# How big of a vocabulary did (does) Latin have? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 18, 2013, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-of-a-vocabulary-did-does-latin-have/653309 "2013-03-18T22:56:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Meeko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e495f1/32.png) [@Meeko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meeko)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2013, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-of-a-vocabulary-did-does-latin-have/653309/1 "2013-03-18T22:56:13Z")
That is to say, how many words comprise the Latin language? ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2013, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-of-a-vocabulary-did-does-latin-have/653309/2 "2013-03-19T02:20:05Z")
We don’t know yet. New words are still being coined. ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Panda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ee7513/32.png) [@Darth\_Panda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Panda)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2013, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-of-a-vocabulary-did-does-latin-have/653309/3 "2013-03-19T02:31:43Z")
> [@UDS](#): > > We don’t know yet. New words are still being coined. It’s a zombie language. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2013, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-of-a-vocabulary-did-does-latin-have/653309/4 "2013-03-19T03:12:06Z")
> [@UDS](#): > > We don’t know yet. New words are still being coined. > > > [@Darth\_Panda](#): > > > > It’s a zombie language. No, not because it’s a zombie, but because in some contexts Latin is still a living language. The main source of new Latin words is botanists and zoologists naming new species of plants and animals, because they all get new Latin names. However, I’d guess the OP’s question is about Classical Latin, which would not include most of those Latin names. ---
**Author:** ![Meeko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e495f1/32.png) [@Meeko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meeko)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2013, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-of-a-vocabulary-did-does-latin-have/653309/5 "2013-03-19T04:35:39Z")
> [@Giles](#): > > No, not because it’s a zombie, but because in some contexts Latin is still a living language. The main source of new Latin words is botanists and zoologists naming new species of plants and animals, because they all get new Latin names. However, I’d guess the OP’s question is about Classical Latin, which would not include most of those Latin names. I would consider the continuation you mention to be, for lack of better words, a stunt. I can’t shake the notion, that Latin does not have all of the parts of speech as current English. I’m not too sure I’ve ever seen or heard a Latin adjective, for example. I wanted to ask a broader and less pointed question, hence a numerical value on the number of words in the language. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2013, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-of-a-vocabulary-did-does-latin-have/653309/6 "2013-03-19T04:44:43Z")
> [@Meeko](#): > > That is to say, how many words comprise the Latin language? [nitpick] How many words does the Latin language comprise. [/nitpick] ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2013, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-of-a-vocabulary-did-does-latin-have/653309/7 "2013-03-19T05:02:01Z")
> [@Meeko](#): > > I’m not too sure I’ve ever seen or heard a Latin adjective, for example. You should write a book about your quest to find one. It could be your **magnum** opus. If you have the time to spare from your choir practice. You probably need an **alter** ego. The choir director won’t be happy you’re writing when you should be practicing your solo of ‘Gloria in **excelsis** deo’. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2013, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-of-a-vocabulary-did-does-latin-have/653309/8 "2013-03-19T05:07:04Z")
> [@Meeko](#): > > I would consider the continuation you mention to be, for lack of better words, a stunt. A “stunt”? It’s just as much a stunt as all the names that chemists give to new chemicals. What it illustrates is that the boundaries of a language are very hard to define, and so the number of words in a language is not an exact number. ---
**Author:** ![Vaevictis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f04885/32.png) [@Vaevictis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vaevictis)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2013, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-of-a-vocabulary-did-does-latin-have/653309/9 "2013-03-19T05:09:38Z")
Latin has far fewer words than English. Instead, its words tend to have a wider range of meaning than English words. Context therefore takes on more importance in determining what a word means. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2013, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-of-a-vocabulary-did-does-latin-have/653309/10 "2013-03-19T05:12:02Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > You should write a book about your quest to find one. It could be your **magnum** opus. If you have the time to spare from your choir practice. You probably need an **alter** ego. The choir director won’t be happy you’re writing when you should be practicing your solo of ‘Gloria in **excelsis** deo’. Well, it doesn’t have any English adjectives. That is, non-Latin adjectives. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2013, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-of-a-vocabulary-did-does-latin-have/653309/11 "2013-03-19T06:26:13Z")
> [@Vaevictis](#): > > Latin has far fewer words than English. Instead, its words tend to have a wider range of meaning than English words. Context therefore takes on more importance in determining what a word means. Could the discrepancy be from Latin being so inflected, declined, and other gramatical verbs unique to Latin I don’t know? ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2013, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-of-a-vocabulary-did-does-latin-have/653309/12 "2013-03-19T06:48:44Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > Latin being so inflected, declined I remember that there are over 100 different words for “this” in Latin. I remember that there are three words (masculine,feminine,neuter) for each of the 7 cases (ablative, dative,accusitive,etc), in each of the 5 declensions. Do the math: 3x7x5= 105 different words (not just different suffixes tacked onto the same root word). And they all mean exactly the same thing : “this”. (Or “that”–I think English is the only language which differentiates between the two.) (Disclaimer: I escaped Latin when I switched schools at age 11 (4 decades ago), so my memory is a little vague) ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2013, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-of-a-vocabulary-did-does-latin-have/653309/13 "2013-03-19T07:13:52Z")
Define “word”, for starters. Is _rosae_ a different word from _rosa_, or not? If conjugations and declensions aren’t different words, several items currently found, defined and counted in English dictionaries should not have their own entries. A previus thread on the same vein. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2013, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-of-a-vocabulary-did-does-latin-have/653309/14 "2013-03-19T11:51:30Z")
For that matter, are “ego” and “me” the same word? And while Latin certainly has adjectives, it does lack articles. Given that English only has two or three articles, though, that’s not a very big hit in the vocabulary. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2013, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-of-a-vocabulary-did-does-latin-have/653309/15 "2013-03-19T13:24:26Z")
You have to define Latin first. Do you mean just Classical Latin, just Latin that is not regonizably French, Italian, Spanish, etc., or Latin and any of its descendants? _Rosa_ and _rosae_ are different words, but the same [lexeme](http://www.glottopedia.de/index.php/Lexeme_(i.e._set_of_word-forms)). Same with _ego_ and _me_. Latin doesn’t have as many words as English, but that is, in part, because it has great flexibility in its affixes. So there are a number of prefixes and suffixes that can be attached to different root words to express shades of meaning if you can’t be precise enough with what you’ve got and the context. Latin is not a zombie language for two reasons: 1) it never died as a spoken language and 2) it never died as a written language. The spoken langage changed into the vernaculars (for most speakers) and the pronunciation, vocabulary, and some grammar of Latin Latin (for want of a better term) changed in different regions over the course of the middle ages. It’s still Latin, though, and people are still writing it and, to a lesser degree, speaking it—just as a second language rather than a first. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2013, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-of-a-vocabulary-did-does-latin-have/653309/16 "2013-03-19T13:25:45Z")
Double post not there on preview: deleted. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2013, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-of-a-vocabulary-did-does-latin-have/653309/17 "2013-03-19T14:44:00Z")
IIRC - something I read, the latin as written in all the classical texts was already antiquated compared to street latin (vulgate?) by the time of Julius. Also I think we underestimate the role of media and universal(?) literacy in fixing the vocabulary and grammar long term. ---
**Author:** ![coremelt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2013, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-of-a-vocabulary-did-does-latin-have/653309/18 "2013-03-19T14:59:45Z")
[quote=“chappachula, post:12, topic:653309”] And they all mean exactly the same thing : “this”. (Or “that”–I think English is the only language which differentiates between the two.) /QUOTE] certainly not true. Japanese has the KSAD structure for many positional words. Kore = this thing right here Sore = that thing over there Are = that thing far away Dore = which thing? anyway kore = this and sore = that. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2013, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-of-a-vocabulary-did-does-latin-have/653309/19 "2013-03-19T15:15:41Z")
Back in 1939, a student named Paul Diederich did a doctoral dissertation that examined a corpus of approximately 202,000 Latin words drawn from Classical and Medieval Latin texts. I’ve only been able to read about it secondhand, but if the sources are correct, he found that a basic vocabulary of 1,471 words would [enable](http://www.textkit.com/greek-latin-forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=4652) one to understand 83.6% of the corpus, and that 13,798 words [accounted](http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/1998058) for 96.8% of the corpus. ---
**Author:** ![YourAdHere](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/65b543/32.png) [@YourAdHere](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YourAdHere)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2013, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-of-a-vocabulary-did-does-latin-have/653309/20 "2013-03-19T16:22:32Z")
> [@chappachula](#): > > I remember that there are over 100 different words for “this” in Latin. > > I remember that there are three words (masculine,feminine,neuter) for each of the 7 cases (ablative, dative,accusitive,etc), in each of the 5 declensions. > > Do the math: 3x7x5= 105 different words (not just different suffixes tacked onto the same root word). And they all mean exactly the same thing : “this”. > (Or “that”–I think English is the only language which differentiates between the two.) > e) Latin does differentiate between "this " and “that” Hic / haec/ hoc - this man here, the latter . ( has 30 forms, but many are the same. 15 unique forms) Ille / illa / illud- that there / that famous man, the former ( again, 30 forms 16 unique ). Is/ea/id - he/she/it, but can also mean "this/that/the aforementioned " when used as an adjective (30 forms, 15 unique ) Iste / ista / istud - that of yours, that thing near you, the defendant (or accused, I forget which ) ( 30 forms, 15 unique ) Possible "this " word forms - 30 Possible "that " word forms - 46 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-of-a-vocabulary-did-does-latin-have/653309.md?page=2)