17
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When did the consonant U (i.e., V) begin to be pronounced as the fricative [v] instead of [w]?
There is indeed evidence for the u-consonant being pronounced as a voiced fricative during the Classical period, even as early as the middle of the 1st century. A wax tablet dated to AD 39 records a ...
- 11.3k
17
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Is there a relationship between the phonology in Old Latin and later Vulgar Latin?
Almost everything in Romance languages that comes from Old Latin passed through Classical Latin.
u/o changes
In the case of u/o, it's probably a coincidence that some Old Latin o corresponds to ...
- 27.3k
12
votes
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What do we know about Vulgar Latin pronunciation?
It turns out, we know quite a bit about this!
There are three main sources for Vulgar Latin pronunciations: Classical texts imitating (or mocking or correcting) Vulgar speech, graffiti from actual ...
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10
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What is the superlative of ipse?
Joonas is correct: those forms don’t belong in good classical style.
Peter Stotz’s Handbuch zur lateinischen Sprache des Mittelalters mentions that Donatus explicitly forbade comparatives and ...
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9
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What is the superlative of ipse?
Classical corpus searches suggest that ipsimus is only attested in Satyricon and ipsissimus is used once by Plautus and once by Afranius.
There are not enough attestations to decide which is correct, ...
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9
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When did the consonant U (i.e., V) begin to be pronounced as the fricative [v] instead of [w]?
§ 1. Latin, Greek, and Hebrew
I would argue that the consonant V by itself was never pronounced as a W, and that something near to the W sound only occurred depending on the position of the letter ...
- 273
9
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When did the infinitive of purpose arise?
It actually does appear in vulgar Latin. Here's Palmer, The Latin Language 319:
[Infinitives], as we saw, are formally either old datives or locatives and both these cases could express purpose. ...
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9
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Euler passage translation (Latin in 18th century)
This whole process of tuning will be seen more clearly from the attached figure.
Since the notes E, B, G#, F#, D# and Bb are determined in two distinct ways – both by fifths and by thirds – a valuable ...
- 1,448
8
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How did '-met' + 'ipse' + '-issimus' compound to mean <the same> (in *metipsimus)?
The key to the meaning is ipse; all the rest is just intensifiers glommed onto that.
In Classical Latin, ipse meant "self"—not as a reflexive, but as an intensive:
Barack Obaman ipsum apud ...
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8
votes
The classical Latin speakers called Vulgar Latin sermo vulgaris, sermo vulgi, and sermo plebeius, but what did plebeians call their language?
This question assumes that "vulgar Latin" and "classical Latin" are two completely different languages. This, however, is untrue. As you said yourself, the classical authors called ...
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8
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Do we ever see mixing of B and V word-initially?
There are Latin inscriptions that show confusion between initial B and V. This is not limited to cases where the preceding word ends in a vowel, actually.
One notable example that I remember reading ...
- 27.3k
7
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Can the use of articles be traced back to Late/Vulgar Latin?
Isolated usages of unus as an indefinite article have been identified in Old and Classical Latin, but generally speaking unus and ille did not establish themselves as articles until Late and early ...
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7
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What would a 5th-6th century learned Latin pronunciation have sounded like?
We can judge some features of educated Late Latin from the Appendix Probi (probably from the 3rd or 4th century). It is a list of corrected errors. There are can see that learned speech was different ...
- 81
7
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What would a 5th-6th century learned Latin pronunciation have sounded like?
Long comment:
By the fifth century you'd already have this, this, this.
Palatalization of "c" before "e" or "i" would still be under way.
I'm not totally sure but "ae" and "oe" might have ...
- 4,438
7
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Can "ave, vire" be used colloquially as "hey, bro"?
TL;DR: No; I wouldn't, at least.
Hey
Ave seems like a very good word for this. It's conventionally translated as "hail", but at this point that just sounds archaic; the Latin word can also ...
- 65.1k
7
votes
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Did the Vulgar Latin verb "toccare" exist?
As your question implies, the * in *toccare means that the word is unattested, i.e., there is no direct written evidence that the verb actually existed.
This does not mean that there is a good ...
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7
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Was there ever a difference between 'volo' and 'volo'?
The Wiktionary article on Italian volere says that, as the infinitive suggests, the verb was moved to the second conjugation in Vulgar Latin, so it traces it to a "Vulgar Latin *volēre". The -gli- in ...
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7
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What is the meaning behind "calcostegis" from the Appendix Probi?
This is a Greek word χαλκόστεγος "bronze/copper-roofed", and seems to refer to the imperial palace at Byzantium. Some googling found these references:
(Latin) "The house of Emperor ...
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6
votes
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How would Marcus Aurelius have pronounced his Latin?
For the most part, the upper classes in Rome still spoke Classical Latin in the 2nd century AD.
Features in common with Classical Latin
c - hard, as /k/. The softening came much later.
g - hard, as /...
- 1,011
6
votes
Is *rīcus attested?
Ricus and riccus show up in late Medieval and Humanist Latin, but they're certainly backports from French and Italian, not pre-Medieval loans. The various Romance cognates of rich are actually ...
- 8,779
6
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Is the word "pitikkus" (meaning small) attested in Vulgar (or other) Latin?
I don't see why Latin, even vulgar Latin, would adopt a double-k, but that's actually beside the point.
The entry in Wiktionary has an asterisk before the word: *pitikkus. This mark means that the ...
cmw♦
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6
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Parallel examples of the change of Apothēca to boutique?
Nyrop, Grammaire historique de la langue française (1914, p. 256) gives the following additional examples (among others) for French:
Apulia > Pouille, Aquitania > Guyenne
hemicrania > ...
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6
votes
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What academic evidence is there of the pronunciation of gn as ɲn in Vulgar Latin?
The main evidence is the evolution in Romance languages. Latin GN generally becomes /ɲ/, like Spanish maño; in languages that preserve contrastive consonant length, it becomes a geminate /ɲɲ/, as in ...
- 65.1k
6
votes
Does Latin have minced oath interjections?
In the same sense? No. Graeco-Roman religion didn't have the same taboo against uttering the name of a deity that Christians in modern Europe have, so they didn't develop minced oaths properly.
In ...
cmw♦
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5
votes
How did Latin sound?
I don't know of any recordings. But we can make a good guess:
The high-class, "proper" pronunciation is documented in books on oratory and rhetoric; Allen's Vox Latina summarizes and explains it ...
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5
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Is there support for claiming -gn- was pronounced as /ŋ/ in classical Latin?
I think the wording of the Encyclopædia Britannica article is unclear, leading to misunderstanding. I don't think they mean that Latin "gn" could represent [ŋ(ː)] rather than [ŋn], but I'll admit the ...
- 4,678
5
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What evidence is there for volēre over volere?
A Latin form *volĕre would have been stressed on the first syllable. Italian volere is stressed on the penultimate syllable, like a Latin form *volēre. There could have been a Vulgar Latin form *...
- 27.3k
5
votes
Intonation pattern in Classical Latin that is the same intonation pattern Dora Marquez of Dora the Explorer does at times when she is speaking English
Despite my respect for Bervoets' efforts and his commitment to recreating an authentic Latin pronunciation (see this video) which I also share, his intonation sounds histrionic and highly unnatural to ...
- 5,977
4
votes
Did the Vulgar Latin verb "toccare" exist?
The wiktionary entry on the Italian verb toccare is somewhat more explicit, saying
Probably from a Vulgar Latin root *toccare, of Germanic or onomatopoetic origin. Compare French toucher, Friulian ...
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4
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Appendix probi: "cannelam nun canianus"
It was a typo.
All of the online sources I find have been based on the book Sprachlicher Kommentar zur vulgärlateinischen Appendix Probi, but in the book it was correctly printed as non (Page 5 of ...
- 837
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