Everything about Romanic People totally explained
Latin is the name of various peoples or ethnicities related to the
Latium region in the
Italian Peninsula, to the
Latin language, or to its descendants, the
Romance languages.
Antiquity
The Latins were an
ancient Italic people who migrated to the
Latium region in central Italy, (
Latium Vetus - Old Latium), in the 2nd millennium B.C., from
Central Europe (
Urnfield Culture). Although they lived in independent
city-states, the Latins had a common language (
Latin), common
religious beliefs and a close sense of kinship, expressed in the myth that they were all descendants of
Latinus, the father-in-law of
Aeneas. Latinus was worshipped as
Jupiter Latiaris on Mons Albanus (
Monte Cavo) during an annual festival that was attended by all Latins, including
Rome, one of the Latin states. The Latin cities extended common right to residence and trade to one another. Rome's territorial ambitions united the rest of the Latins against it in
341 BC, but the final victory was on Rome's side in
338 BC. Consequently some of the Latin states were incorporated within the Roman state, and their inhabitants were given full
Roman citizenship. Others became Roman allies and enjoyed certain privileges.
Gradually, with the spread of Roman power throughout
Italy and Western Europe, 'Latin' ceased to be an ethnic term and became a legal category.
Middle Ages
In the
Byzantine Empire, "Latins" was a synonym of "Western Europeans", referring to all people of the
Roman Catholic faith (which at the time included northern Europe as well). Today the Byzantine cultural successors (
Greece,
Cyprus) also use "Latins" as a term for "Roman Catholics" in order to distinguish them from a member of the
Greek Church.
The term was later borrowed, in various variants, by several languages of the
Middle East and southern
Asia, sometimes referring to any European.
Modern uses
Latin as Latin European
Most commonly in
Europe, as a noun, the term “Latin” is applied to people from countries where
Romance languages are spoken and so
Italians,
Spaniards,
Portuguese,
French and
Romanians are popularly called "Latins" by other Europeans because of their distinctive
Roman roots.
In Canada, French-speaking
Quebec is often considered to be inhabited by the "Latins of the North", though this usage isn't very common outside of Quebec or French-speaking Europe.
Latin as Latino or Latin American
In the
United States Latin and Latino (from the Italian, French, Spanish and Portuguese form of Latin) are often used as synonyms in referring to people from
Latin America (the parts of America where Latin-derived languages are spoken, and where most of the population has Latin-European ancestry or have direct European roots). As a shortening of the term 'Latin America', "Latin" refers to an inhabitant of Latin America and not specifically to someone of Latin-European ancestry. In this sense, the term is used as an equivalent to terms like European, African, Asian, and Middle Eastern, which makes any woman from Latin America a "Latina" or in the case of man a "Latino", even if their ancestry is non-European.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Romanic People'.
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