Historical Foundations

It is no surprise that Latin was the language that had such a big influence on the medieval humankind during the twelve century. Latin owes its supremacy to the growth of the Roman Empire from several years B.C. to its downfall around 1200 A.D. During the time of its sovereignty, especially in the Western World, Rome sold abroad not only its values, structural designs, law and art, but also its language. Where the empire controlled so too did the Latin language. When the empire began to disintegrate the Latin language began fading in the peoples of Europe and North Africa. Latin language was affected mainly affected at 12 century because of the spread of vernacular languages on the cultures during this era.

Those people who lived farthest from the Rome itself were the earlier ones to experience a cultural and ethnic recovery. They started using their own vernacular languages rather than the use of Latin. Fresh educational institutions referred to as universities emerged in the twelfth century. Fresh literature, drafted in the vernacular language, attracted the growing number of individuals in the capitals or courts who could read (English, 2009).

The emergence of the vernacular languages had a lot impact on the cultures during the twelfth century. This happened at the period of western civilization, and it brought about Monarchical states, capitalist trade and industry, growth of cities, and vernacular literature were ever present. These vernacular languages were, for example, mostly French and English. People spoke English or French not because they were forced to, but for convenience and status. It brought about medieval civilization and Renaissance (Spielvogel, 2008). There were significant improvements of life, for example the revelation of Scientific Revolution which was used to undertake a dramatic reevaluation of all features of life. A new group of philosophers were optimistic to create a new society and supposed that education could produce improved human beings and an enhanced human society.