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 periods ...

developed into

Proto-Romance Proto-Romance is the comparatively reconstructed ancestor of all Romance languages. It reflects a late variety of spoken Latin prior to regional fragmentation. Phonology Vowels Monophthongs Diphthong The only phonemic diphthong was ...

it gained and lost

lexical item In lexicography, a lexical item is a single word, a part of a word, or a chain of words ( catena) that forms the basic elements of a language's lexicon (≈ vocabulary). Examples are ''cat'', ''traffic light'', ''take care of'', ''by the way' ...

s for a variety of reasons. Sometimes the new vocabulary came from

contact Contact may refer to: Interaction Physical interaction * Contact (geology), a common geological feature * Contact lens or contact, a lens placed on the eye * Contact sport, a sport in which players make contact with other players or objects * ...

with neighbouring languages, and other times it was coined from native elements. Much of the inherited Latin vocabulary also underwent

semantic drift Semantic change (also semantic shift, semantic progression, semantic development, or semantic drift) is a form of language change regarding the evolution of word usage—usually to the point that the modern meaning is radically different from t ...

regularization Regularization may refer to: * Regularization (linguistics) * Regularization (mathematics) * Regularization (physics) In physics, especially quantum field theory, regularization is a method of modifying observables which have singularities in ...

, or other linguistic changes.

Overview

Irregular nouns and verbs tended to be either regularized or replaced with preexisting regular equivalents; cf. the loss of ''esse'' 'to eat' in favour of its own regularized compound ''comedere.'' Similar motives underlie the general replacement of ''ferre'' 'carry' with ''portare'' or ''loqui'' 'speak' with ''parabolare'' and ''fabulare''.

Semantic drift Semantic change (also semantic shift, semantic progression, semantic development, or semantic drift) is a form of language change regarding the evolution of word usage—usually to the point that the modern meaning is radically different from t ...

affected numerous words, notable examples of which are ''causa'' ('subject matter' ''→'' 'thing'), ''civitas'' ('citizenry' ''→'' 'city'), ''focus'' ('hearth' ''→'' 'fire'), ''mittere'' ('send' → 'put'), ''necare'' ('murder' ''→'' 'drown'), ''pacare'' ('placate' ''→'' 'pay'), and ''totus'' ('whole' ''→'' 'all, every'). Words that were felt to be too short or phonetically insubstantial were more likely to be replaced, often with their own derivatives, hence ''auris'' 'ear' and ''agnus'' 'lamb' were rejected in favour of the

diminutive A diminutive is a root word that has been modified to convey a slighter degree of its root meaning, either to convey the smallness of the object or quality named, or to convey a sense of intimacy or endearment. A (abbreviated ) is a word-formati ...

s ''auricula'' and ''agnellus''. A number of verb-forming (or extending) suffixes were popularized, such as -''icare'' (based on the adjective ending -''icus''), -''ulare'' (based on the diminutive -''ul''-), and -''izare'' (borrowed from Greek). The majority of borrowed vocabulary came from Greek, particularly in the domains of medicine, cooking, and Christian worship. A lesser fraction came from

Gaulish Gaulish was an ancient Celtic languages, Celtic language spoken in parts of Continental Europe before and during the period of the Roman Empire. In the narrow sense, Gaulish was the language of the Celts of Gaul (now France, Luxembourg, Belgium ...

or Germanic. There was a trend towards forming compound prepositions of the type ''ab-ante'', which at first simply combined the sense of their constitutuents (hence the original sense of ''abante'' was 'from before'). In time many would develop a generic sense, often simply that of one of their constituents (hence ''abante'' came to mean 'before', in competition with ''ante''). Other examples attested in Late Antiquity are ''de-inter'', ''de-retro'', ''de-foris'', ''de-intus'', ''de-ab'', and ''de-ex''. Most Classical

particles In the physical sciences, a particle (or corpuscule in older texts) is a small localized object which can be described by several physical or chemical properties, such as volume, density, or mass. They vary greatly in size or quantity, from s ...

(such as ''an, at, autem, donec, enim,'' etc.) simply died out in popular speech and hence survive nowhere in Romance.Harrington et al. 1997: 11

Selected lexical comparisons

Explanatory notes

Citations

General sources

* Dworkin, Steven Norman. 2016. Lexical stability and shared lexicon. In Ledgeway, Adam & Maiden, Martin (eds.), ''The Oxford guide to the Romance languages'', 577–587. Oxford University Press. *Elcock, William Dennis. 1975. ''The Romance languages''. London: Faber and Faber. * Herman, József. 2000. ''Vulgar Latin''. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press. Translated by Wright, Roger. * Lewis, Charlton; Short, Charles. 1879. ''A Latin Dictionary''. Oxford: Clarendon Press. * Löfstedt, Einar. 1959. ''Late Latin''. Oslo: H. Aschehoug & Co. Translated by Willis, James. * Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm. 1911. ''Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch''. Heidelberg: C. Winter. {{DEFAULTSORT:Vulgar Latin Vocabulary Latin language in ancient Rome Vocabulary Romance languages

Overview

Selected lexical comparisons

See also

Explanatory notes

Citations

General sources