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by umanwizard 2400 days ago
Latin is not dead, it is alive and its modern dialects are called Portuguese, French, Catalan, Spanish, ....

The relationship between Latin and e.g. Spanish is exactly the same as between Beowulf-era English and the English we’re speaking now. So I don’t understand your argument that Latin is unchanging whereas English isn’t.

2 comments

French and Castilian and friends are standardized against some spoken variant. And spoken languages inevitably change over time.

Latin is standardized against the writings of the classical authors, and to a lesser degree, the medieval authors. These authors, being dead, can't change.

Well, the Beowulf-era English is not changing either.