The name Romance indeed suggests the ultimate connection of these languages with Rome: the English word is derived from an Old French form of Latin Romanicus, used in the Middle Ages to designate a vernacular type of Latin speech (as distinct from the more learned form used by clerics) as well as literature written in the vernacular.
But the Latin speech survived: not only was it the language of the majority of the population, but it was also backed by its associations with the old Roman culture and with the new Christian religion, which used Low Latin, its own form of the Roman tongue.
Though Latin in speech and culture, the Roman population must have been somewhat diverse from earliest times, a circumstance that may help to account for the openness of Roman society in historical times.
The Academia Mexicana is one of 20 organizations in Latin America affiliated with the Real Academia Espanola (Royal Spanish Academy) in Madrid, established in 1713 to protect Castilian Spanish from an earlier source of linguistic pollution: words derived from Quechua, Nahuatl and other indigenous tongues were being incorporated into Latin American speech.
Gaulish, however, gave way to the conquerors' speech, Vulgar Latin, which was the spoken form of Latin as used by the soldiers and settlers throughout the Roman Empire.
Mr. Gingrich is aggressively courting Hispanic voters in Florida and he has scheduled several events before the primary on Jan . 31focused on Hispanic issues, including a speech on Latin American policy.
Perhaps the speaker's consciousness is the best measure of divergence; when, one may ask, did Romance speakers realize that they were not using Latin in their everyday speech?
Except as part of Pico's collected works, the Latin text of the speech was printed only once before the 1940s, when the first translation into English also appeared, just after the first Italian version in 1936.
This was the speech most Latin Americans were hoping to hear from a US president for decades - and one many believed they would hear shortly after Obama came to office in 2009.
Meanwhile, other English words were being incorporated into the speech of Latin American countries in the Caribbean: pitcher, catcher, innings.
Mrs. Clinton has made at least two speeches about Latin America in recent weeks, including one on Monday before a group of politically active Mexican-American leaders.
