> For over a thousand years, nobody has been brought up to speak [Latin] naturally at home
I know it is a very small number of people, and perhaps not Latin as it was spoken in Rome, but I think an argument could be made that Romansh is a direct descendant of Latin still actively spoken today.
Off topic: I'm rebuilding our landing page (targeting CH for the time being) and decided to add Romansh. Long story short, there are 5 standard forms, plus an official made-up version, all of that for 60k speakers. Was interesting to read so much about our 4th official language.
I'm not a linguist nor a Romansh speaker but my understanding has always been that at its core it is very much still a Latin dialect, thus I'm surprised by all the downvote hate I received.
I wouldn't be surprised if some native speakers, or maybe other Swiss people, said "it's really still Latin -- that's why it's so hard to understand!" or something.
But if so, I think they'd effectively be making up a story to account for Romansh's distinctiveness. I was just looking at some a couple of days ago (as a friend is traveling in Switzerland); I know Latin well, and what I saw was extremely different from Latin, in terms of sound changes, vocabulary changes, and grammatical changes.
* fixed subject-verb-object word order (instead of Latin's variable word order that often prefers subject-object-verb)
* no case inflections (instead of Latin's case inflections)
* plurals apparently derived from Latin accusative plural (not nominative plural)
* compound perfect tense ("have done")
* definite articles (Latin has none)
* many systematic sound changes from Latin (all Romance languages have these, and which specific ones occur tends to define the sound of a specific Romance language)
And unlike other Romance languages (or Latin) it has "numerous Germanic loanwords":
My best guess is that the idea of Romansh as distinctively close to Latin is a myth or misconception.
Here's "The Fox and the Crow" in a poetic Latin version and a prose Romansh version (the latter from Wikipedia):
Cum de fenestra corvus raptum caseum
Comesse vellet, celsa residens arbore,
Vulpes hunc vidit, deinde sic coepit loqui:
"O qui tuarum, corve, pennarum est nitor!
Quantum decoris corpore et vultu geris!
Si vocem haberes, nulla prior ales foret."
La vulp era puspè ina giada fomentada. Qua ha ella vis sin in pign in corv che tegneva in toc chaschiel en ses pichel. Quai ma gustass, ha ella pensà, ed ha clamà al corv: «Tge bel che ti es! Sche tes chant è uschè bel sco tia parita, lur es ti il pli bel utschè da tuts».
These aren't directly parallel in meaning, so they're not easy to compare word-for-word. Apart from pretty big sound changes, I notice three grammatical changes: that compound perfect ("ha ella pensà, ed ha clamà al corv" 'she (has) thought, and she (has) shouted to the crow'), the use of a relative in making an exclamation ("tge bel che ti es" 'how beautiful (that) you are'), and the use of separate words for comparisons and superlatives ("il pli bel utschè" 'the more beautiful bird' → 'the most beautiful bird'). (Latin would say "avis bellissima".)
OK, I translated the English translation of the Romansh story into Latin so that we can directly compare the two.
Vulpes iterum esuriebat. | La vulp era puspè ina giada fomentada.
Ibi corvum in abie vidit, qui fragmen casei rostro tenebat. | Qua ha ella vis sin in pign in corv che tegneva in toc chaschiel en ses pichel.
"Hunc vellem," pensavit, et clamavit ad corvum: | Quai ma gustass, ha ella pensà, ed ha clamà al corv:
"Quam pulcher es! | «Tge bel che ti es!
Si cantus tuus tam bellus quam vultus tuus est, tu bellissima omnium avium es!" | Sche tes chant è uschè bel sco tia parita, lur es ti il pli bel utschè da tuts».
(Some Romansh words whose likely Latin ancestors I didn't use, because it was less idiomatic, or sometimes actually grammatically impossible: era < erat, fomentada < fames, gustass < gustavissem, ella < illa, parita < apparentia, pli < plus, tuts < totos. I probably missed some others by not noticing the etymology.)
True, but also Romanian (and Moldovan), and Ladino...
Living in central Europe for nearly a decade, it was fascinating to get drunk with groups of Romanians a few times, with only knowledge of Western Latinate languages. Sometimes you can just hear the meaning... but only if it's something 2 Roman legionaries might have said to each other 2 millennia ago.
The Roma have been trying to claim lineage with Rome for a very long time, for reasons that should be obvious to anyone who is aware of the Roma. Apparently if they say it loud enough and often enough it becomes true. After all, they are now called Roma.
I know it is a very small number of people, and perhaps not Latin as it was spoken in Rome, but I think an argument could be made that Romansh is a direct descendant of Latin still actively spoken today.