Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
is a member of the broad family of
Italic languages. Its alphabet, the
Latin alphabet
The Latin alphabet or Roman alphabet is the collection of letters originally used by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered with the exception of extensions (such as diacritics), it used to write English and th ...
, emerged from the
Old Italic alphabets, which in turn were derived from the
Etruscan __NOTOC__
Etruscan may refer to:
Ancient civilization
*The Etruscan language, an extinct language in ancient Italy
*Something derived from or related to the Etruscan civilization
**Etruscan architecture
**Etruscan art
**Etruscan cities
** Etrusca ...
,
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
and
Phoenician scripts. Historical Latin came from the prehistoric language of the
Latium
Latium ( , ; ) is the region of central western Italy in which the city of Rome was founded and grew to be the capital city of the Roman Empire.
Definition
Latium was originally a small triangle of fertile, volcanic soil ( Old Latium) on w ...
region, specifically around the River
Tiber
The Tiber ( ; it, Tevere ; la, Tiberis) is the third-longest List of rivers of Italy, river in Italy and the longest in Central Italy, rising in the Apennine Mountains in Emilia-Romagna and flowing through Tuscany, Umbria, and Lazio, where ...
, where
Roman civilization
The history of Rome includes the history of the Rome, city of Rome as well as the Ancient Rome, civilisation of ancient Rome. Roman history has been influential on the modern world, especially in the history of the Catholic Church, and Roman la ...
first developed. How and when Latin came to be spoken by the Romans are questions that have long been debated.
Various influences on Latin of
Celtic dialects in
northern Italy, the non-Indo-European
Etruscan language
Etruscan () was the language of the Etruscan civilization, in Italy, in the ancient region of Etruria (modern Tuscany, western Umbria, northern Latium, Emilia-Romagna, Veneto, Lombardy and Campania). Etruscan influenced Latin but was eventua ...
in
Central Italy
Central Italy ( it, Italia centrale or just ) is one of the five official statistical regions of Italy used by the National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT), a first-level NUTS region, and a European Parliament constituency.
Regions
Central I ...
, and the
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
in some Greek colonies of
southern Italy have been detected, but when these influences entered the native Latin is not known for certain.
Surviving
Latin literature
Latin literature includes the essays, histories, poems, plays, and other writings written in the Latin language. The beginning of formal Latin literature dates to 240 BC, when the first stage play in Latin was performed in Rome. Latin literature ...
consists almost entirely of
Classical Latin
Classical Latin is the form of Literary Latin recognized as a literary standard by writers of the late Roman Republic and early Roman Empire. It was used from 75 BC to the 3rd century AD, when it developed into Late Latin. In some later period ...
in its broadest definition. It includes a polished and sometimes highly stylized
literary language
A literary language is the form (register) of a language used in written literature, which can be either a nonstandard dialect or a standardized variety of the language. Literary language sometimes is noticeably different from the spoken langua ...
sometimes termed Golden Latin, which spans the 1st century BC and the early years of the 1st century AD. However, throughout the history of ancient Rome the spoken language differed in both grammar and vocabulary from that of literature, and is referred to as
Vulgar Latin
Vulgar Latin, also known as Popular or Colloquial Latin, is the range of non-formal registers of Latin spoken from the Late Roman Republic onward. Through time, Vulgar Latin would evolve into numerous Romance languages. Its literary counterpa ...
.
In addition to Latin, the
Greek language
Greek ( el, label= Modern Greek, Ελληνικά, Elliniká, ; grc, Ἑλληνική, Hellēnikḗ) is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, native to Greece, Cyprus, southern Italy ( Calabria and Salento), southe ...
was often spoken by the well-educated elite, who studied it in school and acquired Greek tutors from among the influx of enslaved educated Greek prisoners of war, captured during the
Roman conquest of Greece
Greece in the Roman era describes the Roman conquest of Greece, as well as the period of Greek history when Greece was dominated first by the Roman Republic and then by the Roman Empire.
The Roman era of Greek history began with the Corinthian ...
. In the eastern half of the Roman Empire, later referred to as the
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
, the Greek
Koine of
Hellenism remained current among peasants and traders, while Latin was used for laws and administrative writings. It continued to influence the Vulgar Latin that would evolve into the
Eastern Romance languages
The Eastern Romance languages are a group of Romance languages. Today, the group consists of the Daco-Romance subgroup, which comprises the Romanian language (Daco-Romanian), Aromanian language and two other related minor languages, Megleno-R ...
.
Origins
The name Latin derives from the Italic tribal group named
Latini
The Latins (Latin: ''Latini''), sometimes known as the Latians, were an Italic tribe which included the early inhabitants of the city of Rome (see Roman people). From about 1000 BC, the Latins inhabited the small region known to the Romans a ...
that settled around the 10th century BC in Latium, and the dialect spoken by these people.
The Italic languages form a ''
centum
Languages of the Indo-European family are classified as either centum languages or satem languages according to how the dorsal consonants (sounds of "K", "G" and "Y" type) of the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European language (PIE) developed. An e ...
'' subfamily of the
Indo-European language family
The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the overwhelming majority of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the northern Indian subcontinent. Some European languages of this family, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Du ...
, which include the
Germanic,
Celtic
Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to:
Language and ethnicity
*pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia
**Celts (modern)
*Celtic languages
**Proto-Celtic language
* Celtic music
*Celtic nations
Sports Fo ...
, and
Hellenic languages, and a number of extinct ones.
Broadly speaking, in initial syllables the Indo-European simple vowels—''*i, *e, (*a), *o, *u''; short and long—are usually retained in Latin. The
vocalized laryngeals (''*ə'') appear in Latin as ''a'' (cf. IE ''*pəter'' > L ''pater''). Diphthongs are also preserved in Old Latin, but in Classical Latin some tend to become monophthongs (for example ''oi'' > ''ū'' or ''oe'', and ''ei'' > ''ē'' > ''ī''). In non-initial syllables, there was more vowel reduction. The most extreme case occurs with short vowels in medial
open syllable
A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds typically made up of a syllable nucleus (most often a vowel) with optional initial and final margins (typically, consonants). Syllables are often considered the phonological "b ...
s (i.e. short vowels followed by at most a single consonant, occurring neither in the first nor last syllable): All are reduced to a single vowel, which appears as ''i'' in most cases, but ''e'' (sometimes ''o'') before ''r'', and ''u'' before an ''l'' which is followed by ''o'' or ''u''. In final syllables, short ''e'' and ''o'' are usually raised to ''i'' and ''u'', respectively.
Consonants are generally more stable. However, the Indo-European voiced aspirates ''bh, dh, gh, gwh'' are not maintained, becoming ''f, f, h, f'' respectively at the beginning of a word, but usually ''b, d, g, v'' elsewhere. Non-initial ''dh'' becomes ''b'' next to ''r'' or ''u'', e.g. ''*h₁rudh-'' "red" > ''rub-'', e.g. ''rubeō'' "to be red"; ''*werdh-'' "word" > ''verbum''. ''s'' between vowels becomes ''r'', e.g. ''flōs'' "flower", gen. ''flōris''; ''erō'' "I will be" vs. root ''es-''; ''aurōra'' "dawn" < *''ausōsā'' (cf.
Germanic ''*aust-'' >
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
"east",
Vedic Sanskrit
Vedic Sanskrit was an ancient language of the Indo-Aryan subgroup of the Indo-European language family. It is attested in the Vedas and related literature compiled over the period of the mid- 2nd to mid-1st millennium BCE. It was orally preser ...
''uṣā́s'' "dawn"); ''soror'' "sister" < ''*sozor'' < ''*swezōr'' < ''*swésōr'' (cf.
Old English
Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th c ...
''sweostor'' "sister").
Of the original eight
cases of
Proto-Indo-European
Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. Its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-European languages. No direct record of Proto-Indo- ...
, Latin inherited six:
nominative,
vocative
In grammar, the vocative case (abbreviated ) is a grammatical case which is used for a noun that identifies a person (animal, object, etc.) being addressed, or occasionally for the noun modifiers (determiners, adjectives, participles, and numer ...
,
accusative
The accusative case (abbreviated ) of a noun is the grammatical case used to mark the direct object of a transitive verb.
In the English language, the only words that occur in the accusative case are pronouns: 'me,' 'him,' 'her,' 'us,' and ‘th ...
,
genitive,
dative, and
ablative
In grammar, the ablative case (pronounced ; sometimes abbreviated ) is a grammatical case for nouns, pronouns, and adjectives in the grammars of various languages; it is sometimes used to express motion away from something, among other uses. ...
. The Indo-European
locative survived in the declensions of some place names and a few common nouns, such as ''Roma'' "Rome" (locative ''Romae'') and ''domus'' "home" (locative ''domī'' "at home"). Vestiges of the
instrumental case may remain in adverbial forms ending in ''-ē''.
It is believed that the earliest surviving inscription is a seventh-century BC
fibula
The fibula or calf bone is a leg bone on the lateral side of the tibia, to which it is connected above and below. It is the smaller of the two bones and, in proportion to its length, the most slender of all the long bones. Its upper extremity i ...
known as the ''
Praenestine fibula'', which reads ''Manios med fhefhaked Numasioi'' "Manius made me for Numerius".
Ages of Latin
Old Latin
Old Latin (also called Early Latin or Archaic Latin) refers to the period of Latin texts before the age of
Classical Latin
Classical Latin is the form of Literary Latin recognized as a literary standard by writers of the late Roman Republic and early Roman Empire. It was used from 75 BC to the 3rd century AD, when it developed into Late Latin. In some later period ...
, extending from textual fragments that probably originated in the
Roman monarchy
The Roman Kingdom (also referred to as the Roman monarchy, or the regal period of ancient Rome) was the earliest period of Roman history when the city and its territory were ruled by kings. According to oral accounts, the Roman Kingdom began wit ...
to the written language of the late
Roman republic
The Roman Republic ( la, Res publica Romana ) was a form of government of Rome and the era of the classical Roman civilization when it was run through public representation of the Roman people. Beginning with the overthrow of the Roman Ki ...
about 75 BC. Almost all the writing of its earlier phases is inscriptional.
Some phonological characteristics of older Latin are the case endings ''-os'' and ''-om'' (later Latin ''-us'' and ''-um''). In many locations, classical Latin turned intervocalic /s/ into /r/. This had implications for
declension
In linguistics, declension (verb: ''to decline'') is the changing of the form of a word, generally to express its syntactic function in the sentence, by way of some inflection. Declensions may apply to nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, and ...
: early classical Latin, ''honos'', ''honosis''; Classical ''honor'', ''honoris'' ("honor"). Some Latin texts preserve /s/ in this position, such as the ''
Carmen Arvale
The ''Carmen Arvale'' is the preserved chant of the Arval priests or ''Fratres Arvales'' of ancient Rome.
The Arval priests were devoted to the goddess Dia, and offered sacrifices to her to ensure the fertility of ploughed fields (Latin ''arv ...
s ''lases'' for ''
lares
Lares ( , ; archaic , singular ''Lar'') were guardian deities in ancient Roman religion. Their origin is uncertain; they may have been hero-ancestors, guardians of the hearth, fields, boundaries, or fruitfulness, or an amalgam of these.
Lare ...
''.
Classical Latin
Classical Latin is the form of the Latin language used by the
ancient Romans
In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–509 ...
in Classical Latin literature. In the latest and narrowest
philological model its use spanned the Golden Age of Latin literature—broadly the 1st century BC and the early 1st century AD—possibly extending to the Silver Age—broadly the 1st and 2nd centuries. It was a polished
written
Writing is a medium of human communication which involves the representation of a language through a system of physically inscribed, mechanically transferred, or digitally represented symbols.
Writing systems do not themselves constitute h ...
literary language
A literary language is the form (register) of a language used in written literature, which can be either a nonstandard dialect or a standardized variety of the language. Literary language sometimes is noticeably different from the spoken langua ...
based on the refined spoken language of the upper classes. Classical Latin differs from Old Latin: the earliest inscriptional language and the earliest authors, such as
Ennius
Quintus Ennius (; c. 239 – c. 169 BC) was a writer and poet who lived during the Roman Republic. He is often considered the father of Roman poetry. He was born in the small town of Rudiae, located near modern Lecce, Apulia, (Ancient Calabria ...
,
Plautus
Titus Maccius Plautus (; c. 254 – 184 BC), commonly known as Plautus, was a Roman playwright of the Old Latin period. His comedies are the earliest Latin literary works to have survived in their entirety. He wrote Palliata comoedia, the ...
and others, in a number of ways; for example, the early ''-om'' and ''-os'' endings shifted into ''-um'' and ''-us'' ones, and some lexical differences also developed, such as the broadening of the meaning of words. In the broadest and most ancient sense, the classical period includes the authors of Early Latin, the Golden Age and the Silver Age.
Golden Age
The
Golden age
The term Golden Age comes from Greek mythology, particularly the '' Works and Days'' of Hesiod, and is part of the description of temporal decline of the state of peoples through five Ages, Gold being the first and the one during which the G ...
of Latin literature is a period consisting roughly of the time from 75 BC to AD 14, covering the end of the
Roman Republic
The Roman Republic ( la, Res publica Romana ) was a form of government of Rome and the era of the classical Roman civilization when it was run through public representation of the Roman people. Beginning with the overthrow of the Roman Ki ...
and the reign of
Augustus Caesar. In the currently used philological model this period represents the peak of Latin literature. Since the earliest post-classical times the Latin of those authors has been an ideal norm of the best Latin, which other writers should follow.
Silver Age
In reference to
Roman
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...
literature, the Silver age covers the first two centuries AD directly after the
Golden age
The term Golden Age comes from Greek mythology, particularly the '' Works and Days'' of Hesiod, and is part of the description of temporal decline of the state of peoples through five Ages, Gold being the first and the one during which the G ...
. Literature from the Silver Age is more embellished with mannerisms.
Late Latin
Late Latin is the administrative and literary language of
Late Antiquity
Late antiquity is the time of transition from classical antiquity to the Middle Ages, generally spanning the 3rd–7th century in Europe and adjacent areas bordering the Mediterranean Basin. The popularization of this periodization in English ha ...
in the late Roman empire and states that succeeded the
Western Roman Empire
The Western Roman Empire comprised the western provinces of the Roman Empire at any time during which they were administered by a separate independent Imperial court; in particular, this term is used in historiography to describe the period ...
over the same range. By its broadest definition it is dated from about 200 AD to about 900 AD when it was replaced by written
Romance languages
The Romance languages, sometimes referred to as Latin languages or Neo-Latin languages, are the various modern languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages in the Indo-European language ...
. Opinion concerning whether it should be considered classical is divided. The authors of the period looked back to a classical period they believed should be imitated and yet their styles were often classical. According to the narrowest definitions, Late Latin did not exist and the authors of the times are to be considered medieval.
Vulgar Latin
Vulgar Latin (in Latin, ''sermo vulgaris'') is a blanket term covering
vernacular
A vernacular or vernacular language is in contrast with a "standard language". It refers to the language or dialect that is spoken by people that are inhabiting a particular country or region. The vernacular is typically the native language, n ...
dialects of the Latin language spoken from earliest times in Italy until the latest dialects of the
Western Roman Empire
The Western Roman Empire comprised the western provinces of the Roman Empire at any time during which they were administered by a separate independent Imperial court; in particular, this term is used in historiography to describe the period ...
, diverging still further, evolved into the early
Romance languages
The Romance languages, sometimes referred to as Latin languages or Neo-Latin languages, are the various modern languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages in the Indo-European language ...
—whose writings began to appear about the 9th century.
This spoken Latin differed from the
literary language
A literary language is the form (register) of a language used in written literature, which can be either a nonstandard dialect or a standardized variety of the language. Literary language sometimes is noticeably different from the spoken langua ...
of Classical Latin in its grammar and vocabulary. It is likely to have evolved over time, with some features not appearing until the late Empire. Other features are likely to have been in place much earlier. Because there are few phonetic transcriptions of the daily speech of these Latin speakers (to match, for example, the post-classical
Appendix Probi
The ''Appendix Probi'' ("Probus' Appendix") is the conventional name for a series of five documents believed to have been copied in the seventh or eighth century in Bobbio, Italy. Its name derives from the fact that the documents were found atta ...
) Vulgar Latin must be studied mainly by indirect methods.
Knowledge of Vulgar Latin comes from a variety of sources. First, the
comparative method
In linguistics, the comparative method is a technique for studying the development of languages by performing a feature-by-feature comparison of two or more languages with common descent from a shared ancestor and then extrapolating backwards t ...
reconstructs items of the mother language from the attested Romance languages. Also,
prescriptive grammar
Linguistic prescription, or prescriptive grammar, is the establishment of rules defining preferred usage of language. These rules may address such linguistic aspects as spelling, pronunciation, vocabulary, syntax, and semantics. Sometimes info ...
texts from the Late Latin period condemn some usages as errors, providing insight into how Latin was actually spoken. The
solecism
A solecism is a phrase that transgresses the rules of grammar. The term is often used in the context of linguistic prescription; it also occurs descriptively in the context of a lack of idiomaticness.
Etymology
The word originally was used by ...
s and non-Classical usages occasionally found in Late Latin texts also shed light on the spoken language. A windfall source lies in the chance finds of
wax tablet
A wax tablet is a tablet made of wood and covered with a layer of wax, often linked loosely to a cover tablet, as a "double-leaved" diptych. It was used as a reusable and portable writing surface in Antiquity and throughout the Middle Ages. C ...
s such as those found at
Vindolanda
Vindolanda was a Roman auxiliary fort ('' castrum'') just south of Hadrian's Wall in northern England, which it originally pre-dated.British windo- 'fair, white, blessed', landa 'enclosure/meadow/prairie/grassy plain' (the modern Welsh word ...
on
Hadrian's Wall. The
Roman cursive
Roman cursive (or Latin cursive) is a form of handwriting (or a script) used in ancient Rome and to some extent into the Middle Ages. It is customarily divided into old (or ancient) cursive and new cursive.
Old Roman cursive
Old Roman cursiv ...
script was used on these tablets.
Romance languages
The Romance languages, a major branch of the Indo-European language family, comprise all languages that descended from Latin, the language of the Roman Empire. The Romance languages have more than 700 million native speakers worldwide, mainly in the
Americas
The Americas, which are sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North and South America. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere and comprise the New World.
Along with th ...
,
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...
, and
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
, as well as in many smaller regions scattered through the world.
All Romance languages descend from Vulgar Latin, the language of soldiers, settlers, and slaves of the
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post- Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediter ...
, which was substantially different from that of the Roman ''literati''. Between 200 BC and AD 100, the expansion of the Empire and the administrative and educational policies of Rome made Vulgar Latin the dominant vernacular language over a wide area which stretched from the
Iberian Peninsula
The Iberian Peninsula (),
**
* Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica''
**
**
* french: Péninsule Ibérique
* mwl, Península Eibérica
* eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, def ...
to the west coast of the
Black Sea
The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Rom ...
. During the Empire's decline and after its collapse and fragmentation in the 5th century, Vulgar Latin began to evolve independently within each local area, and eventually diverged into dozens of distinct languages. The overseas empires established by
Spain
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
, image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg
, national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond")
, national_anthem = (English: "Royal March")
, i ...
,
Portugal
Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...
and
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...
after the 15th century then spread these languages to other continents—about two thirds of all Romance speakers are now outside Europe.
In spite of the multiple influences of pre-Roman languages and later invasions, the
phonology
Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a ...
,
morphology
Morphology, from the Greek and meaning "study of shape", may refer to:
Disciplines
* Morphology (archaeology), study of the shapes or forms of artifacts
* Morphology (astronomy), study of the shape of astronomical objects such as nebulae, galaxies ...
,
lexicon, and
syntax of all Romance languages are predominantly derived from Vulgar Latin. As a result, the group shares a number of linguistic features that set it apart from other Indo-European branches.
Ecclesiastical Latin
Ecclesiastical Latin (sometimes called Church Latin) is a broad and analogous term referring to the Latin language as used in documents of the
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
, its
liturgies
Liturgy is the customary public ritual of worship performed by a religious group. ''Liturgy'' can also be used to refer specifically to public worship by Christians. As a religious phenomenon, liturgy represents a communal response to and partic ...
(mainly in past times) and during some periods the preaching of its ministers. Ecclesiastical Latin is not a single style: the term merely means the language promulgated at any time by the church. In terms of stylistic periods, it belongs to Late Latin in the Late Latin period, Medieval Latin in the Medieval Period, and so on through to the present. One may say that, starting from the church's decision in the early Late Latin period to use a simple and unornamented language that would be comprehensible to ordinary Latin speakers and yet still be elegant and correct, church Latin is usually a discernible substyle within the major style of the period. Its authors in the
New Latin
New Latin (also called Neo-Latin or Modern Latin) is the revival of Literary Latin used in original, scholarly, and scientific works since about 1500. Modern scholarly and technical nomenclature, such as in zoological and botanical taxonomy ...
period are typically paradigmatic of the best Latin and that is true in contemporary times. The decline in its use within the last 100 years has been a matter of regret to some, who have formed organizations inside and outside the church to support its use and to use it.
Medieval Latin
Medieval Latin, the literary and administrative Latin used in the
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...
, exhibits much variation between individual authors, mainly due to poor communications in those times between different regions. The individuality is characterised by a different range of
solecisms
A solecism is a phrase that transgresses the rules of grammar. The term is often used in the context of linguistic prescription; it also occurs descriptively in the context of a lack of idiomaticness.
Etymology
The word originally was used by ...
and by the borrowing of different words from
Vulgar Latin
Vulgar Latin, also known as Popular or Colloquial Latin, is the range of non-formal registers of Latin spoken from the Late Roman Republic onward. Through time, Vulgar Latin would evolve into numerous Romance languages. Its literary counterpa ...
or from local vernaculars. Some styles show features intermediate between Latin and Romance languages; others are closer to classical Latin. The stylistic variations came to an end with the rise of
nation state
A nation state is a political unit where the state and nation are congruent. It is a more precise concept than "country", since a country does not need to have a predominant ethnic group.
A nation, in the sense of a common ethnicity, may i ...
s and new empires in the
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history
The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (800 BC to AD ...
period, and the authority of early
universities
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, ...
imposing a new style:
Renaissance Latin.
Renaissance Latin
Renaissance Latin is a name given to the Latin written during the European
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history
The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (800 BC to AD ...
in the 14th-16th centuries, particularly distinguished by the distinctive Latin style developed by
the humanist movement.
''
Ad fontes
''Ad fontes'' is a Latin expression which means " ackto the sources" (lit. "to the sources"). The phrase epitomizes the renewed study of Greek and Latin classics in Renaissance humanism. Similarly, the Protestant Reformation called for renew ...
'' was the general cry of the humanists, and as such their Latin style sought to purge Latin of the
medieval Latin
Medieval Latin was the form of Literary Latin used in Roman Catholic Western Europe during the Middle Ages. In this region it served as the primary written language, though local languages were also written to varying degrees. Latin functione ...
vocabulary and stylistic accretions that it had acquired in the centuries after the fall of the Roman Empire. They looked to Golden Age Latin literature, and especially to
Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the esta ...
in
prose
Prose is a form of written or spoken language that follows the natural flow of speech, uses a language's ordinary grammatical structures, or follows the conventions of formal academic writing. It differs from most traditional poetry, where the ...
and
Virgil
Publius Vergilius Maro (; traditional dates 15 October 7021 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: th ...
in
poetry
Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...
, as the arbiters of Latin style. They abandoned the use of the
sequence
In mathematics, a sequence is an enumerated collection of objects in which repetitions are allowed and order matters. Like a set, it contains members (also called ''elements'', or ''terms''). The number of elements (possibly infinite) is calle ...
and other accentual forms of
meter
The metre (British spelling) or meter (American spelling; see spelling differences) (from the French unit , from the Greek noun , "measure"), symbol m, is the primary unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), though its pref ...
, and sought instead to revive the Greek formats that were used in
Latin poetry
The history of Latin poetry can be understood as the adaptation of Greek models. The verse comedies of Plautus, the earliest surviving examples of Latin literature, are estimated to have been composed around 205-184 BC.
History
Scholars conve ...
during the Roman period. The humanists condemned the large body of medieval Latin literature as "
gothic
Gothic or Gothics may refer to:
People and languages
*Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes
**Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths
**Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
"—for them, a term of abuse—and believed instead that only ancient Latin from the Roman period was "real Latin".
The humanists also sought to purge written Latin of medieval developments in its
orthography
An orthography is a set of conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, hyphenation, capitalization, word breaks, emphasis, and punctuation.
Most transnational languages in the modern period have a writing system, and ...
. They insisted, for example, that ''ae'' be written out in full wherever it occurred in classical Latin; medieval scribes often wrote ''e'' instead of ''ae''. They were much more zealous than medieval Latin writers in distinguishing ''t'' from ''c'': because the effects of
palatalization made them
homophone
A homophone () is a word that is pronounced the same (to varying extent) as another word but differs in meaning. A ''homophone'' may also differ in spelling. The two words may be spelled the same, for example ''rose'' (flower) and ''rose'' (p ...
s, medieval scribes often wrote, for example, ''eciam'' for ''etiam''. Their reforms even affected
handwriting: humanists usually wrote Latin in a script derived from
Carolingian minuscule
Carolingian minuscule or Caroline minuscule is a script which developed as a calligraphic standard in the medieval European period so that the Latin alphabet of Jerome's Vulgate Bible could be easily recognized by the literate class from one reg ...
, the ultimate ancestor of most contemporary
lower-case
Letter case is the distinction between the letters that are in larger uppercase or capitals (or more formally ''majuscule'') and smaller lowercase (or more formally ''minuscule'') in the written representation of certain languages. The writing ...
typeface
A typeface (or font family) is the design of lettering that can include variations in size, weight (e.g. bold), slope (e.g. italic), width (e.g. condensed), and so on. Each of these variations of the typeface is a font.
There are thousands o ...
s, avoiding the
black-letter
Blackletter (sometimes black letter), also known as Gothic script, Gothic minuscule, or Textura, was a script used throughout Western Europe from approximately 1150 until the 17th century. It continued to be commonly used for the Danish, Norweg ...
scripts used in the Middle Ages.
Erasmus
Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (; ; English: Erasmus of Rotterdam or Erasmus;''Erasmus'' was his baptismal name, given after St. Erasmus of Formiae. ''Desiderius'' was an adopted additional name, which he used from 1496. The ''Roterodamus'' w ...
even proposed that the
then-traditional pronunciations of Latin be abolished in favour of his
reconstructed version of
classical Latin
Classical Latin is the form of Literary Latin recognized as a literary standard by writers of the late Roman Republic and early Roman Empire. It was used from 75 BC to the 3rd century AD, when it developed into Late Latin. In some later period ...
pronunciation.
The humanist plan to remake Latin was largely successful, at least in
education
Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty ...
. Schools now taught the humanistic spellings, and encouraged the study of the texts selected by the humanists, largely to the exclusion of later Latin literature. On the other hand, while humanist Latin was an elegant
literary language
A literary language is the form (register) of a language used in written literature, which can be either a nonstandard dialect or a standardized variety of the language. Literary language sometimes is noticeably different from the spoken langua ...
, it became much harder to write books about
law
Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...
,
medicine
Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pr ...
,
science
Science is a systematic endeavor that Scientific method, builds and organizes knowledge in the form of Testability, testable explanations and predictions about the universe.
Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earli ...
or contemporary
politics
Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that stud ...
in Latin while observing all of the humanists' norms of vocabulary purging and classical usage. Because humanist Latin lacked precise vocabulary to deal with modern issues, their reforms accelerated the transformation of Latin from a working language to an object of antiquarian study. Their attempts at literary work, especially poetry, often have a strong element of
pastiche.
New Latin
After the medieval era, Latin was
revived in original, scholarly, and scientific works between 1375 and 1900. The result language is called New Latin. Modern scholarly and technical
nomenclature
Nomenclature (, ) is a system of names or terms, or the rules for forming these terms in a particular field of arts or sciences. The principles of naming vary from the relatively informal conventions of everyday speech to the internationally ag ...
, such as in zoological and botanical
taxonomy
Taxonomy is the practice and science of categorization or classification.
A taxonomy (or taxonomical classification) is a scheme of classification, especially a hierarchical classification, in which things are organized into groups or types. ...
and
international scientific vocabulary, draws extensively from New Latin vocabulary.
In such use, New Latin is subject to
new word formation. As a language for full expression in
prose
Prose is a form of written or spoken language that follows the natural flow of speech, uses a language's ordinary grammatical structures, or follows the conventions of formal academic writing. It differs from most traditional poetry, where the ...
or
poetry
Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...
, however, it is often distinguished from its successor,
Contemporary Latin
Contemporary Latin is the form of the Literary Latin used since the end of the 19th century. Various kinds of contemporary Latin can be distinguished, including the use of New Latin words in taxonomy and in science generally, and the fuller ec ...
.
Classicist
Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...
s use the term "Neo-Latin" to describe the use of Latin after the
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history
The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (800 BC to AD ...
as a result of renewed interest in classical civilization in the 14th and 15th centuries.
Contemporary Latin
Contemporary Latin is the form of the
Latin language
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of t ...
used since the end of the 19th century. Various kinds of contemporary Latin can be distinguished, including the use of single words in
taxonomy
Taxonomy is the practice and science of categorization or classification.
A taxonomy (or taxonomical classification) is a scheme of classification, especially a hierarchical classification, in which things are organized into groups or types. ...
, and the fuller
ecclesiastical use in the Catholic Church.
As a relic of the great importance of
New Latin
New Latin (also called Neo-Latin or Modern Latin) is the revival of Literary Latin used in original, scholarly, and scientific works since about 1500. Modern scholarly and technical nomenclature, such as in zoological and botanical taxonomy ...
as the formerly dominant international ''
lingua franca'' down to the 19th century in a great number of fields, Latin is still present in words or phrases used in many languages around the world, and some minor
communities use Latin in their speech.
Phonological changes
Vowels
Proto-Italic
The Proto-Italic language is the ancestor of the Italic languages, most notably Latin and its descendants, the Romance languages. It is not directly attested in writing, but has been reconstructed to some degree through the comparative method. P ...
inherited all ten of the early post-
Proto-Indo-European
Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. Its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-European languages. No direct record of Proto-Indo- ...
simple vowels (i.e. at a time when laryngeals had colored and often lengthened adjacent vowels and then disappeared in many circumstances): ''*i, *e, *a, *o, *u, *ī, *ē, *ā, *ō, *ū''. It also inherited all of the post-PIE diphthongs except for ''*eu'', which became ''*ou''.
Proto-Italic and
Old Latin
Old Latin, also known as Early Latin or Archaic Latin (Classical la, prīsca Latīnitās, lit=ancient Latinity), was the Latin language in the period before 75 BC, i.e. before the age of Classical Latin. It descends from a common Proto-Italic ...
had a
stress accent on the first syllable of a word, and this caused steady reduction and eventual deletion of many short vowels in non-initial syllables while affecting initial syllables much less. Long vowels were largely unaffected in general except in final syllables, where they had a tendency to shorten.
Notes:
Note: For the following examples, it helps to keep in mind the normal correspondences between PIE and certain other languages:
Monophthongs
=Initial syllables
=
In initial syllables, Latin generally preserves all of the simple vowels of Proto-Italic (see above):
*PIE ''*ǵneh₃tós'' "known" > ''*gnōtos'' > ''nōtus'' (''i-gnōtus'' "unknown"; Welsh ''gnawd'' "customary", Sanskrit ''jñātá-''; Greek ''gnōtós''
[Greek is ambiguously either < ''*gneh₃tós'' or ''*gn̥h₃tós''])})
*PIE ''*gʷih₃wós'' "alive" > ''*gʷīwos'' > ''vīvus'' (Old English ''cwic'', English ''quick'', Greek ''bíos'' "life", Sanskrit ''jīvá-'', Slavic ''živъ'')
*PIE ''*h₂eǵros'' "field" > ''*agros'' > ''ager'', gen. ''agrī'' (Greek ''agrós'', English ''acre'', Sanskrit ''ájra-'')
*PIE ''*kápros'' "he-goat" > ''*kapros'' > ''caper'' "he-goat", gen. ''caprī'' (Greek ''kápros'' "boar", Old English ''hæfer'' "he-goat", Sanskrit ''kápṛth'' "penis")
*PIE *''kʷís'' "who?" > ''*kʷis'' > ''quis'' (Greek ''tís'',
[''kʷi-'' > ''ti-'' is normal in Attic Greek; Thessalian Greek had ''kís'' while Cypro-Arcadian had ''sís''.] Avestan ''čiš'', Sanskrit ''kís'')
*PIE *''kʷód'' "what, that" > ''*kʷod'' > ''quod'' (relative) (Old English ''hwæt'' "what", Sanskrit ''kád'')
*PIE ''*méh₂tēr'' "mother" > ''*mātēr'' > ''māter'' (
Doric Greek ''mā́tēr'', Old Irish ''máthir'', Sanskrit ''mā́tṛ'')
*PIE ''*múh₂s'' "mouse" > ''*mūs'' > ''mūs'' (Old English ''mūs'', Greek ''mûs'', Sanskrit ''mū́ṣ'')
*PIE ''*nókʷts'' "night" > ''*noks'' > ''nox'', gen. ''noctis'' (Greek ''nuks'' < ''*nokʷs'', Sanskrit ''nákt-'' < ''*nákts'', Lithuanian ''naktìs'')
*PIE ''*oḱtṓ'' "eight" > ''*oktō'' > ''octō'' (Greek ''oktṓ'', Irish ''ocht'', Sanskrit ''aṣṭā́'')
*PIE ''*sēmi-'' "half" > ''*sēmi-'' > ''sēmi-'' (Greek ''hēmi-'', Old English ''sām-'', Sanskrit ''sāmí'')
*PIE ''*sweh₂dús'' "pleasing, tasty" > ''*swādus'' > ''*swādwis'' (remade into ''i''-stem) > ''suāvis'' (Doric Greek ''hādús'', English ''sweet'', Sanskrit ''svādú-'')
*PIE ''*swéḱs'' "six", ''septḿ̥'' "seven" > ''*seks, *septem'' > ''sex, septem'' (Greek ''heks, heptá'', Lithuanian ''šešì'', ''septynì'', Sanskrit ''ṣáṣ, saptá-'')
*PIE ''*yugóm'' "yoke" > ''*jugom'' > ''iugum'' (Greek ''zugón'', Gothic ''juk'', Sanskrit ''yugá-'')
Short vowel changes in initial syllables:
# ''*e'' > ''i'' before (spelled ''n'' before a velar, or ''g'' before ''n''):
#*PIE ''*deḱnós'' > *''degnos'' > ''dignus'' "worthy"
#*PIE *''dn̥ǵʰwéh₂s'' > ''*denɣwā'' > Old Latin ''dingua'' > ''lingua'' "tongue" (''l-'' from ''lingō'' "to lick")
# ''*swe-'' > ''so-'':
#*''*swepnos'' > ''*sopnos'' > ''somnus'' "sleep"
#*''*swezōr'' > ''*sozor'' > ''soror'', gen. ''sorōris'' "sister"
# ''*we-'' > ''wo-'' before labial consonants or
velarized ''l'' (''l pinguis''; i.e. an ''l'' not followed by ''i'', ''ī'' or ''l''):
#*''*welō'' "I want" > ''volō'' (vs. ''velle'' "to want" before ''l exīlis'')
#*''*wemō'' "I vomit" > ''vomō'' (Greek ''eméō'', Sanskrit ''vámiti'')
There are numerous examples where PIE ''*o'' appears to result in Latin ''a'' instead of expected ''o'', mostly next to labial or labializing consonants. A group of cases showing ''*-ow-'' > ''*-aw-'' > ''-av-'' (before stress), ''*-ōw-'' > ''*-āw-'' > ''-āv-'' is known as Thurneysen-Havet's law: examples include:
*PIE ''*lowh₃ṓ'' > ''*lawō'' > ''lavō'' 'I wash'
*PIE ''*oḱtṓwos'' > ''*oktāwos'' > ''octāvus'' 'eighth' (but ''octō'' 'eight')
Other cases remain more disputed, such as:
* ''lacus'' 'lake', in contrast to Irish ''loch'' < PIE ''*lókus''
* ''mare'' 'sea', in contrast to Irish ''muir'', Welsh ''môr'' (Proto-Celtic *mori) < PIE ''*móri''
De Vaan (2008: 8) suggests a general shift ''*o'' > ''a'' in open syllables when preceded by any of ''*b'', ''*m''; ''*kʷ'', ''*w''; ''*l''. Vine (2011) disputes the cases with ''*moCV'', but proposes inversely that ''*mo-'' > ''ma-'' when followed by ''r'' plus a velar (''k'' or ''g'').
=Medial syllables
=
In non-initial syllables, there was more vowel reduction of short vowels. The most extreme case occurs with short vowels in medial syllables (i.e. short vowels in a syllable that is neither the first nor the last), where all five vowels usually merge into a single vowel:
1. They merge into ''e'' before ''r'' (sometimes original ''o'' is unaffected)
*''*en-armis'' > ''inermis'' "unarmed" (vs. ''arma'' "arms")
*''*Falisiōi'' > ''Faleriī'' "Falerii (major town of the
Faliscans)" (vs. ''Faliscus'' "Faliscan")
*''*-foro-'' "carrying" (cf. Greek ''-phóros'') > ''-fero-'', e.g. ''furcifer'' "gallows bird"
*''*kinis-es'' "ash" (gen.sg.) > ''cineris'' (vs. nom.sg. ''cinis'')
*''*kom-gesō'' > ''congerō'' "to collect" (vs. ''gerō'' "to do, carry out")
*Latin-
Faliscan ''Numasiōi'' (
Praeneste fibula
, native_name_lang = la
, image = Praeneste fibula.JPG
, image_size =
, alt =
, image2 =
, image2_size =
, alt2 =
, image_caption =
, material = Gold
, s ...
) > ''Numeriō'' "Numerius"
*Latin-Faliscan ''*pe-par-ai'' "I gave birth" > ''peperī'' (vs. ''pariō'' "I give birth")
*PIE ''*swéḱuros'' "father-in-law" > ''*swekuros'' > Old Latin ''*soceros'' > ''socer'', gen. ''socerī''
2. They become Old Latin ''o'' > ''u'' before ''l pinguis'', i.e., an ''l'' not followed by ''i, ī,'' or ''l'':
*''*ad-alēskō'' "to grow up" > ''adolēscō'' > ''adulēscō'' (vs. ''alō'' "I nourish")
*''*en-saltō'' "to leap upon" > ''īnsoltō'' (with lengthening before ''ns'') > ''īnsultō'' (vs. ''saltō'' "I leap")
*PIE ''*-kl̥d-to-'' "beaten" > ''*-kolsso-''
[''l̥'' > ''ol'' is normal in Proto-Italic.] > ''perculsus'' "beaten down"
*''*kom-solō'' "deliberate" > ''cōnsulō''
*''*ob-kelō'' "to conceal" > ''occulō'' (vs. ''celō'' "I hide")
*Greek ''Sikelós'' "a Sicilian" > ''*Sikolos'' > ''Siculus'' (vs. ''Sicilia'' "Sicily")
*''*te-tol-ai'' > ''tetulī'' "I carried" (formerly ''l pinguis'' here because of the original final ''-ai'')
3. But they remain ''o'' before ''l pinguis'' when immediately following a vowel:
*Latin-Faliscan ''*fili-olos'' > ''filiolus'' "little son"
*Similarly, ''alveolus'' "trough"
4. Before /w/ the result is always ''u'', in which case the /w/ is not written:
*''*dē nowōd'' "anew" > ''dēnuō''
*''*eks-lawō'' "I wash away" > ''ēluō''
*''*mon-i-wai'' "I warned" > ''monuī''
*''*tris-diw-om'' "period of three days" > ''trīduom'' > ''trīduum''
5. They become ''i'' before one consonant other than ''r'' or ''l pinguis'':
*''*ad-tenējō'' > ''attineō'' "to concern" (vs. ''teneō'' "I hold")
*''*kaput-es'' "head" (gen. sg.) > ''capitis'' (vs. nom.sg. ''caput'')
*Latin-Faliscan ''*ke-kad-ai'' "I fell" > ''cecidī'' (vs. ''cadō'' "I fall")
*''*kom-itājō'' "accompany" > ''comitō''
*''*kom-regō'' > ''corrigō'' "to set right, correct" (vs. ''regō'' "I rule; straighten")
*''*kornu-kan-'' "trumpeter" > ''cornicen''
*PIE ''*me-món-h₂e'' (perfect) "thought, pondered" > Latin-Faliscan ''*me-mon-ai'' > ''meminī'' "I remember"
*''*nowotāts'' "newness" > ''novitās''
*Greek ''Sikelía'' "Sicily" > ''Sicilia'' (vs. ''Siculus'' "a Sicilian")
*''*wre-fakjō'' "to remake" > ''*refakiō'' > ''reficiō'' (vs. ''faciō'' "I do, make")
6. But they sometimes become ''e'' before one consonant other than ''r'' or ''l pinguis'', when immediately following a vowel:
*''*sokiotāts'' "fellowship" > ''societās''
*''*wariogājesi'' "to make diverse" > ''variegāre''
*But: ''*medio-diēs'' "midday" > ''*meriodiēs'' (dissimilative rhotacism) > ''*meriidiēs'' > ''merīdiēs'' "noon; south"
*But: ''*tībia-kan-'' "flute-player" > ''*tībiikan-'' > ''tībīcen''
7. Variation between ''i'' and (often earlier) ''u'' is common before a single labial consonant (''p, b, f, m''), underlyingly the
sonus medius
Latin phonology continually evolved over the centuries, making it difficult for speakers in one era to know how Latin was spoken before then. A given phoneme may be represented by different letters in different periods. This article deals primar ...
vowel:
*From the root ''*-kap-'' "grab, catch":
**''occupō'' "seize" vs. ''occipiō'' "begin"
**From the related noun ''*-kaps'' "catcher": ''prīnceps'' "chief" (lit. "seizer of the first (position)"), gen. ''prīncipis'', vs. ''auceps'' "bird catcher", gen. ''aucupis''
**''*man-kapiom'' > ''mancupium'' "purchase", later ''mancipium''
*''*mag-is-emos'' > ''maxumus'' "biggest", later ''maximus''; similarly ''proxumus'' "nearest", ''optumus'' "best" vs. later ''proximus'', ''optimus''
*''*pot-s-omos'' > ''possumus'' "we can"; ''*vel-omos'' > ''volumus'' "we want"; but ''*leg-omos'' > ''legimus'' "we gather", and all other such verbs (''-umus'' is isolated in ''sumus'', ''possumus'' and ''volumus'')
*''*sub-rapuit'' > ''surrupuit'' "filches", later ''surripuit''
Medially before two consonants, when the first is not ''r'' or ''l pinguis'', the vowels do not merge to the same degree:
1. Original ''a'', ''e'' and ''u'' merge into ''e'':
*''*ad-tentos'' > ''attentus'' "concerned" (cf. ''tentus'' "held", ''attineō'' "to concern")
*''*sub-raptos'' "filched" > ''surreptus'' (vs. ''raptus'' "seized")
*Greek ''tálanton'' > ''*talantom'' > ''talentum''
*''*wre-faktos'' "remade" > ''refectus'' (cf. ''factus'' "made")
2. But original ''i'' is unaffected:
*''*wre-likʷtos'' "left (behind)" > ''relictus''
3. And original ''o'' raises to ''u'':
*''*ejontes'' "going" (gen. sg.) > ''euntis''
*''*legontor'' "they gather" > ''leguntur''
*''*rōbos-to-'' > ''rōbustus'' "oaken" (cf. ''rōbur'' "oak" < ''*rōbos'')
Syncope
Exon's Law dictates that if there are two light medial syllables in a row (schematically, ''σσ̆σ̆σ'', where ''σ'' = syllable and ''σ̆'' = light syllable, where "light" means a short vowel followed by only a single consonant), the first syllable syncopates (i.e. the vowel is deleted):
*''*deksiteros'' "right (hand)" > ''dexterus'' (cf. Greek ''deksiterós'')
*''*magisemos'' > ''maximus'' "biggest" (cf. ''magis'' "more")
*''*priismo-kapes'' > ''prīncipis'' "prince" gen. sg. (nom. sg. ''prīnceps'' < ''*priismo-kaps'' by analogy)
*''*wre-peparai'' > ''repperī'' "I found" (cf. ''peperī'' "I gave birth" < ''*peparai'')
Syncopation tends to occur after ''r'' and ''l'' in all non-initial syllables, sometimes even in initial syllables.
[Sihler, New Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin, 1995]
*''*agros'' "field" > ''*agr̩s'' > ''*agers'' > ''*agerr'' > ''ager''
*''*faklitāts'' > ''facultās''
*''*feret'' "he carries" > ''fert''
*''*imbris'' "rainstorm" > ''*imbers'' > ''imber''
*''*tris'' "three times" > ''*tr̩s'' > ''*ters'' > Old Latin ''terr'' > ''ter''
Sometimes early syncope causes apparent violations of Exon's Law:
*''kosolinos'' "of hazel" > ''*kozolnos'' (not ''**koslinos'') > ''*korolnos'' > ''*korulnos'' (''o > u'' before ''l pinguis'', see above) > ''colurnus'' (metathesis)
Syncope of ''-i-'' also occurred in ''-ndis'', ''-ntis'' and ''-rtis''.
''-nts'' then became ''-ns'' with lengthening of the preceding vowel, while ''-rts'' was simplified to ''-rs'' without lengthening.
* ''*frondis'' "leaf" > ''*fronts'' > ''frōns''
* ''*gentis'' "tribe" > ''*gents'' > ''gēns''
* ''*montis'' "hill" > ''*monts'' > ''mōns''
* ''*partis'' "part" > ''*parts'' > ''pars''
=Final syllables
=
In final syllables of polysyllabic words before a final consonant or cluster, short ''a, e, i'' merge into either ''e'' or ''i'' depending on the following consonant, and short ''o, u'' merge into ''u''.
1. Short ''a, e, i'' merge into ''i'' before a single non-nasal consonant:
*PIE thematic 2nd/3rd sg. ''*-esi, *-eti'' > PI ''*-es, *-et'' > ''-is, -it'' (e.g. ''legis, legit'' "you gather, he gathers")
*Proto-Italic ''*wrededas, *wrededat'' > ''reddis, reddit'' "you return, he returns"
*i-stem nom. sg. ''*-is'' > ''-is''
2. Short ''a, e, i'' merge into ''e'' before a cluster or a single nasal consonant:
*''*in-art-is'' > ''iners'' "unskilled" (cf. ''ars'' "skill")
*''*kornu-kan-(?s)'' > ''cornicen'' "trumpeter" (cf. ''canō'' "to sing")
*''*mīlets'' > ''mīles'' "soldier"
*''*priismo-kaps'' > ''prīnceps'' "first, chief" (cf. ''capiō'' "to take")
*''*septḿ̥'' > ''septem'' "seven"
*i-stem acc. sg. ''*-im'' > ''-em''
3. Short ''o, u'' merge into ''u'':
*o-stem accusative ''*-om'' > Old Latin ''-om'' > ''-um''
*o-stem nominative ''*-os'' > Old Latin ''-os'' > ''-us''
*PIE thematic 3rd sg.
mediopassive
The mediopassive voice is a grammatical voice that subsumes the meanings of both the middle voice and the passive voice.
Description
Languages of the Indo-European family (and many others) typically have two or three of the following voices: acti ...
''*-etor'' > ''-itur''
*PIE thematic 3rd pl. ''*-onti'' > ''*-ont'' > ''-unt''
*''*kaput'' > ''caput'' "head"
*PIE ''*yekʷr̥'' > ''*jekʷor'' > ''iecur'' "liver"
4. All short vowels apparently merge into ''-e'' in absolute final position.
*2nd sg. passive ''-ezo'', ''-āzo'' > ''-ere'', ''-āre''
*Proto-Italic ''*kʷenkʷe'' > ''quīnque'' "five"
*PIE ''*móri'' > PI ''*mari'' > ''mare'' "sea" (cf. plural ''maria'')
*PI s-stem verbal nouns in ''*-zi'' > infinitives in ''-re''
*But: u-stem neuter nom./acc. sg. ''*-u'' > ''-ū'', apparently by analogy with gen. sg. ''-ūs'', dat./abl. sg. ''-ū'' (it is not known if this change occurred already in Proto-Italic)
Long vowels in final syllables shorten before most consonants (but not final ''s''), yielding apparent exceptions to the above rules:
*a-stem acc. sg. ''*-ām'' > ''-am''
*Proto-Italic ''*amānt'' > ''amant'' "they love"
*Proto-Italic ''*amāt'' > ''amat'' "he/she loves" (cf. passive ''amātur'')
*PIE thematic 1st sg.
mediopassive
The mediopassive voice is a grammatical voice that subsumes the meanings of both the middle voice and the passive voice.
Description
Languages of the Indo-European family (and many others) typically have two or three of the following voices: acti ...
''*-ōr'' > ''-or''
*''*swesōr'' > ''soror'' "sister" (cf. gen. ''sorōris'')
Absolutely final long vowels are apparently maintained with the exception of ''ā'', which is shortened in the 1st declension nominative singular and the neuter plural ending (both < PIE *''-eh₂'') but maintained in the 1st conjugation 2nd sg. imperative (< PIE *''-eh₂-yé'').
Diphthongs
=Initial syllables
=
Proto-Italic maintained all PIE diphthongs except for the change ''*eu'' > ''*ou''. The Proto-Italic diphthongs tend to remain into
Old Latin
Old Latin, also known as Early Latin or Archaic Latin (Classical la, prīsca Latīnitās, lit=ancient Latinity), was the Latin language in the period before 75 BC, i.e. before the age of Classical Latin. It descends from a common Proto-Italic ...
but generally reduce to pure long vowels by Classical Latin.
1. PIE ''*ei'' > Old Latin ''ei'' > ''ẹ̄'', a vowel higher than ''ē'' < PIE ''*ē''. This then developed to ''ī'' normally, but to ''ē'' before ''v'':
*PIE ''*bʰeydʰ-'' "be persuaded, be confident" > ''*feiðe-'' > ''fīdō'' "to trust"
*PIE ''*deiḱ-'' "point (out)" > Old Latin ''deicō'' > ''dīcō'' "to say"
*PIE ''*deiwós'' "god, deity" > Very Old Latin ''deiuos'' (
Duenos inscription
The Duenos inscription is one of the earliest known Old Latin texts, variously dated from the 7th to the 5th century BC. It is inscribed on the sides of a '' kernos'', in this case a trio of small globular vases adjoined by three clay struts. It ...
) > ''dẹ̄vos'' > ''deus'' (cf. ''dīvus'' "divine, godlike, godly")
* But nominative plural ''*deivoi'' > ''*deivei'' > ''*dẹ̄vẹ̄'' > ''dīvī'' > ''diī''; vocative singular ''*deive'' > ''*dẹ̄ve'' > ''dīve''
2. PIE (''*h₂ei'' >) ''*ai'' > ''ae'':
*PIE ''*kh₂ei-ko-'' > ''*kaiko-'' > ''caecus'' "blind" (cf.
Old Irish
Old Irish, also called Old Gaelic ( sga, Goídelc, Ogham script: ᚌᚑᚔᚇᚓᚂᚉ; ga, Sean-Ghaeilge; gd, Seann-Ghàidhlig; gv, Shenn Yernish or ), is the oldest form of the Goidelic/Gaelic language for which there are extensive writt ...
''cáech'' "blind", Gothic ''háihs'' "one-eyed", Sanskrit ''kekara-'' "squinting")
3. PIE ''*oi'' > Old Latin ''oi, oe'' > ''ū'' (occasionally preserved as ''oe''):
*PIE ''*h₁oi-nos'' > Old Latin ''oinos'' > ''oenus'' > ''ūnus'' "one"
*Greek ''Phoiniks'' > ''Pūnicus'' "
Phoenician"
*But: PIE ''*bʰoidʰ-'' > ''*foiðo-'' > ''foedus'' "treaty" (cf. ''fīdō'' above)
4. PIE ''*eu, *ou'' > Proto-Italic ''*ou'' > Old Latin ''ou'' > ''ọ̄'' (higher than ''ō'' < PIE ''*ō'') > ''ū'':
*PIE ''*deuk-'' > ''*douk-e-'' > Old Latin ''doucō'' > ''dūcō'' "lead"
*PIE ''*louk-s-neh₂'' > ''*louksnā'' > Old Latin ''losna'' (i.e. ''lọ̄sna'') > ''lūna'' "moon" (cf. Old Prussian ''lauxnos'' "stars",
Avestan ''raoχšnā'' "lantern")
*PIE ''*(H)yeug-'' "join" > ''*youg-s-mn̥-to-'' > Old Latin ''iouxmentom'' "pack horse" > ''iūmentum''
5. PIE (''*h₂eu'' >) ''*au'' > ''au'':
*PIE ''*h₂eug-'' > ''*augeje/o'' > ''augeō'' "to increase" (cf. Greek ''aúksō'', Gothic ''áukan'', Lithuanian ''áugti'').
=Medial syllables
=
All diphthongs in medial syllables become ''ī'' or ''ū''.
1. (Post-)PIE ''*ei'' > ''ī'', just as in initial syllables:
*''*en-deik-ō'' > ''indīcō'' "to point out" (cf. ''dīcō'' "to say")
2. Post-PIE ''*ai'' > Old Latin ''ei'' > ''ī'':
*''*en-kaid-ō'' "cut into" > ''incīdō'' (cf. ''caedō'' "cut")
*''*ke-kaid-ai'' "I cut", perf. > ''cecīdī'' (cf. ''caedō'' "I cut", pres.)
*Early Greek (or from an earlier source) ''*elaíwā'' "olive" > ''olīva''
3. (Post-)PIE ''*oi'' > ''ū'', just as in initial syllables:
*PIE ''*n̥-poini'' "with impunity" > ''impūne'' (cf. ''poena'' "punishment")
4. (Post-)PIE ''*eu, *ou'' > Proto-Italic ''*ou'' > ''ū'', just as in initial syllables:
*''*en-deuk-ō'' > ''*indoucō'' > ''indūcō'' "to draw over, cover" (cf. ''dūcō'' "to lead")
5. Post-PIE ''*au'' > ''ū'' (rarely ''oe''):
*''*ad-kauss-ō'' "accuse" > ''accūsō'' (cf. ''causa'' "cause")
*''*en-klaud-ō'' "enclose" > ''inclūdō'' (cf. ''claudō'' "close")
*''*ob-aud-iō'' "obey" > ''oboediō'' (cf. ''audiō'' "hear").
=Final syllables
=
Mostly like medial syllables:
*''*-ei'' > ''ī'': PIE ''*meh₂tr-ei'' "to mother" > ''mātrī''
*''*-ai'' > ''ī'' in multisyllabic words: Latin-Faliscan ''peparai'' "I brought forth" > ''peperī''
*''*-eu/ou-'' > ''ū'': post-PIE ''manous'' "hand", gen. sg. > ''manūs''
Different from medial syllables:
*''-ai'' > ''ae'' in monosyllables: PIE ''*prh₂ei'' "before" > ''prae'' (cf. Greek ''paraí'')
*''-oi'' > Old Latin ''-ei'' > ''ī'' (not ''ū''): PIE o-stem plural ''*-oi'' > ''-ī'' (cf. Greek ''-oi'');
*''-oi'' > ''ī'' also in monosyllables: PIE ''kʷoi'' "who" > ''quī''.
Syllabic resonants and laryngeals
The PIE syllabic resonants ''*m̥, *n̥, *r̥, *l̥'' generally become ''em, en, or, ol''
(cf. Greek ''am/a, an/a, ar/ra, al/la''; Germanic ''um, un, ur, ul''; Sanskrit ''am/a, an/a, r̥, r̥'';
Lithuanian ''im̃, iñ, ir̃, il̃''):
*PIE ''*déḱm̥(t)'' "ten" > ''decem'' (cf. Irish ''deich'', Greek ''deka'',
Gothic
Gothic or Gothics may refer to:
People and languages
*Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes
**Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths
**Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
''taíhun'' )
*PIE ''*(d)ḱm̥tóm'' "hundred" > ''centum'' (cf. Welsh ''cant'', Gothic ''hund'', Lithuanian ''šim̃tas'', Sanskrit ''śatám'')
*PIE ''*n̥-'' "not" > OL ''en-'' > ''in-'' (cf. Greek ''a-/an-'', English ''un-'', Sanskrit ''a-'', ''an-'')
*PIE ''*tn̥tós'' "stretched" > ''tentus'' (cf. Greek ''tatós'', Sanskrit ''tatá-'')
*PIE ''*ḱr̥d-'' "heart" > ''*cord'' > ''cor'' (cf. Greek ''kēr'', English ''heart'', Lithuanian ''širdìs'', Sanskrit ''hṛd-'')
*PIE ''*ml̥dús'' "soft" > ''*moldus'' > ''*moldwis'' (remade as ''i''-stem) > ''*molwis'' > ''mollis'' (cf. Irish ''meldach'' "pleasing", English ''mild'', Czech ''mladý'')
The laryngeals ''*h₁, *h₂, *h₃'' appear in Latin as ''a''
[These short vowels are then subject to the normal rules of vowel reduction in non-initial syllables.] when between consonants, as in most languages (but
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
''e/a/o'' respectively, Sanskrit ''i''):
*PIE ''*dʰh₁-tós'' "put" > L ''factus'', with /k/ of disputed etymology (cf. Greek ''thetós'', Sanskrit ''hitá-'' < ''*dhitá-'')
*PIE ''*ph₂tḗr'' "father" > L ''pater'' (cf. Greek ''patḗr'', Sanskrit ''pitṛ́'', English ''father'')
*PIE ''*dh₃-tós'' "given" > L ''datus'' (cf. Greek ''dotós'', Sanskrit ''ditá-'')
A sequence of syllabic resonant + laryngeal, when before a consonant, produced ''mā, nā, rā, lā'' (as also in Celtic, cf. Greek ''nē/nā/nō, rē/rā/rō'', etc. depending on the laryngeal; Germanic ''um, un, ur, ul''; Sanskrit ''ā, ā, īr/ūr, īr/ūr''; Lithuanian ''ím, ín, ír, íl''):
* PIE ' "born" > ''gnātus'' "son", ''nātus'' "born" (participle) (cf. Middle Welsh ''gnawt'' "relative", Greek ''dió-gnētos'' "Zeus' offspring", Sanskrit ''jātá-'', English ''kind'', ''kin'')
* PIE ' "grain" > ''grānum'' (cf. Old Irish ''grán'', English ''corn'', Lithuanian ''žìrnis'' "pea", ''jīrṇá-'' "old, worn out")
* PIE ' "wool" > ''*wlānā'' > ''lāna'' (cf. Welsh ''gwlân'', Gothic ''wulla'', Greek ''lēnos'', Lithuanian ''vìlna'', Sanskrit ''ū́rṇa-'')
Consonants
Aspirates
The Indo-European voiced aspirates ''bʰ, dʰ, gʰ, gʷʰ'', which were probably breathy voiced stops, first devoiced in initial position (
fortition
Fortition, also known as strengthening, is a consonantal change that increases the degree of stricture. It is the opposite of the more common lenition. For example, a fricative or an approximant may become a stop (i.e. becomes or becomes ). A ...
), then fricatized in all positions, producing pairs of voiceless/voiced
fricative
A fricative is a consonant produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate in t ...
s in
Proto-Italic
The Proto-Italic language is the ancestor of the Italic languages, most notably Latin and its descendants, the Romance languages. It is not directly attested in writing, but has been reconstructed to some degree through the comparative method. P ...
: ''f'' ~ ''β'', ' ~ ''ð'', ' ~ ', ' ~ ' respectively. The fricatives were voiceless in initial position. However, between vowels and other voiced sounds, there are indications—in particular, their evolution in Latin—that the sounds were actually
voiced
Voice or voicing is a term used in phonetics and phonology to characterize speech sounds (usually consonants). Speech sounds can be described as either voiceless (otherwise known as ''unvoiced'') or voiced.
The term, however, is used to refer ...
. Likewise, Proto-Italic /s/ apparently had a voiced allophone
in the same position.
In all Italic languages, the word-initial voiceless fricatives ''f'', ''θ'', and ''χʷ'' all merged to ''f'', whereas ''χ'' debuccalized to ''h'' (except before a liquid where it became ''g''); thus, in Latin, the normal outcome of initial PIE ''bʰ, dʰ, gʰ, gʷʰ'' is ''f, f, h, f'', respectively. Examples:
*PIE ''*bʰér-e-'' "carry" > ''ferō'' (cf. Old Irish ''beirid'' "bears", English ''bear'', Sanskrit ''bhárati'')
*PIE ''*bʰréh₂tēr'' "brother" > ''*bʰrā́tēr'' > ''frāter'' (cf. Old Irish ''bráthair'', Sanskrit ''bhrā́tar-'', Greek ''phrā́tēr'' "member of a phratry")
*PIE ''*dʰeh₁-'' "put, place" > *''dʰh₁-k-'' > *''θaki-'' > ''faciō'' "do, make" (cf. Welsh ''dodi'', English ''do'', Greek ''títhēmi'' "I put", Sanskrit ''dádhāti'' he puts")
*PIE ''*dʰwṓr'' "door" > ''θwor-'' > *''forā'' > ''forēs'' (pl.) "door(s)" (cf. Welsh ''dôr'', Greek ''thurā'', Sanskrit ''dvā́ra-'' (pl.))
*PIE ''*gʰabʰ-'' "seize, take" > *''χaβ-ē-'' > ''habeō'' "have" (cf. Old Irish ''gaibid'' "takes", Old English ''gifan'' "to give", Polish ''gabać'' "to seize")
*PIE ''*ǵʰaidos'' "goat" > *''χaidos'' > ''haedus'' "kid" (cf. Old English ''gāt'' "goat", Polish ''zając'' "hare", Sanskrit ''háyas'' "horse")
*PIE ''*ǵʰh₂ens'' "goose" > *''χans-'' > ''(h)ānser'' (cf. Old Irish ''géiss'' "swan", German ''Gans'', Greek ''khḗn'', Sanskrit ''haṃsá-'')
*PIE ''*gʰlh₂dʰ-rós'' "shining, smooth" > *''χlaðros'' > *''glabrus'' > ''glaber'' "smooth" (cf. Polish ''gładki'' "smooth", Old English ''glæd'' "bright, glad")
*PIE ''*gʷʰen-dʰ-'' "to strike, kill" > *''χʷ(e)nð-'' > ''fendō'' (cf. Welsh ''gwanu'' "to stab", Old High German ''gundo'' "battle", Sanskrit ''hánti'' "(he) strikes, kills", ''-ghna'' "killer (used in compounds)" )
*PIE ''*gʷʰerm-'' "warm" > *''χʷormo-'' > ''formus'' (cf. Old Prussian ''gorme'' "heat", Greek ''thermós'', Sanskrit ''gharmá-'' "heat")
Word-internal ''*-bʰ-, *-dʰ-, *-gʰ-, *-gʷʰ-'' evolved into Proto-Italic ''β'', ''ð'', ''ɣ'', ''ɣʷ''. In Osco-Umbrian, the same type of merger occurred as that affecting voiceless fricatives, with ''β'', ''ð'', and ''ɣʷ'' merging to ''β''. In Latin, this did not happen, and instead the fricatives defricatized, giving ''b, d ~ b, g ~ h, g ~ v ~ gu''.
''*-bʰ-'' is the simplest case, consistently becoming ''b''.
*PIE ''*bʰébʰrus'' "beaver" > *''feβro'' > Old Latin ''feber'' > ''fiber''
''*-dʰ-'' usually becomes ''d'', but becomes ''b'' next to ''r'' or ''u'', or before ''l''.
*PIE ''*bʰeidʰ-'' "be persuaded" > *''feiðe'' > ''fīdō'' "I trust" (cf. Old English ''bīdan'' "to wait", Greek ''peíthō'' "I trust")
*PIE ''*medʰi-o-'' "middle" > *''meðio-'' > ''medius'' (cf. Old Irish ''mide'', Gothic ''midjis'', Sanskrit ''mádhya-'')
*PIE ''*krei(H)-dʰrom'' "sieve, sifter" > *''kreiðrom'' > ''crībrum'' "sieve" (cf. Old English ''hrīder'' "sieve")
*PIE *''h₁rudʰ-ró-'' "red" > ''*ruðro-'' > ''ruber'' (cf. Old Russian ''rodrŭ'', Greek ''eruthrós'', Sanskrit ''rudhirá-'')
*PIE ''*sth̥₂-dʰlom'' > ''*staðlom'' > ''stabulum'' "abode" (cf. German ''Stadel'')
*PIE ''*werh₁-dʰh₁-o-'' "word" > *''werðo-'' > ''verbum'' (cf. English ''word'', Lithuanian ''var̃das'')
The development of ''*-gʰ-'' is twofold: ''*-gʰ-'' becomes ''h''
between vowels but ''g'' elsewhere:
*PIE ''*weǵʰ-'' "carry" > *''weɣ-e/o'' > ''vehō'' (cf. Greek ''okhéomai'' "I ride", Old English ''wegan'' "to carry", Sanskrit ''váhati'' "(he) drives")
*PIE ''*dʰi-n-ǵʰ-'' "shapes, forms" > *''θinɣ-e/o'' > ''fingō'' (cf. Old Irish ''-ding'' "erects, builds", Gothic ''digan'' "to mold, shape")
''*-gʷʰ-'' has three outcomes, becoming ''gu'' after ''n'', ''v'' between vowels, and ''g'' next to other consonants. All three variants are visible in the same root ''*snigʷʰ-'' "snow" (cf. Irish ''snigid'' "snows", Greek ''nípha''):
*PIE ''*snei-gʷʰ-e/o'' > *''sninɣʷ-e/o'' (with ''n''-infix) > ''ninguit'' "it snows"
*PIE ''*snigʷʰ-ós'' > *''sniɣʷos'' > gen. sg. ''nivis'' "of snow"
*PIE ''*snigʷʰ-s'' > *''sniɣʷs'' > nom. sg. ''nix'' (i.e. /nig-s/) "snow"
Other examples:
*PIE ''*h₁le(n)gʷʰu-'' > ''*h₁legʷʰu-'' > *''leɣʷus'' > *''leɣʷis'' (remade as ''i''-stem) > ''levis'' "lightweight" (cf. Welsh ''llaw'' "small, low", Greek ''elakhús'' "small", Sanskrit ''laghú-'', ''raghú-'' "quick, light, small")
Labiovelars
''*gʷ'' has results much like non-initial ''*-gʷʰ'', becoming ''v'' /w/ in most circumstances, but ''gu'' after a nasal and ''g'' next to other consonants:
*PIE *''gʷih₃wos'' > ''*ɣʷīwos'' > ''vīvus'' "alive" (cf. Old Irish ''biu'', ''beo'', Lithuanian ''gývas'', Sanskrit ''jīvá-'' "alive")
*PIE ''*gʷm̥i̯e/o-'' "come" > *''ɣʷen-je/o'' > ''veniō'' (cf. English ''come'', Greek ''baínō'' "I go", Avestan ''ǰamaiti'' "he goes", Sanskrit ''gam-'' "go")
*PIE ''*gʷr̥h₂us'' "heavy" > ''*ɣʷraus'' > ''grāvis'' (cf. Greek ''barús'', Gothic ''kaúrus'', Sanskrit ''gurú-'')
*PIE ''*h₃engʷ-'' > ''*onɣʷ-en'' > ''unguen'' "salve" (cf. Old Irish ''imb'' "butter",
Old High German
Old High German (OHG; german: Althochdeutsch (Ahd.)) is the earliest stage of the German language, conventionally covering the period from around 750 to 1050.
There is no standardised or supra-regional form of German at this period, and Old High ...
''ancho'' "butter", Sanskrit ''añjana-'' "anointing, ointment")
*PIE ''*n̥gʷén-'' "(swollen) gland" > ''*enɣʷen'' > ''inguen'' "bubo; groin" (cf. Greek ''adḗn'' gen. ''adénos'' "gland", Old High German ''ankweiz'' "pustules")
''*kʷ'' remains as ''qu'' before a vowel, but reduces to ''c'' /k/ before a consonant or next to a ''u'':
*PIE ''*kʷetwóres'', neut. ''*kʷetwṓr'' "four" > ''quattuor'' (cf. Old Irish ''cethair'', Lithuanian ''keturì'', Sanskrit ''catvā́r-'')
*PIE ''*leikʷ-'' (pres. *''li-né-kʷ-'') "leave behind" > ''*linkʷ-e/o-'' : ''*likʷ-ē-'' > ''linquō'' "leaves" : ''liceō'' "is allowed; is for sale" (cf. Greek ''leípō, limpánō'', Sanskrit ''riṇákti'', Gothic "to lend")
*PIE ''*nokʷts'' "night" > ''nox'', gen. sg. ''noctis''
*PIE ''*sekʷ-'' "to follow" > ''sequor'' (cf. Old Irish ''sechem'', Greek ''hépomai'', Sanskrit ''sácate'')
The sequence ''*p *kʷ'' assimilates to ''*kʷ *kʷ'', an innovation shared with Celtic:
*PIE ''*pekʷō'' "I cook" > ''*kʷekʷō'' > ''coquō'' (cf. ''coquīna, cocīnā'' "kitchen" vs. ''popīna'' "tavern" < Oscan, where ''*kʷ'' > ''p'', Polish ''piekę'' "I bake", Sanskrit ''pacati'' "cooks")
*PIE ''*pénkʷe'' "five" > ''quīnque'' (cf. Old Irish ''cóic'', Greek ''pénte'', Sanskrit ''páñca-'')
*PIE ''*pérkʷus'' "oak" > ''quercus'' (cf.
Trentino
Trentino ( lld, Trentin), officially the Autonomous Province of Trento, is an autonomous province of Italy, in the country's far north. The Trentino and South Tyrol constitute the region of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, an autonomous region ...
''porca'' "fir", Punjabi ''pargāī'' "holm oak", Gothic "world", ''faírgun-'' "mountain"
[Both "world" and "mountain" evolve out of the early association of oak trees with strength, cf. Latin ''robur'' = "oak" but also "strength"])
The sequences ''*ḱw, *ǵw, *ǵʰw'' develop identically to ''*kʷ, *gʷ, *gʷʰ'':
*PIE ''*dn̥ǵʰwéh₂''
[PIE ''*dn̥ǵhwéh₂''; ''-ǵʰw-'' not ''-gʷʰ-'' indicated by Old Church Slavonic ''języ-kŭ'' "tongue" < ''*n̥ǵhu-H-k-'' with loss of initial ''*d-''; ''-gʷh-'' would yield /g/, not /z/.] "tongue" > ''*dn̥ɣwā'' > ''*denɣʷā'' > Old Latin ''dingua'' > ''lingua''
*PIE ''*éḱwos'' "horse" > ''*ekʷos'' > Old Latin ''equos'' > ''ecus'' > ''equus'' (assimilated from other forms, e.g. gen. sg. ''equī''; cf. Sanskrit ''aśva-'', which indicates ''-ḱw-'' not ''-kʷ-'')
*PIE ''*ǵʰweh₁ro-'' "wild animal" > *''χʷero-'' > ''ferus'' (cf. Greek ''thḗr'',
Lesbian ''phḗr'', Lithuanian ''žvėrìs'')
*PIE ''*mreǵʰus'' "short" > ''*mreɣu-'' > ''*mreɣʷi-'' (remade as ''i''-stem) > ''brevis'' (cf. Old English ''myrge'' "briefly", English ''merry'', Greek ''brakhús'',
Avestan ''mǝrǝzu-'', Sanskrit ''múhu'' "suddenly")
Other sequences
Initial ''*dw-'' (attested in Old Latin as ''du-'') becomes ''b-'', thus compensating for the dearth of words beginning with ''*b'' in PIE:
*PIE ''*deu-l̥-'' "injure" > ''duellom'' "war" > ''bellum'' (a variant ''duellum'' survived in poetry as a trisyllabic word, whence English "duel")
*PIE ''*dwis'' "twice" > ''duis'' > ''bis'' (cf. Greek ''dís'', Sanskrit ''dvis'')
S-rhotacism
Indo-European ''s'' between vowels was first voiced to
in late
Proto-Italic
The Proto-Italic language is the ancestor of the Italic languages, most notably Latin and its descendants, the Romance languages. It is not directly attested in writing, but has been reconstructed to some degree through the comparative method. P ...
and became ''r'' in Latin and
Umbrian
Umbrian is an extinct Italic language formerly spoken by the Umbri in the ancient Italian region of Umbria. Within the Italic languages it is closely related to the Oscan group and is therefore associated with it in the group of Osco-Umbrian ...
, a change known as
rhotacism
Rhotacism () or rhotacization is a sound change that converts one consonant (usually a voiced alveolar consonant: , , , or ) to a rhotic consonant in a certain environment. The most common may be of to . When a dialect or member of a language ...
. Early Old Latin documents still have ''s''
and
Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the esta ...
once remarked that a certain Papirius Crassus officially changed his name from Papisius in 339 ..,
[Fortson, Benjamin W., ''Indo-European Language and Culture: An Introduction'', p. 283] indicating the approximate time of this change. This produces many alternations in Latin declension:
*''est'' "he is", fut. ''erit'' "he will be"
*''flōs'' "flower", gen. ''flōris''
*''mūs'' "mouse", pl. ''mūrēs''
Other examples:
* Proto-Italic ''*a(j)os'', ''a(j)esem'' > ''*aes'', ''aezem'' > ''aes'', ''aerem'' "bronze", but PI ''*a(j)es-inos'' > ''*aeznos'' > ''aēnus'' "bronze (adj.)"
* Proto-Italic ''*ausōs'', ''ausōsem'' > ''*auzōs'', ''auzōzem'' > ''aurōra'' "dawn" (change of suffix; cf. English ''east'',
Aeolic Greek ''aúōs'', Sanskrit ''uṣā́s'')
* Proto-Italic ''*swesōr'' > ''*swozōr'' > ''soror'' "sister" (cf.
Old English
Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th c ...
''sweostor'', Sanskrit ''svásar'')
However, before another ''r'',
dissimilation
In phonology, particularly within historical linguistics, dissimilation is a phenomenon whereby similar consonants or vowels in a word become less similar. In English, dissimilation is particularly common with liquid consonants such as /r/ and ...
occurred with ''sr''
rbecoming ''br'' (likely via an intermediate ''*ðr''):
* Proto-Italic ''*keras-rom'' > ''*kerazrom'' ~ ''*keraðrom'' > ''cerebrum'' "skull, brain" (cf. Greek ''kéras'' "horn")
* Proto-Italic ''*swesr-īnos'' > ''*swezrīnos'' ~ ''*sweðrīnos'' > ''sobrīnus'' "maternal cousin"
See also
*''
De vulgari eloquentia
''De vulgari eloquentia'' (; "On eloquence in the vernacular") is the title of a Latin essay by Dante Alighieri. Although meant to consist of four books, it abruptly terminates in the middle of the second book. It was probably composed shortly aft ...
''
*
Legacy of the Roman Empire
The legacy of the Roman Empire has been varied and significant, comparable to that of other hegemonic polities of world history (e.g. Persian Empire, ancient Egypt or imperial China).
The Roman Empire, itself built upon the legacy of other c ...
Notes
References
Sources
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External links
Latin Etymology An Etymological Dictionary of the Latin Language
{{DEFAULTSORT:History Of Latin
Latin language
Italic language histories