The Latin reference article from the Simple Wikipedia on 01-May-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

Latin

Latin is an old language spoken by the Romans. Today, people don't use this language very much to speak or write, but many people study it in school.

The Roman Catholic Church still uses Latin as its official language.

Many words used in science and medicine were created from Latin words or are Latin words.

Several languages used today come from the Latin language, including French, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish. Most Indo-European languages have some links with Latin.

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