Editing Neo-Latin (section)

===Nineteenth century===
{{Unreferenced section|date=June 2023}}
By 1800, Latin publications were far outnumbered, and often outclassed, by writings in the modern languages. Latin literature lasted longest in very specific fields (e.g. botany and zoology) where it had acquired a technical character, and where a literature available only to a small number of learned individuals could remain viable. By the end of the 19th century, Latin in some instances functioned less as a language than as a code capable of concise and exact expression, as for instance in physicians' prescriptions, or in a botanist's description of a specimen. In other fields (e.g. anatomy or law) where Latin had been widely used, it survived in technical phrases and terminology. The perpetuation of [[Ecclesiastical Latin]] in the [[Catholic Church]] through the 20th century can be considered a special case of the technicalizing of Latin, and the narrowing of its use to an elite class of readers.
[[File:Hegel- Inaugural Oration on Assuming the Rectorship at the University of Berlin.webm|thumb|Hegel's Inaugural lecture for the Rectorship of the University of Berlin in 1815; some academic lectures and events were still delivered in Latin in the early 1800s.]]
====Latin and Classical education====
Despite the trends in the 1700s towards lessening emphasis on Latin, study of the language alongside Greek was given a significant boost after 1800 through a revival of humanist education, especially for elite education in France, Germany, England and elsewhere.<ref>{{harvnb|Waquet|2001|pp=26–29}}</ref>

In this model, Latin suffered in status against Ancient Greek, which was seen as the better aesthetic example, but both languages were deemed necessary for a "Classical education". Latin was still generally a requirement for University education. Composition skills were still needed for submission of theses, for instance, in the early part of the century.

In England, study of the Classics became more intense at institutions like [[Eton College|Eton]], or [[Charterhouse School|Charterhouse]]. In grammar schools, however, study of Latin had declined, stopped or become tokenistic in the majority of cases at the point of the [[Taunton Commission]]'s enquiry in 1864, a situation which it helped to reverse in the coming decades.<ref>{{harvnb|Waquet|2001|pp=27–28}}</ref>

The renewed emphasis on the study of [[Classical Latin]] as the spoken language of the Romans of the 1st centuries BC and AD, was similar to that of the Humanists but based on broader linguistic, historical, and critical studies of Latin literature. It led to the exclusion of Neo-Latin literature from academic studies in schools and universities (except for advanced historical language studies); to the abandonment of Neo-Latin neologisms; and to an increasing interest in the reconstructed Classical pronunciation, which displaced the several regional pronunciations in Europe in the early 20th century.

Coincident with these changes in Latin instruction, and to some degree motivating them, came a concern about lack of Latin proficiency among students. Latin had already lost its privileged role as the core subject of elementary instruction; and as education spread to the middle and lower classes, it tended to be dropped altogether.

Latin and the Classics were under pressure from the need for much broader, general education for the wider population. It was clearly not useful or appropriate for everyone to attain high levels of Latin or Greek. Nevertheless, as a requirement for University entry, it formed a barrier to access against people from less privileged backgrounds; this was even seen as good thing. In this way, education in Latin became increasingly associated with a kind of elitism, associated with the education of English "gentlemen" or the French [[bourgeoisie]], and forming a common bond of references within these social classes.<ref>{{harvnb|Waquet|2001|pp=207–229}}</ref>

====Latin and linguistics====
As academic study of languages in Germany and elsewhere intensified, so did knowledge of Latin. This manifested itself in the proposal for restoring Classical pronunciation, but also in further refining knowledge of vowel quantity, use of grammatical constructions and the meaning of particular words. Study of non-standard Latin began. Overall, this intensified the purification, standardisation and academisation of Latin. In education, this led to an increasingly [[Grammar–translation method|grammar based approach]] to learning in many countries, reinforcing its reputation for being difficult and abstruse.

====Uses of Latin in the late 1800s====
[[File:1899eugenio.jpg|thumb|Handwritten document in Latin by [[Eugenio Pacelli]] (later Pope Pius XII), 1899]]
By 1900, creative Latin composition in many countries, for purely artistic purposes, had become rare. Authors such as [[Arthur Rimbaud]] and [[Max Beerbohm]] wrote Latin verse, but these texts were either school exercises or occasional pieces. However, the tradition was still strong enough in Holland, Croatia, Italy and elsewhere to sustain an annual Latin poetry competition, the {{lang|la|Certamen Hoeufftianum}}, until 1978.<ref>Sacré, Dirk p485, in {{harvnb|Knight|Tilg|2015}}</ref>

Classicists themselves were the last redoubt for use of Latin in an academic context. Textual commentaries to Latin texts could be made in Latin, for instance. Academic papers in Classics journals could sometimes be published in Latin.

Some of the last survivals of Neo-Latin to convey information appear in the use of Latin to cloak passages and expressions deemed too indecent to be read by children, the lower classes, or (most) women. Such passages appear in translations of foreign texts and in works on folklore, anthropology, and psychology.<ref>{{harvnb|Waquet|2001|pp=243–254}}</ref> An example of this can be found in [[Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing|Krafft-Ebing]]'s {{lang|la|[[Psychopathia Sexualis (Richard von Krafft-Ebing book)|Psychopathia Sexualis]]}} (1886).

====Official uses of Latin====
A special case was the use of Latin in Hungary and Croatia, where it remained a language of government in the first half of the century. Papers were published in Latin in Hungary, and it was used as the language of Parliamentary debate. This was in large part a compromise between Hungarians and Croats, to both avoid the imposition of German, or their own languages, on each other. The legacy of the political situation meant that a strong Latin tradition continued in Croatia for some time afterwards, where Latin poetry continued to be produced for the remainder of the century.

The abolition of the [[Holy Roman Empire]] ended its use of Latin as an official language. Sweden continued to use Latin for diplomatic correspondence in the nineteenth century, as did the Vatican.