Latin --> Italian

Luigi Speranza

Lynn Murphy was making a proper question at her blog. She is worried (let us say) that Australian may diverge so much, say, from British English, that a 'dialect', such as Australian, may become a different 'lingua'.

Personally, I think the issue of

"Latin" ---> "Italian"

IS OFTEN very much simplified, especially in the anglophone bibliography! Why, one may refer to Italian as just new Latin ("neo-Latin" _IS_ a term anglophone dialectologists or historical linguists use). Or, as I prefer, that Latin is _old Italian_!