[hosepipe]

[.. The language spoken by the common man in Western Europe, in the lands that were formerly Empire, WAS Latin. ..]

Not so.. Romans and Roman Catholic priests used Latin.. ONLY.. Some used latin as a 2nd language no doubt.. but not many.. THATS WHY the language DIED..

[Cronos]

Not so.. Romans and Roman Catholic priests used Latin.. ONLY.. Some used latin as a 2nd language no doubt.. but not many.. THATS WHY the language DIED..

A bit of history would be helpful, or even pure logic. HEre we go:

1. Latin was the lingua franca of the Roman Empire, the language of commerce, law, politics and of the common people, just as English is now spoken in France, Spain etc.
2. The Roman Empire continued in the West until 450 AD
3. After that, the only uniting forces were Roman institutions and The Church
4. The common language remained Latin as that was the only language with a written script, culture, books etc.
5. French, Spanish, Italian, Romanian derived from Latin
6. The Germanic languages only got the LATIN script (btw the script you're writing in now is the LATIN script) by the 8th to 10th centuries and even then it was considered a poor language compared to the richness of Latin
7. Latin was learnt by all the people who could read and write well into the Renaissance period
8. Post that, French began to take over and post the 15th century you can see the relegation of Latin to being just a scholarly language