Which living language is the closest to Latin

Just wondering ...

I'd say French

Italian?

Probably Italian overall, although Romanian may be closer in grammar.

Romanian is closets to 'classical'latin (till 1 ad)
Italian is closets to 'vulgar'latin (till 7 ad)

Not French, in terms of phonetics. But French and Latin do share something.

Probably Italian overall. The French orthography written in the 17th century attempted to show French's roots in Latin and thus resembles Latin.
In terms of verbal conjugations, Spanish is the closest in this regard.

Maybe french in writing and spoken Italian

I read that Old French preserved some Latin case distinctions. Taking the word for "pastor", for example:

subject: paistre
object: pasteur

In modern French, of course, the object form "pasteur" has supplanted the subject form.

That's right Lazar.
In Old French, subject = nominative = Fr <cas sujet>; object = accusative + the rest = Fr <cas régime>.

In terms of vocabulary match, I would say Italian and Portuguese (in this order)

What about Sardinian? That's almost certainly closer than Italian, even though it may be harder to judge whether it is more conservative or less conservative than Romanian, due to one being more conservative than the other in one manner doesn't mean that it will be so in another.

Re-posting :

The closest to Classical*Latin are Romanian,Sardinian,Italian...

Only Romanian conserved- declensions and the NEUTER gender from Classical Latin* (not present in Vulgar Latin {Late Latin} or other Romance languages)

Ex: Classical Latin* and Archaic Latin words preserved in Romanian:

Barbat from (Barbatus)– Man (other Romance –inexistent )
Inteleg from (Intellego)– Understand (other Romance –inexistent )
Unde from (Unde)-Where (other Romance –dove,donde,onde,ou )
Frate from (Frater) Brother (other Romance: irmao hermano frere,fratello )
(There are other hundreds of words identical with Classical Latin*)

Genders: Masculine, Feminine and NEUTER

Ex:
Feminine : carte-book
Masculine : caine-dog
NEUTER :mere-apple,

Obviously Romanian was influenced by many other languages but most Latin words are intact as found only in Classical Latin* and archaic Latin
That is why other Romance speakers don’t understand Romanian – not just because of the Slavic loan words but due to the fact that Romanian has a Classical Latin* nucleus, not a Vulgar Latin (Late latin) core.

“Intellego” is Cicero’s Latin but no Romance speaker understand me when I say in Romanian: Inteleg! (I understand) (Ex: other Romance: entender,intendere,comprendre)

Intelegi ? :-)

*I use the term “Classical Latin” as in Cicero's Ancient Latin -with a more complex grammar structure…not necessarily a POSH Latin!

Archaic Latin - Pre Classical Latin
Classical Latin - Latin in the Ancient World
Vulgar Latin - Late Latin
Medieval Latin - Present-day Latin

Re: http://antimoon.com/forum/posts/7132-2.htm

Other ex: Classical Latin vs. Vulgar Latin

"Church" in Classical Latin= Basilica>>Romanian=Biserica
"Church" in Vulgar Latin= Eclessia>>French-eglise,Italian-chiesa,Spanish-iglesia,Portuguese-igreja

"Cheese"in Classical Latin = Caseus >>Romanian=Cas
"Cheese"in Vulgar Latin =Formaticum>>French-fromage,Italian-formaggio,Spanish-queso,Portuguese-queijo

This makes more sense.

"Cheese"in Classical Latin = Caseus >>Romanian=Cas,Spanish-queso,Portuguese-queijo
"Cheese"in Vulgar Latin =Formaticum>>French-fromage,Italian-formaggio