Could Latin ever be revived as a native spoken language?

Added: 2026-05-17

[00:00:00]Could Latin ever be revived as a native spoken language? I think it would be possible if the will was there. At the beginning of the video, I mentioned Hebrew, which was dead as a spoken language, as a native spoken language, for around 1,600 years. But now there's modern Hebrew. So you could say that Hebrew has been revived. But it might be more accurate to say that it's a new modern variety of the language based on written Hebrew and liturgical Hebrew. It wasn't a revival of the spoken language from the point where it left off. Also, when a revival movement moves beyond the hardcore enthusiasts and becomes a mass revival movement, some people don't really care how well they preserve the original language, and some changes creep in. Some innovations creep in. So it's a little different. That's what I think about when people ask me if Latin could ever be revived. I think it could be revived based on existing forms of Latin if there was a big social or political movement with that as its goal. Like if there was a movement to create a new Roman Empire in much of Europe with Latin as its official language, and people wanted that so badly that they were willing to raise their children as native speakers of Latin. But even though hobbyists and lovers of Latin might learn the language well, a lot of people find Latin grammar difficult. So if millions of normies were adopting Latin en masse, the grammar would probably become simplified, no matter how hard a Latin language academy tried to stop it. Of course, this is just a thought exercise because it takes a volcanic amount of effort sustained over multiple decades, as well as a community of people living in close proximity to each other to make a revival even possible. And today there's nothing like that.