I've always found languages interesting. they are such a deep reflection of culture. in new zealand (where i live), most people speak english, but there are many other languages in the world—spanish, french, german, chinese—just to name a few. while most people can only speak only a single language, some people can speak more than one. being able to speak multiple languages (also called being "multilingual") is pretty cool.

the language i like best is latin. latin is a dead language, which means almost nobody speaks it anymore. although it is dead, i still like it because it is so old. it was mostly spoken and written a long time ago. after all, it was the language of ancient rome (a city in italy), and was spoken for close to 2000 years! it was used for a very long time.

today, some people can read latin, but almost nobody speaks it or writes in it. today, it is not the language of any country.

have you ever wondered where language comes from? languages can change. when they do, they can become other languages. many of today’s languages derive from latin. italian derives from latin. french derives from latin. spanish derives from latin. surprisingly, lots of the english language derives from latin, too. now, you may be wondering where latin itself came from. latin came from a language called "indo-european". where did indo-european come from? that is a mystery. nobody really knows.

okay, are you ready to speak a little latin? there are some easy things to say. for example, “salve! ” means “hello! ” “vale! ” means “good bye.” “quid agis? ” means “how are you? ” “valeo” means “i am well.” so a conversation might sounds like this:

“salve! ”

“salve! ”

“quid agis? ”

“valeo! quid agis? ”

“valeo! ”

“vale! ”

“vale! ”

you can now say a few things in latin. today, there are only a few uses for latin. latin is spoken in some churches. it is also used by scientists. scientists use latin names for things. for example, apis is the scientific word for "bee." it is a latin word. canis is the latin word for "dog." the latin word for "human" is homo sapiens. scientists use these names, too.

based on the information in the passage, which of the following languages is "dead"?

a. sanskrit, which almost nobody speaks anymore
b. hindi, which most people speak in india
c. mandarin, which is the most widely spoken language in the world
d. krimchak, which very few people speak today