History of the Language

Question 1

Variety or uniformity?

Answer 1

Variation is a central part of every modern and recent language that we know of; therefore, it is clear that such variation also existed in the past in languages such as Latin. Variation would have existed at the diatopic, diastratic, and diafasic levels.

1. DIATOPIC: (Penny) Latinization didn’t occur in the same way across all of Hispania. In the East and South it was more rapid. In the West, Center, and North it was slower, and in the Basque region never really occurred. In those slower regions Latin was in contact with languages like Basque and Celtic, which may have led to linguistic borrowings and the development of features such as f- aspiration. More contact with Italy in the South/East led to other differences (PARABOLARE and binary demonstrative system in French/Catalan, FABULARE and ternary system in Spanish/Port).
2. DIASTRATIC/DIAFASIC: Not much information about this type of variation, but we know it existed from different sources (e.g. Appendix Probi, graffiti, tomb inscriptions, Christian pamphlets, etc.). As Penny notes, the process of Latinization in Hispania would have led to periods of bilingualism (and we might venture to guess, diglossia) in which speakers would have chosen to learn/use Latin or their native languages for reasons of prestige, solidarity, and so forth. The variation already existent in Latin when it was brought to the peninsula would have played a part as well (e.g. the Latin potentially spoken by soldiers from the south of Italy).

Question 2

The Appendix Probi

Answer 2

1. The Appendix Probi is a list of 207 corrections (in the form of ___ non ___, e.g. VIRIDIS non VIRDIS) attached to the back of a Latin grammar book written by Valerius Probus.
2. The book is essential for our understanding of the changes that were occurring in Vulgar Latin. Without it and the other documents that we have (e.g. Christian pamphlets, graffiti in Pompei, tombstone inscriptions, technical manuals, educated writers imitating popular speech etc.) there would be no written record of Vulgar Latin. These sources are important for proving that variation and change was an essential part of Latin.
3. Some of the changes that can be seen in these documents are:
   Sincope of intertonic vowels (e.g. SPECULUM non SPECLUM)
   Confusion of /b/ and /β/ (e.g. BACULUS non VACULUS)
   Neutralization of U and Ō in /o/ (COLUMNA non COLOMNA)
   Metaphony (FORMICA non FURMICA)
   Lenition (CALATUS non GALATUS)

Question 3

What factors explain the disappearance of the noun declination system?

Answer 3

The answer can be summed up in the tension between clarity and economy.

1. The most important factor was the ambiguity inherent in the system. For example, a word like MENSAE could have genitive, dative, nominative, or vocative case
2. Another important factor was that Latin already made use of some prepositions to avoid such ambiguities (e.g. DE MARMORE TEMPLUM instead of TEMPLUM MARMORIS).
3. These two factors combined to create a tendency for analytic rather than synthetic constructions. The prepositional system provided greater clarity.
4. While some authors would argue that the phonological changes (e.g. loss of -M creating confusion between accusative, MONTEM, and ablative, MONTE) added to the ambiguity and was a key part of inspiring the change to a more analytic system, Penny does not see it as a primary cause. Rather, the changes to a synthetic system allowed the phonological changes to continue.

Question 4

Lenition

Answer 4

1. Lenition: a loss of articulatory tension in sound production (often referred to as “weakening”) in which a sound changes to have a less complete blockage of air in the oral tract. It is essential for understanding the phonological transition from Latin to Spanish. It especially affected intervocalic consonants.
2. Effects:
   (a) Geminates > simple (CUPPA > copa)
   (b) Voiceless > voiced (CUPA > cuba)
   (c) Voiced > voiced approximants (CIBU > cevo)
   (d) Approximants > nada (REGINA > reina)
3. Order:
   (a) independent
   (b) independent ([kasa] > {kaza]) or affected by (c) ([sekar] > [segar] > [seɣar])
   (c) independent (

Question 5

Carolingian reforms

Answer 5

Carolingian Reforms: Led by Alcuin of York, a system was put in place that created a one-to-one relationship between sounds and graphemes in Latin. This had several important effects.
1. Prior to the reforms, Romance and Latin were variants of the same language, and according to Wright the changes happening in Romance were affecting the evolution of Latin. However, the Carolingian reforms created a new, “dead” Latin as a separate language.