. In fact, they probably learned to write from the Etruscans who had themselves learned to write from the Greeks. As Rome grew into a a major world power in the early centuries BCE and CE they spread their language from all the way from Britain to Scythia, modern day Iran, although in the east Latin never really got a foot-hold over Greek. While not all of these places took to their language equally, the area around the core Roman Empire, from Hispania(Spain) to Dacia(Romania) started speaking Latin commonly enough for it begin diverging into countless vernacular dialects. It is from these dialects that the modern Romance languages descend. Such languages include in a rough order of their influence on the world: Castilian and Andalusian Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, Romanian. English was also highly impacted by Latin, as nearly 2/3 of English vocabulary is Romance in origin.