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Old Latin
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{{Short description|Latin language in the period before 75 BC}}{{for|the "Old Latin" Biblical texts| Vetus Latina}}{{Use dmy dates|date= November 2015}}- the content below is remote from Wikipedia
- it has been imported raw for GetWiki
factoids | |
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Philological constructs
The old-time language
The concept of Old Latin (Prisca Latinitas) is as old as the concept of Classical Latin â both labels date to at least as early as the late Roman Republic. In that period Cicero, along with others, noted that the language he used every day, presumably upper-class city Latin, included lexical items and phrases that were heirlooms from a previous time, which he called verborum vetustas prisca,De Oratoribus, I.193. translated as "the old age/time of language".In the classical period, Prisca Latinitas, Prisca Latina and other idioms using the adjective always meant these remnants of a previous language, which, in Roman philology, was taken to be much older in fact than it really was. Viri prisci, "old-time men", meant the population of Latium before the founding of Rome.The four Latins of Isidore
In the Late Latin period, when Classical Latin was behind them, Latin- and Greek-speaking grammarians were faced with multiple phases, or styles, within the language. Isidore of Seville ({{circa}} 560 â 636) reports a classification scheme that had come into existence in or before his time: "the four Latins" ("Moreover, some people have said that there are four Latin languages"; "Latinas autem linguas quattuor esse quidam dixerunt").Book IX.1.6. They were:- Prisca, spoken before the founding of Rome, when Janus and Saturn ruled Latium, to which period Isidore dated the Carmen Saliare
- Latina, dated from the time of king Latinus, in which period he placed the laws of the Twelve Tables
- Romana, essentially equal to Classical Latin
- Mixta, "mixed" Classical Latin and Vulgar Latin, known today as Late Latin.
Old Latin
In 1874, John Wordsworth used this definition: "By Early Latin I understand Latin of the whole period of the Republic, which is separated very strikingly, both in tone and in outward form, from that of the Empire."{{sfn|Wordsworth|1874|p= v}}Although the differences are striking and can be easily identified by Latin readers, they are not such as to cause a language barrier. Latin speakers of the empire had no reported trouble understanding Old Latin, except for the few texts that must date from the time of the kings, mainly songs. Thus, the laws of the Twelve Tables (5th century BC) from the early Republic were comprehensible, but the Carmen Saliare, probably written under Numa Pompilius (who according to tradition reigned from 715 to 673 BC), was not entirely clear (and remains so). On the other hand, Polybius, a Greek historian of Rome who flourished in the late second century BC,Histories III.22. commented on "the first treaty between Rome and Carthage", (which he dated to 28 years before Xerxes I crossed into Greece; that is, in 508 BC) that "the ancient Roman language differs so much from the modern that it can only be partially made out, and that after much application by the most intelligent men".There is no sharp distinction between Old Latin, as it was spoken for most of the Republic, and Classical Latin, but the earlier grades into the latter. The end of the republic was too late a termination for compilers after Wordsworth; Charles Edwin Bennett said, {{"'}}Early Latin' is necessarily a somewhat vague term ... Bell, De locativi in prisca Latinitate vi et usu, Breslau, 1889,BOOK, De Locativi in prisca latinitate vi et usu, dissertatio inauguralis philologica, Andreas, Bell, typis Grassi, Barthi et soc (W. Friedrich), Breslau, 1889, sets the later limit at 75 BC. A definite date is really impossible, since archaic Latin does not terminate abruptly, but continues even down to imperial times."{{sfn|Bennett|1910|p= iii}} Bennett's own date of 100 BC did not prevail; rather Bell's 75 BC became the standard as expressed in the four-volume Loeb Library{{citation needed|date=May 2021}} and other major compendia. Over the 377 years from 452 to 75 BC, Old Latin evolved from texts partially comprehensible by classicists with study to being easily read by scholars.Corpus
File:Praeneste fibula.JPG|thumb|300px|The Praeneste Fibula, the earliest known specimen of the LatinLatinmissing image!
- Forum inscription.jpg -
The Forum inscription (Lapis Niger, "black stone"), one of the oldest known Latin inscriptions, from the 6th century BC; it is written boustrophedon, albeit irregularly; from a rubbing by Domenico Comparetti.
File:Duenos.jpg|thumb|The Duenos Inscription on a trio of three globular kernoskernosOld Latin authored works began in the 3rd century BC. These are complete or nearly complete works under their own name surviving as manuscripts copied from other manuscripts in whatever script was current at the time. There are also fragments of works quoted in other authors.Many texts placed by various methods (painting, engraving, embossing) on their original media survive just as they were except for the ravages of time. Some of these were copied from other inscriptions. No inscription can be older than the introduction of the Greek alphabet into Italy but none survive from that early date. The imprecision of archaeological dating makes it impossible to assign a year to any one inscription, but the earliest survivals are probably from the 6th century BC. Some texts, however, that survive as fragments in the works of classical authors, had to have been composed earlier than the republic, in the time of the monarchy. These are listed below. Some authors, especially in recent texts, refer to the oldest Latin documents (7thâ5th c. BCE) as Very Old Latin (VOL). Weiss, M. (2020). Outline of the Historical and Comparative Grammar of Latin, 2nd ed. Beech Stave: Ann Arbor. Pp. 24.- Forum inscription.jpg -
The Forum inscription (Lapis Niger, "black stone"), one of the oldest known Latin inscriptions, from the 6th century BC; it is written boustrophedon, albeit irregularly; from a rubbing by Domenico Comparetti.
Fragments and inscriptions
Notable Old Latin fragments with estimated dates include:- The Carmen Saliare (chant put forward in classical times as having been sung by the Salian brotherhood formed by Numa Pompilius, approximate date 700 BC)
- The Praeneste fibula (date from first half of the seventh century BC.)
- The Tita Vendia vase ({{circa|620}}â600 BC)
- The Forum inscription (see illustration, {{circa|550 BC}} under the monarchy)
- The Duenos inscription ({{circa|500 BC}})
- The Castor-Pollux dedication ({{circa|500 BC}})
- The Garigliano Bowl ({{circa|500 BC}})
- The Lapis Satricanus (early 5th century BC)
- The preserved fragments of the laws of the Twelve Tables (traditionally, 449 BC, attested much later)
- The Tibur pedestal ({{circa|400 BC}})
- The Scipionum Elogia
- Epitaph of Lucius Cornelius Scipio Barbatus (consul 298 BC)
- Epitaph of Lucius Cornelius Scipio (consul 259 BC)
- Epitaph of Publius Cornelius Scipio P.f. P.n. Africanus (died about 170 BC)
- The (186 BC)
- The Vase Inscription from Ardea
- The Corcolle Altar fragments
- The Carmen Arvale
- Altar to the Unknown Divinity (92 BC)
Works of literature
Authors:- Lucius Livius Andronicus ({{circa|280/260 BC|200 BC}}), translator, founder of Roman drama
- Gnaeus Naevius ({{circa|264}}â201 BC), dramatist, epic poet
- Titus Maccius Plautus ({{circa|254}}â184 BC), dramatist, composer of comedies
- Quintus Ennius (239 â {{circa|169 BC}}), poet
- Marcus Pacuvius ({{circa|220}}â130 BC), tragic dramatist, poet
- Statius Caecilius (220 â 168/166 BC), comic dramatist
- Publius Terentius Afer (195/185 â 159 BC), comic dramatist
- Marcus Porcius Cato (234â149 BC), orator, historian, topical writer
- Lucius Accius (170 â {{circa|86 BC}}), tragic dramatist, philologist
- Gaius Lucilius ({{circa|160s}} â 103/102 BC), satirist
- Quintus Lutatius Catulus (2nd century BC), public officer, epigrammatist
- Aulus Furius Antias (2nd century BC), poet
- Gaius Julius Caesar Strabo Vopiscus (130â87 BC), public officer, tragic dramatist
- Lucius Pomponius Bononiensis (2nd century BC), comic dramatist, satirist
- Lucius Cassius Hemina (2nd century BC), historian
- Lucius Calpurnius Piso Frugi (2nd century BC), historian
- Manius Manilius (2nd century BC), public officer, jurist
- Lucius Coelius Antipater (2nd century BC), jurist, historian
- Publius Sempronius Asellio (158 BC â after 91 BC), military officer, historian
- Gaius Sempronius Tuditanus (2nd century BC), jurist
- Lucius Afranius (2nd and 1st centuries BC), comic dramatist
- Titus Albucius (2nd and 1st centuries BC), orator
- Publius Rutilius Rufus (158 BC â after 78 BC), jurist
- Lucius Aelius Stilo Praeconinus (154â74 BC), philologist
- Quintus Claudius Quadrigarius (2nd and 1st centuries BC), historian
- Valerius Antias (2nd and 1st centuries BC), historian
- Lucius Cornelius Sisenna (121â67 BC), soldier, historian
- Quintus Cornificius (2nd and 1st centuries BC), rhetorician
Script
Old Latin surviving in inscriptions is written in various forms of the Etruscan alphabet as it evolved into the Latin alphabet. The writing conventions varied by time and place until classical conventions prevailed.A part of old inscriptions, texts in the original writing system have been lost or transcribed by later copyists.{{cn|date=April 2022}}Old Latin could be written from right to left (as were Etruscan and early Greek) or boustrophedon.BOOK, Halsey, William D., William Darrach Halsey, 1965, Collier's encyclopedia, with Bibliography and Index,weblink USA, The Crowell-Collier Publishing Company, 595, registration,Orthography
Some differences between old and classical Latin were of spelling only; pronunciation is thought to be essentially the same as in classical Latin:{{sfn|Allen|1897|p=8|ps=: "There were no such names as Caius, Cnaius"}}- Single for double consonants: Marcelus for Marcellus
- Double vowels for long vowels: aara for Ära
- q for c before u: pequnia for pecunia
- c for g: Caius for Gaius
Phonology
{{See also|History of Latin}}200px|thumb|Diphthong changes from Old Latin (left) to Classical Latin (right){{sfn|Allen|1897|p=6}}Stress
Old Latin is thought to have had a strong stress on the first syllable of a word until about 250 BC. All syllables other than the first were unstressed and were subjected to greater amounts of phonological weakening. Starting around that year, the Classical Latin stress system began to develop. It passed through at least one intermediate stage, found in Plautus, in which the stress occurred on the fourth last syllable in four-syllable words with all short syllables.Vowels and diphthongs
Most original PIE (Proto-Indo-European) diphthongs were preserved in stressed syllables, including {{IPA|/ai/}} (later ae); {{IPA|/ei/}} (later Ä«); {{IPA|/oi/}} (later Å«, or sometimes oe); {{IPA|/ou/}} (from PIE {{IPA|/eu/}} and {{IPA|/ou/}}; later Å«).The Old Latin diphthong ei evolves in stages: ei > áº¹Ì > Ä«. The intermediate sound áº¹Ì was simply written e but must have been distinct from the normal long vowel Ä because áº¹Ì subsequently merged with Ä« while Ä did not. It is generally thought that áº¹Ì was a higher sound than e (e.g. perhaps {{IPA|[eË]}} vs. {{IPA|[ÉË]}} during the time when both sounds existed). Even after the original vowel {{IPA|/ei/}} had merged with Ä«, the old spelling ei continued to be used for a while, with the result that ei came to stand for Ä« and began to be used in the spelling of original occurrences of Ä« that did not evolve from ei (e.g. in the genitive singular -Ä«, which is always spelled -i in the oldest inscriptions but later on can be spelled either -i or -ei).In unstressed syllables, *oi and *ai had already merged into ei by historic times (except for one possible occurrence of poploe for populÄ« "people" in a late manuscript of one of the early songs). This eventually also evolved to Ä«.Old Latin often had different short vowels from Classical Latin, reflecting sound changes that had not yet taken place. For example, the very early Duenos inscription has the form duenos "good", later found as duonos and still later bonus. A countervailing change wo > we occurred around 150 BC in certain contexts, and many earlier forms are found (e.g. earlier votÅ, voster, vorsus vs. later vetÅ, vester, versus).Old Latin frequently preserves original PIE thematic case endings -os and -om (later -us and -um).Consonants
Intervocalic {{IPA|/s/}} (pronounced {{IPA|[z]}}) was preserved up to 350 BC or so, at which point it changed into {{IPA|/r/}} (rhotacism). This rhotacism had implications for declension: early classical Latin, honos, honoris (from honos, honoses); later Classical (by analogy) honor, honoris ("honor"). Some Old Latin texts preserve {{IPA|/s/}} in this position, such as the Carmen Arvale's lases for lares. Later instances of single {{IPA|/s/}} between vowels are mostly due either to reduction of early {{IPA|/ss/}} after long vowels or diphthongs; borrowings; or late reconstructions.There are many unreduced clusters, e.g. iouxmentom (later iÅ«mentum, "beast of burden"); losna (later lÅ«na, "moon") < *lousna < */leuksnÄ/; cosmis (> cÅmis, "courteous"); stlocum, acc. (> locum, "place").Early du {{IPA|/dw/}} becomes b: duenos > duonos > bonus "good"; duis > bis "twice"; duellom > bellum "war".Final {{IPA|/d/}} occurred in ablatives, such as puellÄd "from the girl" or campÅd "from the field", later puellÄ and campÅ. In verb conjugation, the third-person ending -d later became -t, e.g. Old Latin faced > Classical facit.Morphology
Nouns
Latin nouns have grammatical case, with an ending, or suffix, showing its use in the sentence: subject, predicate, etc. A case for a given word is formed by suffixing a case ending to a part of the word common to all its cases called a stem. Stems are classified by their last letters as vowel or consonant. Vowel stems are formed by adding a suffix to a shorter and more ancient segment called a root. Consonant stems are the root (roots end in consonants). The combination of the last letter of the stem and the case ending often results in an ending also called a case ending or termination. For example, the stem puella- receives a case ending -m to form the accusative case puellam in which the termination -am is evident.{{sfn|Bennett|1895|p=12}}In Classical Latin textbooks the declensions are named from the letter ending the stem or First, Second, etc. to Fifth. A declension may be illustrated by a paradigm, or listing of all the cases of a typical word. This method is less often applied to Old Latin, and with less validity. In contrast to Classical Latin, Old Latin reflects the evolution of the language from an ancestor spoken in Latium. The endings are multiple. Their use depends on time and place. Any paradigm selected would be subject to these constraints and if applied to the language universally would give false constructs, hypothetical words not attested in the Old Latin corpus. Nevertheless, the endings are shown below by quasi-classical paradigms. Alternate endings from different stages of development are given, but they may not be attested for the word of the paradigm. For example, in the second declension, *campoe "fields" is unattested, but poploe "peoples" is attested.The locative was a separate case in Old Latin but gradually became reduced in function, and the locative singular form eventually merged with the genitive singular by regular sound change. In the plural, the locative was captured by the ablative case in all Italic languages before Old Latin.BOOK, 204, A Grammar Of Oscan And Umbrian: With A Collection Of Inscriptions And A Glossary, Carl Darling, Buck, Languages of classical antiquity, vol. 5, Bristol, Pa., Evolution Publishing, 2005, 1904,First declension (a){| class"wikitable" | align"left" style"margin:1em"
! rowspan="2" |!colspan="2"| puellÄ, âÄs girl, maiden f.Second declension (o){| class"wikitable" clear"left" style"margin:1em"
! rowspan="2" |!colspan="2"| campos, âÄ« field, plain m.!colspan="2"| saxom, âÄ« rock, stone n.- As mentioned above, the sound change -ei > -áº¹Ì > -Ä« leads to many variations, including the reverse spelling ei for Ä«. This spelling eventually appears in the genitive singular as well, though -Ä« is earliest and the true ending; cf. populi Romanei, "of the Roman {{nowrap|people."Lindsay (1894), p. 383.}}, with both spellings in the same inscription.
- Likewise, the sound changes -os > -us and -Åm > -om > -um affect the nominative and accusative singular, and the genitive plural.
- One very early text, the Lapis Satricanus, has genitive -osio (an ending found in several other archaic languages descended from Proto-Indo-European [PIE], languages such as Vedic Sanskrit, Old Persian, and Homeric Greek) rather than -Ä« Weiss, M. (2020). Outline of the Historical and Comparative Grammar of Latin, 2nd ed. Beech Stave: Ann Arbor. (an ending appearing only in Italo-Celtic).{{citation needed|reason=If it is only one text then it probably is Lapis Satricanus which is "in Old Latin or a closely related dialect"|date=June 2017}}. This form also appears in the closely related Faliscan language.
- In the genitive plural, -um (from PIE -Åm) survived in classical Latin "words for coins and measures";{{sfn|Buck|1933|p=182}} otherwise it was eventually replaced by -Årum by analogy with 1st declension {{nowrap|-Ärum}}.
- The nominative/vocative plural masculine -ei comes from the PIE pronominal ending -oi. The original ending -oi appears in a late spelling in the word poploe (i.e. "poploi" = populī "people") in Sextus Pompeius Festus.Sihler (1995), A New Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin.
- The dative/ablative/locative plural -eis comes from earlier -ois, a merger of PIE instrumental plural -Åis and locative plural -oisu. The form -ois appears in Sextus Pompeius Festus and a few early inscriptions.
- The Praeneste Fibula has dative singular Numasioi, representing PIE -Åi.
- A number of "provincial texts" have nominative plural -eis (later -Ä«s from 190 BC on{{sfn|Wordsworth|1874|p=56}}), with an added s, by some sort of analogy with other declensions. Sihler (1995) notes that this form appears in literature only in pronouns and suggests that inscriptional examples added to nouns may be artificial (i.e. not reflecting actual pronunciation).
- In the vocative singular, some nouns lose the -e (i.e. have a zero ending) but not necessarily the same as in classical Latin.{{sfn|Buck|1933|p=181}} The -e alternates regularly with -us.BOOK, An introduction to vulgar Latin, Charles Hall, Grandgent, 89, Boston, D.C. Heath & Co., 1908, 1907, Heath's modern language series,
Third declension (consonant/i){| class"wikitable" align"left" style"margin:1em"
! rowspan="2" |! colspan="2"| rÄx, rÄges king m.! colspan="2"| ignis -is fire m.Fourth declension (u)
The stems of the nouns of the u-declension end in Å and are masculine, feminine and neuter. In addition there is a Å«-stem declension, which contains only a few "isolated" words, such as sÅ«s, "pig", and is not presented here.{{sfn|Buck|1933|pp=198â201}}{| class="wikitable" ! rowspan="2" |!colspan="2"| senÄtus, âuos senate mFifth declension (e)
The 'e-stem' declension's morphology matches the Classical language very nearly.{| class="wikitable" align="left" style="margin:1em"! rowspan="2" |!colspan="2"| rÄs, reis thing f.Personal pronouns
Personal pronouns are among the most common thing found in Old Latin inscriptions. In all three persons, the ablative singular ending is identical to the accusative singular.{| class="wikitable" width="360px"! ! ego, I! tu, you! suī, himself, herself (etc.)Relative pronoun
In Old Latin, the relative pronoun is also another common concept, especially in inscriptions. The forms are quite inconsistent and leave much to be reconstructed by scholars.{| class="wikitable" width="360px"!colspan="4"| queī, quaī, quod who, whatVerbs
Old present and perfects
There is little evidence of the inflection of Old Latin verb forms and the few surviving inscriptions hold many inconsistencies between forms.{{dubious|date=April 2020}} Therefore, the forms below are ones that are both proved by scholars through Old Latin inscriptions, and recreated by scholars based on other early Indo-European languages such as Greek and Italic dialects such as Oscan and Umbrian, and which also may be compared to modern Spanish.{| class="wikitable"In popular fiction
The Italian director Matteo Rovere has shot the 2019 film (The First King: Birth of an Empire) and the 2020â2022 TV series Romulus with dialog in a reconstructed version of Old Latin.The linguists have had to make concessions for ease of filming and not going too much against the expectations of viewers.For example, the character of the Lady of the Wolves is (an allusion to Homer's {{transl|grc|Potnia theron}}) since Latin did not have the desired nuances.Before rhotacism, Old Latin had lots of sibilants, so some had to be substituted to ease the actors' work.NEWS, Gargantini, Gabriele, Seike Romulos deiksed,weblink 19 October 2022, Il Post, 20 November 2020, it-IT,See also
References
{{reflist|2}}Bibliography
- BOOK, Allen, Frederic de Forest, Frederic de Forest Allen, Remnants of Early Latin,weblink 1897, Ginn,
- BOOK, Bennett, Charles Edwin, Charles Edwin Bennett, A Latin Grammar: With Appendix for Teachers and Advanced Students,weblink 1895, Allyn and Bacon, Boston, Chicago,
- BOOK, Bennett, Charles Edwin, Charles Edwin Bennett, The Latin Language: A Historical Outline of Its Sounds, Inflections, and Syntax,weblink 1907, Allyn and Bacon,
- BOOK, Syntax of Early Latin,weblink Charles Edwin, Bennett, Charles Edwin Bennett, Allyn and Bacon, 1910, Boston,
- BOOK, Carl Darling, Buck, Carl Darling Buck, Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin, 1933, Chicago, University of Chicago,
- BOOK, Gildersleeve's Latin grammar,weblink Basil Lanneau, Gildersleeve, Basil Lanneau Gildersleeve, Gonzalez, Lodge, 3rd, 1900, University Publishing Company, New York, Boston, New Orleans, London,
- BOOK, The Latin language: an historical account of Latin sounds, stems and flexions,weblink Wallace Martin, Lindsay, Wallace Lindsay
publisher=Clarendon Press, 1894, - BOOK, The Latin language, Leonard Robert, Palmer, Leonard Robert Palmer, Norman, University of Oklahoma Press, 1988, 1954,
- BOOK, A grammar of the Latin language from Plautus to Suetonius, I, 2nd, Henry John, Roby, Henry John Roby, London, 1872, MacMillan and Co.,
- BOOK, Fragments and specimens of early Latin, with Introduction and Notes, John, John Wordsworth, Wordsworth, 1874, Clarendon Press, Oxford,weblink
Further reading
- Goldberg, Sander M. 2007. "Antiquity's antiquity." In Latinitas Perennis. Vol. 1, The continuity of Latin literature. Edited by Wim Verbaal, Yanick Maes, and Jan Papy, 17â29. Brill's Studies in Intellectual History 144. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill.
- Lembke, Janet. 1973. Bronze and Iron: Old Latin Poetry From Its Beginnings to 100 B.C. Berkeley: University of California Press.
- Mercado, Angelo. 2012. Italic Verse: A Study of the Poetic Remains of Old Latin, Faliscan, and Sabellic. Innsbruck: Institut für Sprachen und Literaturen der Universität Innsbruck.
- Vine, Brent. 1993. Studies in Archaic Latin inscriptions. Innsbrucker Beiträge zur Sprachwissenschaft 75. Innsbruck, Austria: Institut für Sprachwissenschaft der Univ. Innsbruck.
- Warmington, E. H. 1979. Remains of Old Latin. Rev. ed. 4 vols. Loeb Classical Library 294, 314, 329, 359. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press.
- Warner, R. 1980. "Word Order in Old Latin: Copulative Clauses." Orbis 29, no.1: 251â63.
External links
{hide}Library resources box |by=no |onlinebooks=yes |others=yes |about=yes |label=Old Latin|viaf= |lccn= |lcheading= |wikititle= {edih}- WEB, Old Latin Inscriptions,weblink Jost, Gippert, 1994â2001, Titus Didactica, de, en, 29 October 2009,
- glottothèque â Ancient Indo-European Grammars online, an online collection of introductory videos to Ancient Indo-European languages produced by the University of Göttingen
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