Latin

There are written documents in Latin from a period of more than two and a half millennia. This means that the history of Latin literature is three times as long as the Swedish one.

The antique Latin literature (from the middle of the third century BC to about 600 AD), has been of immense importance for the culture of later times. Latin, which in antiquity was the official language of the Roman empire, flourished throughout middle and southern Europe. During the first centuries of medieval times, the Romance languages gradually began to develop from Latin.

As a written language, Latin maintained its dominant position throughout the Middle Ages, and as an international written language, it continued to be used in scientific contexts up until the middle of the 18th century. From 1200 AD and onwards for 500 years, scholarly Sweden was practically bilingual. It is nearly impossible to measure the amount of source material preserved in Latin.

A good understanding of grammar is imperative since studies in Latin are primarily focused on linguistic matters. Early in our course progression, we rely on course literature written in English, so competence in academic English is also important.