From Latin to Italian: A Gradual Evolution Over Centuries

Latin didn't vanish; it evolved. After the Western Roman Empire fell (5th c. AD), Vulgar Latin (spoken variety) diverged regionally across Italy. Key milestones:

• 9th century: Earliest vernacular texts (e.g., Placiti Cassinesi).
• 13th–14th century: Tuscan dialect (Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio) becomes literary standard.
• 14th century: Italian emerges as dominant written language in Tuscany, spreading via trade, printing, bureaucracy.
• 16th century: Council of Trent still uses Latin for liturgy; Italian standardizes further (Accademia della Crusca, 1583).
• 1861: Unification makes Tuscan-based Italian the national language; regional dialects persist orally.

Latin remained the Church's and scholars' lingua franca until the 20th century. The shift was organic, not a single event.