# Latin vs. Roman vs. Italian **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 16, 2002, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latin-vs-roman-vs-italian/143068 "2002-12-16T13:13:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latin-vs-roman-vs-italian/143068/1 "2002-12-16T13:13:32Z")
What is the origin of the term “Latin”? Why didn’t the Romans speak Roman, not Latin? Or, why not Italian? (Did Italy exist as its own entity, or being the heart of the Roman Empire, just all lumped together as “Rome”?) - Jinx ---
**Author:** ![Philster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latin-vs-roman-vs-italian/143068/2 "2002-12-16T14:09:34Z")
Italian is one of several languages born from latin (spanish, etc). Geography does wonders to a common language, which is common knowldedge, right? Rome was an empire, and was a center of activity…sort of both. “Italy” is country defined by borders and a government, and is gegraphically similar to the central areas of the Roman empire. When drawing lines around gegraphic areas, it doesn’t necessarily mean the people on the opposite sides of those lines are very different…such as the norttern borders of Italy. Italy came to be Italy in the late 18th century…but the region is fairly defined by the peninsula, and the people had been failry common to the area since the Roman empire was centered in Rome…and the area we call Italy was closer to Rome than say Spain, or Germania, etc, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Popup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/94ad74/32.png) [@Popup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Popup)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latin-vs-roman-vs-italian/143068/3 "2002-12-16T14:27:45Z")
To add to what **Philster** says:. “Latin” was the language of _latium_, the region around Rome (its capital). As the empire grew, the language grew as well. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latin-vs-roman-vs-italian/143068/4 "2002-12-16T14:31:47Z")
The region around Rome was called Latium and I assume the name Latin came from that. It would have made as much sense to call it Roman, but they just didn’t. On the other hand, both Romanian and Romansch are obviously derived from Roman, as is the phrase Romance language. There are probably at least a score of distinguishable Romance languages, meaning mutually incomprehensible, but most don’t have an army. For example, I once heard Gruyerian and found it totally incomprehensible, even though 30 km away, they spoke perfectly standard French. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latin-vs-roman-vs-italian/143068/5 "2002-12-16T16:41:44Z")
[http://www.campinglaconella.it/eng/elba\_eng.htm](http://www.campinglaconella.it/eng/elba_eng.htm) As for Italy, that name ultimately derives from the Greek “Aethalia”, which referred to the Tuscan Archipelago (most notably, the island of Elba). ---
**Author:** ![MC\_Master\_of\_Ceremonies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/bb73d2/32.png) [@MC\_Master\_of\_Ceremonies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MC_Master_of_Ceremonies)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latin-vs-roman-vs-italian/143068/6 "2002-12-16T17:31:31Z")
Latin was a language spoken on the Itailian penisula (though of course many other languages were spoken too), by a loose ethnic group known by the name of their language. The Romans were just one group of tribes that spoke Latin (though eventually all the Latin peoples were given citzenship of the Roman empire). ---
**Author:** ![flabbygirlyman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/45deac/32.png) [@flabbygirlyman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flabbygirlyman)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latin-vs-roman-vs-italian/143068/7 "2002-12-16T18:41:08Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by bordelond \* > \*\*[http://www.campinglaconella.it/eng/elba\_eng.htm](http://www.campinglaconella.it/eng/elba_eng.htm) > > As for Italy, that name ultimately derives from the Greek “Aethalia”, which referred to the Tuscan Archipelago (most notably, the island of Elba). \*\* I once heard that the name “Italia”, is derived from “Vitalia”,(with the v pronounced as w) , indicating that the ancient Hellenic settlers raised cattle there . ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/latin-vs-roman-vs-italian/143068/8 "2002-12-16T18:51:46Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by flabbygirlyman \* > \*\*I once heard that the name “Italia”, is derived from “Vitalia”,(with the v pronounced as w) , indicating that the ancient Hellenic settlers raised cattle there . \*\* Well … [http://www.virtualtourist.com/m/30447/33/](http://www.virtualtourist.com/m/30447/33/) > [@](#): > > \*\*It’s a very ancient country: before the Roman Empire, it was called Enotria (from the name of the ancient inhabitants of the peninsula), and then Esperia, by the Greek, because it was to the west for them; > finally Italia, under the Romans (Italia, at first was “Vitalia” and means “terra di vitelli” = “land of veals”). > \*\* But then … [http://www.takeourword.com/TOW143/page4.html](http://www.takeourword.com/TOW143/page4.html) This second link treats the “Vitalia/Italia” theory as dubious.