Questions tagged [romance-languages]
For questions related to the process of vulgar/medieval Latin becoming modern Romance languages
8
questions
5
votes
2answers
292 views
What evidence points to a long ō in the first syllable of nōscō's present-tense form?
I've read in various sources that the verb nosco 'know' had a long vowel in the first syllable in Classical Latin pronunciation: nōscō [noːskoː]. I'm wondering what the linguistic evidence is for the ...
2
votes
1answer
73 views
What evidence is there for volēre over volere?
In this answer, fdb mentions the Classical verb volō, velle transforming into *voleō, volēre in Vulgar Latin. The main evidence for this is a form volendi in Augustine and reflexes like voglio, volere ...
2
votes
0answers
34 views
auscultare < aus - clutare
A question was asked on French stackexchange about ausculter as a medical term and when it started being used in that sense. The meaning seems to go back to the early 19th century and Laennec, the ...
3
votes
2answers
67 views
Is long vowel feature completely lost in deviated languages?
In Latin, some vowels are marked by a macron, they are long vowels. However, I found that in French and Spanish there's no macron in their writing.
Is the long vowel feature completely lost in the ...
4
votes
2answers
114 views
When did the penult stress rule disappear?
Classical Latin stress was famously based on the "penult rule": stress goes on the penult if heavy, the antepenult otherwise.
In later Latin, vowel length seems to have been lost very early: before ...
5
votes
0answers
47 views
Is *rīcus attested?
The word for "rich" in most Romance languages looks something like, well, "rich". It declines like a first/second declension adjective, and seems to go back to Germanic *rīkijaz (possibly through ...
7
votes
1answer
325 views
Why did “cattus” replace Latin “feles”?
The word for cat is now, in almost every European language, derived from Latin cattus, as stated in Etymonline. It also says that the word was
[...] in general use on the continent by c. 700, ...
11
votes
1answer
178 views
Can the use of articles be traced back to Late/Vulgar Latin?
The Romance articles developed from Latin ille. Was ille already used in a way that resembles articles more than demonstratives in very late or Vulgar Latin? Or did it this use only emerge after Latin ...
